University of Southern California and 2016 Olympian Dylan Carter will be T&T’s lone representative when the 13th FINA World Short Course Swimming Championships splashes off today at the WFCU Centre, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada from 9.30am (10.30am T&T time).
It will be the first-ever FINA Short Course (25m) Swimming Championships to be staged in Canada and takes place at an arena facility among the best in its class in North America.
No stranger to intense competition and action, this 6,700-seat arena is the proud home of the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires, as well as the reigning champions of the National Basketball League of Canada, the Windsor Express.
The 20-year-old Carter, who is a career six-time All-American and three-time NCAA and Pac-12 relay champion is scheduled to compete in the 100m backstroke today and 200m freestyle tomorrow morning, with the semi-finals carded for the afternoon period of both days should he make the top 16. He expressed optimism at his chances at Worlds following some fantastic swims for his University of Southern California (USC) college team.
“Preparation has been phenomenal as I was with my college team last week in Austin Texas where I recorded several best times that ranked me in the top five in the NCAA right now”, Carter remarked. “So I am really optimistic about this week”.
The multiple national record holder and swimming’s nominee for the 2016 First Citizens “Sportsman of the Year” award, gave his USC Trojans the lead as he swum the fastest lead off time in the 800-yard freestyle relay clocking one minute, 32.62 seconds.
USC eventually settled for silver in this and the 400-yard freestyle relay at last weekend’s 2016 Texas Invitational.
The 400-yard freestyle saw Carter swim the fastest anchor-leg among all the teams. while he also won silver in the 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly, and a gold in the 100 freestyle.
Carter’s T&T-based coach and former national swimmer Franz Huggins is encouraged by his recent performances and is hoping for a berth in the finals for his charge.
“Dylan just finished a successful weekend at the Texas invite where he swam 4 best times and is now ranked as the number one 200m freestyle in collegiate swimming, ahead of Olympic Gold medallists Clark Smith and Townley Haas. All those best times were achieved without shaving.”
Along with the 200m freestyle and 100m backstroke, Carter will also compete in the 50m butterfly on Friday and the 100m freestyle on Saturday, and Huggins is confident that Carter will give an excellent account of himself.
“The 200m freestyle is something I continue to encourage him to do, as I think it is his best event. With his renewed enthusiasm for it, he has been excelling at it. The 100m freestyle is the short version, which is what he swam at the Olympic Games while the 100m backstroke is a great event for him Short Course and the event he used to gain qualification to the meet. The 50m butterfly is what he got to the semi-finals in at World Championships in 2015 and also won a silver medal in at World Junior Championships in 2013.”
Dr David Salo who is the coach at USC, is accompanying Carter at the six-day Championships which ends on December 11, and according to Huggins, Salo has been working with Carter since 2013.