Charles "Charlie" Houchin is an American former competition swimmer who has had his greatest international success in freestyle relay events. He earned a gold medal as a member of the winning United States team in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay at the 2012 Summer Olympics. He is the CEO and founder of Swimmingly®. The Swimmingly® app can operate an entire swim meet from iPhones or Android devices.
Houchin used the money he earned from his gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics to found Swimmingly®. Adamant about increasing the value of participation for young swimmers, Houchin innovated a better swim meet experience for athletes, parents, and coaches. Swimmingly® operates an entire swim meet from mobile devices, creating a fun & simple swim meet for officials, volunteers, families, and swimmers. Using Swimmingly®, swim clubs can operate a meet in less time, with fewer volunteers, no paper, and less stress.
Swimming career
At the 2010 FINA Short Course World Championships, Houchin won a silver medal in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay for his contributions in the heats. At the 2011 World Aquatics Championships in Shanghai, China, Houchin competed in one event, the 400-meter freestyle. Houchin posted a time of 3:48.80 in the heats and did not advance to the final, finishing fourteenth overall. At the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, Houchin won two gold medals in the 400-meter freestyle and the 4×200-meter freestyle relay. At the 2012 United States Olympic Trials, the qualifying meet for the 2012 Olympics, Houchin made the U.S. Olympic team for the first time by finishing sixth in the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 1:46.88, which qualified him to swim in the 4×200-meter freestyle as a member of the U.S. relay team. Houchin also competed in the 400-meter freestyle at the trials, and finished fourth overall. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Houchin earned a gold medal by swimming for the winning U.S. team in the preliminaries of the 4×200-meter freestyle relay. At the 2013 World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona, Spain, Houchin combined with Conor Dwyer, Ryan Lochte, and Ricky Berens in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay, with the team finishing in first place for the gold medal. Swimming the third leg, Houchin recorded a split of 1:45.59, and the team finished with a final time of 7:01.72.
Personal life
Houchin is a Christian. Houchin has spoken about his faith saying, "I like to think I carry a quiet confidence into the water because of my relationship with Christ. He created a swimming timing system called Meet Central, a system that helps swim meets go faster and have more accurate times. This allows swim teams to use mobile devices to start, time, judge, and score very quickly.
