On Tap with ... Charley Wang

Charley Wang of the men’s swimming team is part of a senior class gunning for its fourth Ivy League title in as many years. Wang earned second-team All-Ivy honors in 2009 and won the 100 butterfly last year in the Tigers’ biggest dual meet against Harvard and Yale. He sat down to talk to the ‘Prince’ about his unusual start in swimming, his dabble into a music blog and the characters that are his teammates.

Q: What was your “welcome to college” moment?

A: Probably a couple weekends ago when Cannon threw that awesome party. Up until this year, I hadn’t truly felt like I had experienced a proper college environment. Something was missing. But then, when Cannon stepped up and got that 30th keg and the flat-screen TVs, that’s when I knew — I was finally here.

Q: What is your role on the swim team at Princeton?

A: To educate people on the experience that is Coachella.

Q: What is the greatest highlight of your sports career?

A: Winning the Ivy League Championship last year by such a small margin after such a hard-fought season is definitely the highlight of my sports career.

Q: How did you get started in swimming?

A: My parents were sick and tired of having me try new sports only to have me quit each one as soon as I realized I was terrible at it. They lied to me and told me I was good at swimming.

Q: You’re the fastest underwater kicker on the team. How fast can you kick?

A: About as fast as [junior] Andrea Ucar sprints to Cloister on cookie night.

Q: What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever seen at a swim meet?

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A: You see a lot of strange things on deck at swim meets. This one time, I saw a girl just covered head to toe in neon tape.

Q: What’s the funniest story you have about your coach?

A: Early our freshman year, [head coach] Rob [Orr] had our assistant coach wrap him up in tin foil during one of our long course practices. He then ran around on deck yelling at us during a kick set. It was confusing as a freshman because we couldn’t figure out why anyone would do that.

Q: Who is your professional athletic role model?

A: Andrea Kropp.

Q: If you didn’t swim, what sport would you play?

A: I’d have to try sumo wrestling.

Q: Who is your quirkiest teammate, and why?

A: I think it has to be sophomore Thomas Fellowes. He’s got to be the most embarrassingly outgoing person I’ve ever met. You see him out at Cottage all the time — he’s constantly talking to girls and trying to get them to braid his beard. Shameless.

Q: Does the team have any odd rituals?

A: No.

Q: What is your favorite thing to do when you’re not practicing?

A: Pretty much everything I do when I’m not practicing is my favorite.

Q: You used to have a music blog. Why, and what happened to it?

A: Most importantly, the blog allowed me to document my music taste and use posts as evidence that I liked a song or a band before it was popular. However, when the blog really started taking off, I saw that it was becoming dangerously mainstream, so I shut it down.

Q: What is your most embarrassing memory at Princeton?

A: Probably earlier this season when my teammates started estimating what I would tip the scales at for our preseason physical.

Q: What is the worst part about being an athlete on campus?

A: The ruthless efficiency of the campus parking enforcers. My teammate once managed to get two boots on his car in the same day.

Q: What is the best part about being an athlete on campus?

A: I feel like people in my generation are getting babied later and later into their lives. Being an athlete at Princeton has taught me to grow up and deal with issues myself.

Q: You’re famous on the team for your 200 butterfly. Can you enlighten our readers with your strategic approach to that race?

A: Swimming the 200 fly is a tricky thing. I usually go for a performance that makes people point their fingers and laugh, but sometimes I overshoot, and the reaction is closer to cringing and awkward silence. Recently though, my strategic approach has been to not swim it.

Q: What has been your favorite class at Princeton so far?

A: I think it has to be one I’m in now, ENG 220: Crime, Fiction and Film. I really like the lectures.

Q: Do you have any pre-race rituals?

A: I like to remind myself how hard I’ve worked and think about all of the cold, dark mornings that I dragged myself out of bed to jump into a freezing pool of water. Then I look at the sprinters and remind myself that none of that matters.

Q: You were the director and producer of the swim team’s “Get Better, Hasler” video last year. What was that like? Will there be any follow-up?

A: That video was probably one of the more productive things I’ve done with my time at Princeton. It actually came together pretty easily — the men’s team has always been really good at self-satire. As for a follow-up, there’s nothing in the works right now. I’m not exactly hoping for another one of our stud swimmers to need cheering up this season.