Three Members of Wyoming Swim Team Killed in Colorado Car Crash
Three members of the University of Wyoming swimming and diving team were killed in a single-vehicle car crash on a rural Colorado highway, the school announced Friday morning.
The three athletes killed in the wreck were sophomore Charlie Clark, a 19-year-old distance swimmer from Las Vegas, freshman Carson Muir, an 18-year-old freestyle and butterfly swimmer from Birmingham, Ala., and sophomore Luke Slabber, a 21-year-old freestyle and individual medley swimmer from Cape Town, South Africa.
“My thoughts and prayers are with our swimming and diving student-athletes, coaches, families and friends,” athletic director Tom Burnam said in a statement. “It is difficult to lose members of our University of Wyoming family, and we mourn the loss of these student-athletes. We have counseling services available to our student-athletes and coaches in our time of need.”
Two other members of the team, men aged 20 and 21, were injured in the accident, in which the SUV they were riding in veered off the road and rolled over. Per Wyoming, “their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.”
The Mountain West Conference swimming and diving championships are being held this week in Houston.
“We stand with the entire Wyoming and Cowboy and Cowgirl communities as they carry this unimaginable burden of grief. The Mountain West family is here for them—now and in the future,” league commissioner Gloria Nevarez said in a statement.