Take Your Mark: Carter Brown (Swimmer)
As a swimmer, the phrase “take your mark” will freeze you in your tracks. You are frozen because the slightest twitch or movement will cause the meet referee to make every swimmer stand and relax. This can really mess with your head since you’re in the zone and ready to spring off the blocks. I had a different kind of stand with my swimming this past year.
I was diagnosed with Scoliosis and Asthma within a month of each other. I had to stand on the side of the pool and watch my teammates swim while I rehabilitated my back and tried to figure out the right combination of asthma meds to control my constant cough and loss of lung capacity. It was a double whammy and a punch to the gut.
Let me start from the beginning. I began competitively swimming when I was 8. I was tricked into trying out for our local summer swim team, The Ridgewood Barracudas. I had a couple friends on the team and my mother assured me I would not make the team because I wasn’t good enough just yet. I had taken swimming lessons and always loved the water. I had a decent freestyle and backstroke but that was it. You had to be legal in all 4 strokes; free, back, breast and fly, but that was a lie. You only needed to be legal for free and back. Instead of crying for joy, I cried because I made a team I wanted no part of from the start. Despite my feelings from the beginning, that was 2013 and I’m proud to say I’m still a Barracuda.
My next adventure in competitive swimming was the Swim Kids Stealth Swim Team. I only swam with them for about a year. They were a small team and at some meets, I was the only swimmer attending the meet. I had a number of friends who swam for Occoquan Swimming, so my parents decided that I would join that team instead. I didn’t really want to but I had a lot of friends on the team and didn’t have a choice. I was 10 and I’m still on the team. I am currently in the National Training Group, the highest level swimming group within Occoquan Swimming (OCCS). I joined the group in 2021 which was delayed like so many other things due to the pandemic which was tough. We really only had 6 weeks off from mid March 2020 to May 2020. At first, we only swam two to three days per week at a community pool in Chantilly. This was one of the few pools to open and that was only because one of our coaches lived there and convinced them to let us swim there if we opened and maintained the pool for them. Luckily, it was summer so we could swim outdoors since all of the indoor facilities were on lock down. Once those restrictions were lifted, OCCS was able to open back up & get us back in the water more consistently. Swimming was one of the few sports to get back to normal relatively quickly due to the ability to have outdoor practice and the chemicals from chlorine which kill everything.
Fast forward to July 2021, I was having a great long course season. After my second to last meet of the season, I noticed my breathing wasn’t quite right. I once DQ’d (disqualified) myself when I swam my fifty meter freestyle for an estimated forty six meters under water. You are legally only able to go fifteen meters but I just wanted to see how far I could go. I was a legend that day to everyone except my mother, who was not happy. When she knew what I was planning, she warned me not to do it. I had to prove to myself I could do it, well almost. Shortly after I found myself unable to hold my breath as long and had developed a sometimes uncontrollable cough and an unbearable pain in my back. I figured it was just because I had moved up to the most advanced group and practiced twenty hours per week which included weight training. I didn’t mention it to my parents because I figured it would go away.
So it was off to the doctor. It was noted that there was a slight curve in my spine that had not been noted previously. I was sent off for a scoliosis x-ray survey. I am no doctor but I could see the obvious curve. I wondered if this would end my swim career and if I I possibly needed surgery. After visiting 2 Orthopedic doctors, it was determined no surgery was needed but I would be doing physical therapy, maybe for the rest of my life. I was happy it was just physical therapy for now. As a side note, I also have an unofficially diagnosed condition called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS). I say unofficially because every doctor I have seen will run a couple quick tests and they all agree. I have not been diagnosed because there really isn’t too much you can do for it.. We have been discouraged from getting a diagnosis because it would then become a pre-existing condition which is not good for my future healthcare. We found a local physical therapist who is also an athletic trainer. He had worked with many athletes and was even knowledgeable with swimmers.
Next was a trip to the pulmonologist and after a few tests it was determined I had asthma. The test showed I was functioning at only fifty percent lung capacity. This sounds bad but because I’m a swimmer I have an above average lung capacity. After a few tweaks of my medications, I’m almost back to normal.
During all of this, I was also swimming for the Woodbridge Vikings Varsity Swim Team. My Junior season was supposed to be my best year yet. I was swimming at my previous year’s time and had not had any time drops. It was discouraging but I did my best and I made it to states on two relays. I didn’t make it in individual events but I was thankful to have made it on a relay. That started a new chapter in my swim journey.
That’s my past ten months of ups and downs. I feel better every day and hope to get back to my full training schedule soon. It’s been tough at times and I have thought of quitting a few times. I’m considering continuing my swimming in college. I am on the road to recovery and still have a year of training to prepare and get stronger. Every time I’m on the blocks, I‘m grateful to be there. Frozen and listening for the starting buzzer. I hope I never have to take the “stand” that I took for those few months again.
