For Carbone, US Olympic Trials Was Dream Come True

WASHINGTON – Last weekend, recent Georgetown graduate Drew Carbone competed in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke events during Wave I of the US Olympic Swimming Trials in Omaha, Nebraska. Not only did Carbone check a major item off of his bucket list by swimming at one of the world’s largest meets, but it provided a satisfying end to a long and stressful year. 

Carbone, who will return to the Hilltop for his final year of eligibility as a graduate student next season, qualified for the Olympic Trials back in December 2018 at the U.S. Winter National Championships, one of the earliest opportunities he had to punch a ticket to Omaha. Since qualifying, he has won a total of six individual and two BIG EAST relay titles at the 2019 and 2020 conference championships. 

However, the last 16 months since the 2020 BIG EAST Championship did not go the way Carbone envisioned when it came to preparing for the Trials as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020-21 Georgetown season, eliminating valuable training time for Carbone. On top of that, an illness and a thumb injury only allowed Carbone to be able to train for approximately six weeks from March through the end of 2020. 

“Coming into 2021, I was pretty fired up. I was just so sick of not controlling my own destiny, so me and Sean Devlin put together a training regimen and we just held ourselves accountable. We didn’t hit 20 hours per week, but we were close. Probably hitting 15-16 hours per week either in the pool or weightlifting. It gets you on a schedule and into the right mindset.”

Despite the tough 16 months leading up to the Trials, Carbone arrived in Omaha with the seventh-best 100-meter time among Wave I swimmers. First came Friday’s 100-meter competition, where Carbone got off to a strong start with a respectable 56.41 seconds in the morning prelims. However, his heat was one of the slower ones and his time tied for 15th overall to send him to the evening’s B final. Swimming on the outside in Lane 1, Carbone put together a strong final 50 meters to surge past the field to win by nearly a half second. 

“In the morning, I had a solid swim. It wasn't bad, but it definitely wasn’t what I was hoping for. I just jumped in the warm down pool and it started right there. I knew I was capable of, trusted everything and all the training. When I hit the wall [that night] and saw that I had won, I felt pretty proud of everything that we've achieved. Just for me, and for the school. Hopefully, I’m trailblazing a path for more Hoyas to come. This team's only getting better. Molly Fitzpatrick was here five years ago and I like to think she was a trailblazer for me. And then the next person, you know, maybe they make a semifinal in four years.”

Carbone carried the momentum from the 100 into Sunday’s 200-meter competition, where he ranked 35th among Wave I swimmers. In a fast, competitive prelim, he touched the wall in 2:03.67 to finish fourth in his heat. That time held on for the 16th-best time of the morning, sending him to the B final. In the evening, Carbone improved his time by more than a full second as he finished third in a race where second, third and fourth place were separated by just .07 seconds. 

Joining Carbone in Omaha, and helping make the adjustments before the evening finals, was Georgetown Head Coach Jack Leavitt. Leavitt, who has been on the Hilltop for five years, brought Carbone to Georgetown as one of his first recruits. The two Massachusetts natives have developed a special bond that has led to the amazing successes for Carbone in the pool, but at the collegiate and national levels. 

“It was a really good feeling to have him on deck with me. It didn’t matter that we hadn’t seen each other in forever, we still had that that that good chemistry. He knows how to motivate me, he knows how to keep me engaged. It was easy to be there for six days with him. When we're driving back from the pool, he's there as a friend, not necessarily your coach. That's what you need on one of these trips where it's just one-on-one.

I talk a lot about trusting my training and trusting my body, at the same time I trust Jack a lot. We buy into each other. We have a back-and-forth about swimming, talking about different philosophies, different strategies, different ideas. From a coaching standpoint, Jack is unbelievable. And then, from an individual, personal level, He is just a great guy. He has taught me a lot about focusing on being a good leader and being a good teammate. He cares about all of us as individuals just as much, if not more than as swimmers."