T&T swimmer Dylan Carter is currently in Antalya, Turkey, at his training base in preparation for next month’s Olympic Games in Paris, France which takes from July 26 to August 11.
It will be the third Olympic Games on the trot for the 28-year-old, a Commonwealth Games and World Junior Championship silver medal winner in the men’s 50 metres butterfly splash
The swimming segment of the Paris Olympics will take place at the Paris La Defense Arena from July 27 to August 4 where Carter, a University of Southern California graduate, will first compete in the men’s 100m freestyle and then the 50 freestyle.
A three-time World Short Course Championship medal winner, Carter was joined last weekend in Turkey by his T&T-based coach Dexter Brown, and the two have since gotten down to work with the first event in Paris, the 100m freestyle heats set for July 30 and the semifinals on the same day, followed by the final, a day later.
The men’s 50m freestyle will splash off on August 1 with the semifinals on the same day, and the gold medal swim on August 2.
Speaking from Antalya, coach Brown said, “Dylan and I are currently in Turkey at the Gloria Sports Arena in Antalya.
“It’s a beautiful facility and atmosphere that is perfect for providing an opportunity to focus on the mental and physical parameters that we believe will give us a chance to streamline all the factors necessary for him (Dylan) to be at his best in Paris.”
He added, “Our training sessions thus far have been solid and Dylan has been in great spirits, so we plan to keep things that way until Wednesday, July 10 when we depart for France and the final descent into the Paris Games.”
Brown noted that from here on, there will be no more competitive meets for Carter but with some top-quality swimmers also using the facility as their training base, it will no doubt help to improve the T&T swimmer.
He said, “We don’t have any more competitions planned at this time, but there are other world class swimmers here like Ben Proud of England and Sebastian Szabo of Hungary, who are here for the same reasons we are and whom Dylan has healthy relationships with.”
At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, which was held in July and August 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Carter competed in four individual events.
In the 100m butterfly, Carter ranked 33rd and set a new national record with his time of 52.36 seconds, while he was also ranked 33rd in the 50m freestyle with a time of 22.46, 22nd in the 100m freestyle with a 48.66, and 32nd in the 100m backstroke in 54.82.
Back in 2016, ten-time Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games medal winner Carter competing at his first Olympic Games was 23rd best in the men’s 100m freestyle in a then national record time of 48.80, which he has since lowered to 48.28 at the 2023 TYR Pro Swim Series in Fort Lauderdale
At his last major event the three-leg Mare Nostrum Series, Carter won two silver and a bronze medal in Canet-en-Roussillon in the opening leg in France.
In the men’s 50m freestyle A-Final, Carter was the second fastest to the wall in 23.37 to trail France’s Maxime Grosset who won gold in 21.92 and in the 50m butterfly A-Final, Carter got to the wall in 23.50 to finish behind Holland’s Nyls Korstanje, who raced to the gold medal in 23.22, with Hungary’s Szebastian Szabo taking silver in 23.47.
In the men’s 100m freestyle, Grosset won another gold with a time of 38.71 with Carter taking his second silver medal in three events in 48.97 and Japan’s Matsumoto, third in 49.13.
Carter swam to his third silver medal of the Mare Nostrum Series when he finished in the second spot in the men’s 50m butterfly A-Final at the 45th International Barcelona in Sant Andreu, Barcelona in 23.36 while he was fifth in the men’s 50m freestyle A-Final in 22.32.
At the third leg in Prince Albert II Pool at the Stadium Louis II in Monaco, France, he was eighth in the men’s 50m freestyle in 22.54 after clocking 21.61 in the heats.
In February, Carter competed at the FINA World Aquatic Championship at the Aspire Dome in Doha, Qatar and was fifth in the men’s 50m butterfly final in 23.17 and 15th in the men’s 50m freestyle with a time of 22.01.
