The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1361683
14 THE WOLVERINE MAY 2021 INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS Michigan junior women's swimmer Olivia Carter went through the recruit- ing process twice before finding her way to Ann Arbor. She committed to Georgia as a junior in high school, and swam in Athens for one year, but it just wasn't the perfect fit. A North Carolina native not used to the cold weather, Carter was hesitant about heading to U-M, but she decided to give the Wol- verines a shot. "Once I started talking to the coaches and got to meet some of the people on the team, I really started seeing myself here and seeing a lot of poten- tial for my growth in academics and swimming," Carter said. More than a year after making the decision, she feels it was the right choice. "I'm very happy that I ended up here," she said. From her strong relationships with head coach Mike Bottom, assistant coach Rick Bishop, junior Maggie MacNeil and the rest of the team, she found the fit she was looking for. Carter is a standout both in the class- room and in the pool. While majoring in classical archaeology and minoring in Native American studies, she was named a Scholar All-American by the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association (CSCAA) in 2020, and has taken schoolwork seriously ever since being homeschooled as a child. While it may be a surprise given her current field of study, Carter hopes to become an airline pilot, just like her fa- ther, who is a longtime pilot for FedEx. The same work ethic she has in school is there when it comes to swim- ming, too, having gone through 5 a.m. workouts at the Greensboro Aquat- ics Center each morning before high school, preparing her for a standout college career in which she's been named a CSCAA All-American five times. There are moments throughout an athlete's career when they're able to see their hard work pay off, and that's no different for Carter, who's had plenty. However, it's not often that an athlete's career comes to a crescendo at the very venue she grew up training in, but that's exactly how Carter's story goes and why it's so unique. At the NCAA Championships March 20, Carter, swimming in her home- town, was able to take home first- place honors and capture a national championship in the 200-yard but- terfly, posting a time of 1:51.33. She was in third place halfway through the race, but surged into the lead thanks to a 28.35 split on the third 50-yard stretch. At that point, she knew she was all alone in the lead. When Carter touched the wall, she didn't have to look up at the board — she knew she had won. "The first thing I could do was smile," Carter said of the moment immedi- ately following the competition. "It was just a huge culmination of happi- ness, relief, excitement — all of those emotions at once. I love that feeling, it's really great." While her family and friends weren't able to attend the event due to CO- VID-19 guidelines, they were watching at home, and were admittedly more nervous, viewing from across town, than Carter was competing. It meant a bit more to Carter knowing she was able to win the championship at such a familiar place. "It was so, so cool to be able to do it in that pool, because all the 5 a.m. practices that I remember — all the bad practices, all the good practices — that pool meant a lot to me and a lot to my training, so it was so unreal to be able to win it there," she said. Carter grew up asking her dad to bring her back a postcard or tee-shirt from his trips for work, and she loves traveling herself, but she didn't need a souvenir from her trip with the Wol- verines to Greensboro — returning to Ann Arbor with a national title is much better than a tee-shirt. — Clayton Sayfie Carter won the national title in the 200-yard butterfly at the NCAA Championships, held this year in her hometown of Greensboro, N.C. PHOTO BY MIKE COMER/COURTESY NCAA HUB Student-Athlete Of The Month Women's Swimming Junior Olivia Carter