COLUMBIA, S.C. – For most students, going off to college is a chance to meet new people and experience new things.
Not for South Carolina’s swimming and diving Thompson twins.
Claire and Christine Thompson, both Largo residents who attended Admiral Farragut Academy, have not spent more than 24 hours away from each other since the time they were born.
Not only do they both attend the University of South Carolina, they are on the swim team and they live together.
The twins spent every day the summer when they were 8 at the pool at a local YMCA. The swim coach asked their mom if they could join the team, and their mom finally gave in, thinking it would be “a constructive outlet for all of their energy.”
Claire and Christine remembered how the 6 a.m. swim practices wore them out for the first few weeks, but then ended up giving them much more energy than they originally had.
“We would make obstacle courses in our room . . . We usually ended up throwing things at each other, which led to a few holes in the walls,” Christine said.
As the sisters grew up swimming almost every day, they decided they would continue their swimming careers in college. But they didn’t make a plan to go to school together.
It was kind of an unwritten assumption, they both agreed. The team chemistry at South Carolina, as well as the distance from their hometown – was not too close to home, but not too far away – helped Christine commit to the University of South Carolina a week before Claire did.
“I wouldn’t say that (Christine committing to USC) was a determining factor for me, but it helped thinking that she would also be there,” Claire said, when asked if her sister influenced her decision at all.
One would think that it would not only be difficult to be on a team with a sibling, but also compete in the same events. But for Claire and Christine, they see each other as teammates rather than the competition.
“When we’re in the water, I don’t see her as being my sister,” Claire said, who earned South Carolina’s best times in every freestyle event except the 50. “She’s just someone else to compete against.”
Laina Balafas is a University of South Carolina student.
