A mother’s love can never be broken. That is a love that knows no sacrifice is too large and no support too small.
Tracy Montrichard-Carter’s family-first approach, together with her husband Everald, has been essential in propelling their son and T&T’s current elite-level swimmer Dylan Carter to great heights and success in the pool.
Montrichard-Carter is wearing two hats at the Paris Olympics 2024 in France, one as manager of the swimming team and the other as a mother.
On Tuesday, her son prepares to participate in the first of two events at his third Olympic Games, the 100-metre freestyle at 5.36 am (T&T time) in heat seven, from lane three after yesterday witnessing 17-year-old Zuri Ferguson finishing third in heat two of the women’s 100m backstroke.
Manager Montrichard-Carter told Guardian Media Sports, “We are so very proud of her performance. She has been very focused and disciplined in all her training and preparation; she was not like any star-struck little girl. She walked proudly and presented herself well.
“As for Dylan, we have done all that was possible given the circumstances. Turkey was an excellent facility, which I would recommend to anyone and the really small camp here (in France) was a tight and small group, which made Dylan really happy. Dexter is doing a great job and now we have George (Bovell III) on deck as well, which is a plus to our team.”
Former Olympic bronze medal winner and five-time Olympian George Bovell III joined Carter’s coaching staff following a two-week training camp at the Gloria Sports Arena in Antalya, Turkey, under the supervision of coach Dexter Browne, just before the start of the Games.
Montrichard-Carter said, “We have been in talks since Christmas with George, but he has a busy schedule as he is training to be a Shaman (they act as mediators in their culture in Peru), so he has a lot on his plate.
“But he has always been a huge mentor to Dylan; in fact, his mother told me that Dylan is like a little brother to him,” noted Montrichard-Carter.
As a parent, the steadfast but loving mom, told Guardian Media: “I think that Dylan has grown so much since Tokyo. He is a lot calmer and a completely different athlete; after all, it is not his first rodeo. I have witnessed how dedicated he is to his training and craft.
“With the Olympics, it is so close between all of the swimmers that it could be like a throw of the dice; everybody is fast, and with one to eight, there is under a hundredth of a second between them. If luck goes our way, we can get some results.”
In terms of pressure as a parent and manager, she openly revealed, “For me, I have been working on myself to be calmer. We have to be calm for those around us, so it is baby steps, one step at a time, one event at a time.”
Carter will race against Jorge Iga of Mexico, Canadian Yuri Kisil, Sean Niewold of the Netherlands, Rafael Fente-Damers of the host country, Tomer Frankel of Israel, New Zealand’s Cameron Gray and Sergio de Celis Montalban of Spain.
Carter will have his dad Everald, his sister Mila, aunt Leslie, and cousins Lauren, Tedi, and Luke with flags in his corner at the competition venue.
As to her words to the public of T&T, Montrichard-Carter said, “We appreciate all the support and love; it is so uplifting and thank you. Let’s keep supporting Team TTO. I can tell you I have been with these athletes here and they work their tail off; they bleed red, white, and black so let us continue to appreciate them; so keep the support coming.”
Earlier Monday, 17-year-old Ferguson clocked one minute and 02.75 seconds to place 27th overall and did not progress but the T&T swim team manager was proud of her effort.
“I told her before, all I want you to do is light up the blocks, and she did it (the blocks you are swimming from light up when you finish first, second, or third),” said Montrichard-Carter.
Zuri, who still has one more year at Attleboro High School— where she holds the school record in every individual event and has won three straight Division I titles in the 100 backstroke — will swim at the University of Florida starting in 2025.
Competing at the Olympics has been on Ferguson’s radar since she was in middle school, but she wasn’t expecting to get there until the 2028 Games. Looking ahead to the future, she noted, “Zuri is in a good place; she will soon be attending a top-tier university, and she has the superb support of her parents and coach, who I got to meet recently, and I know how important that is.”
