The first Tuesday of each month, we interview someone from Charlotte Latin Athletics with twenty questions to help the CLS community get to know some of our athletes, coaches, and supporters a bit better.
 
Our July 2024 featured athlete is rising senior Norvy Clontz, who just competed in the US Olympic Swimming Trials for the first time and finished as high as 13^th. He has already represented the United States at the World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships in Israel last year, and has been invited to compete as part of Team USA at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Australia in August. Read on to get to know a bit about Norvy, and how he manages the demands of competing at such a high level.
 
1. Who are the immediate members of your family, including pets if you have them?
I'm the oldest of three boys, and we're each three years apart. My mom (Iva) is from Bulgaria and my dad grew up in Tryon, which is a small town in North Carolina. They met in college at South Carolina. We have a dog named Rex who is about five. He's a cross between a Great Pyrenees and a Border Collie.
 
2. Who is Rex's favorite?  
Probably my mom because she takes him running and he loves running. But I think I'm his second favorite.
 
3. What is the dynamic like between you and your brothers?  
It fluctuates a lot. We're close in some ways, but our personalities have big ranges and we're all in really different stages. My middle brother (Alex) is in Italy right now. Me and my youngest brother (Edward) play Minecraft together.
 
4. Do either of them swim?
Edward does. I've been giving him lessons in our backyard. He's really good at underwaters so he's stronger in short course. I've just been giving him tips on stroke technique so he'll get better at long course. (Editor's Note: Short course pools are 25 yards or meters, giving swimmers with strong turns and underwater push-offs an advantage. Long course pools are 50 meters, which is what you see in the Olympics, putting more emphasis on efficient stroke technique.)
 
5. What has been your experience so far at Charlotte Latin?
I started Latin in kindergarten. My mom checked out several schools and said she just felt a good connection there and like it fit our family the best. I remember being in Lower School and walking across the quad to go to the SAC or something and it felt so big and so strange, and now I'm there every day. Literally, since I was a tiny kid, Latin has been part of my life and I'm very comfortable there.
 
6. Who have been some of your most impactful teachers at CLS?
Probably Ms. Webb-G. I had to miss a lot of her class for swimming and at the beginning of the year she was really strict about getting my work in as soon as I got back. Even though it's not like I'm going on vacation – it's really physically and mentally tiring when I'm away for meets, but I still have to stay on top of everything at school. Ms. Webb-G really set the standard for being diligent. I also really liked pre-calc honors with Dr. Courter this past year. Her class is really hard, but I think she prepares everyone really well. Ms. Webb-G does that too.
 
7. Does that mean math is your favorite subject?  
I definitely want to pursue math in college and as part of my profession. I feel like it's a lot like swimming. You really have to put in the work and be passionate about it. You can't take any shortcuts or your grades will reflect that.
 
8. Speaking of swimming, when did that start for you? Did you ever do other sports?  
I've been swimming my whole life. I did things like t-ball and soccer shots when I was little. I did taekwondo and I really enjoyed that. I did it until around sixth grade when the classes didn't work with swimming anymore. I wanted to do wrestling in tandem with swimming in sixth grade, but it would not have worked, schedule-wise. I think swimming started with lessons when I was literally a baby. We have a small pool in our backyard, so our parents wanted us to be safe. I did summer league and JSL (SwimMAC's Junior Swim League), then started competitive team at the earliest age you can.
 
9. You've competed in national and international meets, but the US Olympic Swimming Trials are a very unique event. The pool – actually, more than one pool – was built specifically for the meet inside Lucas Oil Stadium where the Indianapolis Colts play. What was it like walking into and competing in that atmosphere?
The first day we got there, we were just looking around in awe. It's not like any other pool – nothing else compares. It's built up on this platform, but you can't tell that it's not the floor. It doesn't feel like there's scaffolding underneath. There were so many seats and it was so bright. I thought I could swim with my clear goggles on, but when you step on the bulkhead there are so many lights that I had to switch goggles. Then when you swim and you breathe, it's like looking out into an abyss. That wall of seats is just dark. The water had a weird rubbery taste the first couple of days, but it got better as the meet went on.
 
10. How did preparing for Trials differ from other meets and what were your expectations or goals going in?  
Even when it's months away, you can never really forget that Olympic Trials is happening. There were some weeks where I wouldn't be consciously thinking about it, but then I'd see something, usually something small, that reminded me. I usually visualize myself swimming before meets, but I didn't really know what the pool would look like until we got there, so that was challenging. I was hoping to go best times, which I did in most of my events. My times were a little slower than my goals, but I try to set my goals high.
 
