T&T swimmer Dylan Carter says his red-hot start at the first FINA World Cup Swimming Series stop in Berlin was fueled by missing three major international medals by less than one-tenth of a second this summer.
Competing at the FINA World Aquatics Championships in June in Budapest, Hungary, the 26-year-old Carter missed the podium in the 50 metres butterfly by just .06 seconds. At the Commonwealth Games in July in Birmingham, England, he was .01 seconds away from a bronze medal in the 50m butterfly and .08 seconds from hardware in the 50m freestyle, also in England.
Fed up with the string of close calls, Carter went back to the drawing board with his coach Dexter Brown at home in Trinidad and returned “with a lot of fire.”
That spark was on full display in Berlin at the Europa Sports Park, SSE Arena, as the sprint specialist made a statement with three gold medals in the 50m freestyle, 50m backstroke, and 50m butterfly.
Carter’s first major international victories came against strong competition as he had to outduel Australian Kyle Chalmers and France’s Florent Manaudou in the 50m freestyle, Italy’s Thomas Ceccon in the 50m backstroke, and an equally red-hot South African Chad Le Clos in the 50m butterfly. Along the way, he set a pair of national records in the 50m freestyle and 50m backstroke.
On Friday in his first event, a University of Southern California graduate Carter ripped the first sub-21 swim of his career to overcome a stacked field in the men’s 50m freestyle final, blasting his way to a time of 20.77.
In addition to going well under his previous best of 21.09, Carter also broke a longstanding T&T national record, taking out Olympic bronze medallist George Bovell‘s 20.82 from 2012.
He was followed to the wall by Chalmers , who won this race in three out of the four World Cup stops last year, while Manaudou, the former world record holder and Olympic champion.
Chalmers clocked 21.04, just off his winning time from the opening Berlin stop in 2021 (21.01), while Manaudou hit the wall in 21.05.
In the morning heats session, Carter was also the top qualifier in 21.08 seconds in winning heat 11while Manaudou was second fastest after winning heat nine in 21.22, with Chalmers, second in heat 11 in 21.30 for third best overall.
On Saturday in the 50m backstroke Carter (23.15) made it 2-for-2 when he held off Ceccon (23.22) and Canada’s Javier Acevedo (23.24), setting a new national record in the process. He lowered his previous mark of 23.19 from the 2018 FINA Short Course World Championships.
Once again, Carter also topped the field in the morning heats with an overall best time of 23.41 in winning heat seven, with Ceccon (23.48), the winner of heat six, and Manaudou (23.51), and Acevdeo (23.54) completing the top four.
And on Sunday, in his final event, Carter made it 3-for-3 in sprint events with his 50m butterfly victory in 22.13, just off his lifetime bets of 21.98 as he edged Le Clos (23.22) for the gold medal by less than a tenth of a second while Italian Matteo Rivolta got bronze in 22.38.
Carter again was the fastest in the morning heats in 22.61 on enroute to winning heat nine, just ahead of USA’s Tom Shields (22.63), and Marius Kusch of Germany who clocked 22.64, both in heat eight.
Speaking after his win on Sunday, Carter said jokingly, “Now I just need to learn how to swim breaststroke.
“It gives me some confidence. I’m racing the best in the world here, so hopefully, I can stay up here.”
With the victory, Carter’s tally of 57.3 points moves him into second place in the overall standings behind South African Matt Sates’ 58,3 while USA’s Nick Frank (57), Le Clos (56.4), Chambers (53.4), and Ceccon (52.6) complete the men’s swimmers who amassed over 50 points for $12,000, $10,000, $8,000, $6,000, $5,500 and $5,400 respectively in prize money.
At the end of the series, the swimmers’ totals from each leg will be added up to determine the final rankings, where the top eight will earn prize money, with the winner taking home $100,000 USD.
Swimmers earned points based on both where they finished and how many FINA points they scored in that swim. There’s no restriction on how many events an athlete can enter, but only their top three performances from each meet will count toward the point total. Click here for a full breakdown of the scoring.
Reflecting on his triple-gold performance Carter speaking to swimswam.com said, “I wrote a goal down on my board in my room after having a tough summer.”
“I missed out on three major medals. I was fourth at long course worlds. I finished fourth twice at the Commonwealth, and I came out of that with a lot of fire. I wrote it down. I knew I wanted to come and be really, really good here. I did what I wanted to do.”
With regard to his renewed focus, Carter said, “I’m trying to trust myself, and trusting oneself is what gets them through those anxious moments.”
Le Clos was equally pleased with his performance and looked ahead to the next two weeks of battles with the red-hot Carter.
“I haven’t had that time in five or six years,” said le Clos, who dubbed himself “Chad le Clos 2.0″ earlier in the meet. “Dylan’s had a great meet so far. It’s going to be fun for the next two weeks.”
The T&T swimmer will look to continue his gold medal exploits when he competes in the second Leg in Toronto, Canada from Friday until Sunday in the 25 metres swimming event at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre. Then ending with the third and final Leg in Indianapolis, USA from November 3 to 5 at the IU Natatorium.
Following the third and final leg of the World Cup in November, Carter is expected to compete in the National Short Course which will serve as his final preparations for the FINA World Short Course Championships in Melbourne, Australia.
