Meet Olivia Carter

After moving into a new house in North Carolina at the age of 4, Olivia discovered the neighborhood swimming pool was just across the street.  This prompted her parents to sign her up for the summer swim team so she could burn off some extra energy.  She wasn’t very good, but she had fun and begged to keep swimming after the summer was over.

Throughout the next 7 years, swimming began to center itself in Olivia’s life, taking precedence over other activities like gymnastics and theatre.  When she was an early teen, she experienced a significant coaching change which would ultimately change her perspective on her swimming career as well as push her limits in ways she had never experienced before.  It was a rough transition and emotions were constantly high.  Eventually, her coach got through to her and as she trained under him, she found a new drive: hating to lose. 

To Olivia, hating to lose was more of a driving factor than her love to win.  Harnessing this power, she began to set lofty goals which would only be possible if she trained at full throttle. Olivia began to climb the ladder of local and regional achievements, crossing off her big goals almost every season.  At this point, she was tied to swimming and sacrificed not only time, but hobbies, narrowing her childhood dreams down to just aviation.  Olivia used flying as an escape from the constraints and mental challenges in swimming.  Another unexpected coaching change rocked her world when she was 16 forcing her to change teams and move to a different city.  Although almost everything had changed, her new coach pushed her limits even more, helping Olivia land gold on the national stage and achieve even bigger goals every season.  

Outside of swimming, Olivia got her first car, which helped jumpstart a love for motorsports. In her junior year of high school, she committed to swim at University of Georgia, and had a successful but personally disappointing freshman year which dampened her motivation.  That summer, Olivia also earned her private pilot license, which was the first step to her dream career.  Looking for a change to keep her swimming career alive, she committed to University of Michigan in January 2020.  With new goals on the table, Olivia went wide-open throttle once she got to Michigan, because B1G Tens were a month and a half away.  Then COVID hit.  Devastated and with unfinished business nagging her conscience, Olivia went home to North Carolina.  During the COVID summer, Olivia learned the valuable lesson that taking time off in swimming is okay. It was during this time too, that she and her parents became invested in NASCAR.  Every Sunday afternoon, they could be found embracing the monotony of left-hand turns and guessing drivers’ winning positions.  After returning to Michigan in Fall 2020 with speed on her mind, Olivia got back into her usual training and capped off the season with a second B1G Ten title and an NCAA title, finally getting to mark those off the list.

Once school was over for the semester, there was no time for a pit stop, because Olympic Trials was closing in and Olivia wanted to make the A final in the 200m butterfly.  Although she achieved this, she left Omaha disappointed in her final placement.  Blindsided by yet another drastic coaching change, Olivia found a way to give back to the sport as a way renew her drive.  She worked as the head coach in Michigan at a summer swim team, the same type of team where she had started a decade and a half ago.  Discovering a way to channel her own drive of wanting to win in such a way that she could instill the same passion in her team but also, most importantly, making sure they were having fun, Olivia drove them to their highest placing finish in recent history.  She also got a dog, named Maverick, who is the best companion she could ask for. 

After competing one more collegiate season with the Wolverines, Olivia once again successfully defended her B1G Ten title and tied for runner-up at the 2022 NCAAs in the 200yd butterfly. That semester, she was also invited to participate in a university-led archaeological dig in Greece that summer. Since she was majoring in this field, this experience would be invaluable. Struggling to commit to one month without swimming, Olivia decided the trip was worth it. For the first time ever, she prioritized something above swimming. While in Greece, Olivia had time to evaluate her dedication to the sport and desire to pursue her life-long dream of becoming an airline pilot. Once she was back home, she made the difficult decision to retire from the sport and finish out her last semester at Michigan as a non-student-athlete.

After graduating with highest distinction with a major in Classical Archaeology, Olivia focused her efforts on flight school. In March 2023, she achieved her Instrument rating and in May 2023 she received a Commercial license. She is also involved in the motorsports industry and can be found turning wrenches with her friends while she learns as much as she can.