11. Talk about your nerves going into the 400-meter freestyle. It was the first day of the meet, at your first Olympic Trials. Were you freaking out?
It was good that it was the fourth event that day. At Junior Worlds it was the very first event of the meet, which was very nerve-wracking. I knew it wouldn't be as bad as that. I was really relaxed the whole time. In hindsight, I might have been too relaxed. It's a fine line, because if you tighten up at all, your race will be over and you won't go fast. I tried to overcorrect, so I was listening to the Beach Boys in the ready room. Usually I listen to heavy metal. I wanted to try to make finals in the 400 (meter freestyle), and I got pretty close. I fixed that for my 400 IM (individual medley). I really didn't know how the IM was gonna go, but I did it and was really happy with it, and it inspired me for what to do (focus on) next. Any time you can learn from these meets it's good to take what you've learned and use it in the next one. (Editor's Note: In the 400m freestyle, Norvy swam a personal best time and finished 13^th . He did not have the same success in his  800m freestyle two days later, but he followed that with a time trial in the 400 IM and achieved a personal best time by several seconds.)
 
12. So what is next for you? It seems like a good time to rest.
I'm training for the Futures Championships (July 24-27) and really want to finish the year strong. I'm swimming a lot of individual events, plus relays. I'm hoping I can go best times in everything. My 400 at Trials wasn't very clean. I was still a little tight and lost a lot of speed on my turns. My goal is to get Trials cuts in some more events and it'll be really fun to be on relays.  
 
13. You've committed to swim at Cal after you graduate from Latin next year. How did you come to that decision?
I had been going to national meets since April 2022, and you get to see the (collegiate) coaches and athletes there. You see them interact and their group dynamic. I was in California for a meet in 2022 and my mom and I stayed afterward and went on unofficial visits to Stanford and Cal. We reached out to a couple swimmers I'd met at nationals and they showed us around. It stinks that you have to make a choice with only one official visit to a school, so it was helpful to have that point of reference. A year later, I had official visits and I pretty much knew my top four choices, so I just did them in back-to-back visits. Major-wise, I'll probably do something in engineering, definitely math-based, and all of them are strong in that area, so I just needed to see them with my own eyes to make my choice.
 
14. What's different about swimming for Latin?
Latin swimming is really refreshing because it's all different people, it's a different energy, and I can just relax. It's a great way to breathe and just enjoy the sport. People (year-round swimmers) don't care about the time as much in school swimming, as long as the team wins in points. It's less pressure. I like it. It's way more team-driven and everyone has a part.
 
15. The NCISAA Championship is not quite on the same level as the Olympic Trials, but it had to feel good to win the team title by a huge margin and break several state records. How are you feeling about next year after graduating so many seniors?
Each year, I kind of forget what states are like until I get there. It's a legit meet. The seasonal meets are kind of like summer league, but at states, times matter more. We had a big class of seniors and it was great to see them go out with a bang. I don't really know how next year will go. I feel like anything can happen. I don't have worries about it. We can't swim with stress, we just need to execute well, and everyone will do the best they can for the team.
 
16. With all that you have going on, how do you manage stress?
I like playing music a lot. Mostly piano and guitar, but I've played the violin, trombone and saxophone. I learned most of the music theory with violin, and once you know the theory you can apply it to different instruments. I don't like playing in front of other people, it's just on my own. It helps me relax and get my mind right.
 
17. What's the best vacation you've ever been on?
Probably Bulgaria with my mom. She has extended family still there and we visited them, but it was just cool to have her show me around and see where she's from.
 
18.  What's a talent or skill you have that most people don't know about?
I can solve Rubik's Cube. I memorized it once and I can't forget it. It's like muscle memory.
 
19. What's your favorite sport to watch?  
Swimming. My friend Luke (Whitlock) made the Olympics and it's crazy and also really motivational. We swam next to each other when I made my first Trials cut, and then at Junior Worlds we were in the same heat. We're always next to each other at big meets, so I need to catch up a little bit.
 
20. What are you most looking forward to about your senior year?
I had a lot to manage last year; competing in Junior Worlds, college recruiting, preparing for Olympic Trials, all on top of school and classes. There was always something looming. I'm excited for senior year just to be more loose and really be able to relax and enjoy everything more.