Making a splash

TODAY WE hail Dylan Carter, 26, for his performance at the FINA Swimming World Cup, the second leg of which ended on Sunday in Canada.

By any standards, one medal on such a world stage is something to be proud of. Mr Carter took six – all gold.

It was a performance that resulted in this country’s being among those atop the medal table, just behind the US, Canada and South Africa, and ahead of swimming powerhouses such as Australia and China.

We hope it inspires more interest in the sport as well as more support for people pursuing sporting disciplines generally.

Mr Carter’s feat was all the more impressive given that, at the first leg of the tournament, which was held in Germany, he broke the national record in the men’s 50m freestyle final, stopping the clock at 20.77 and shaving microseconds off George Bovell’s 20.82.

Carter also broke his own national record in the backstroke and beat South Africa’s most decorated swimmer, Chad le Clos, in the 50m butterfly.

It’s safe to say it has been a memorable tournament.

But it was not a performance that came from nowhere. Since making his debut at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Mr Carter has been competing steadily. In the space of about six years, he’s moved from making the finals at FINA events to bagging gold.

The swimmer’s achievements come at a dispiriting time for the country.

Mere weeks after grandly observing the 60th anniversary of our independence with all manner of events and fetes, the country is battling a seemingly insurmountable crime crisis.

Despite a smaller than expected deficit being announced last week, citizens also continue to pay for decades of economic policies that have left the economy warped and lopsided – overly reliant on highly volatile revenue streams.

Sport is normally a cause for celebration, if not a welcome distraction. But sporting fans have not had much to celebrate of late.

Cricket fans are still trying to grapple with the failure of the West Indies team to qualify for the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia.

Though local football looks set to return to financial regularity, it is still haunted by ghosts. Already licking its wounds given our absence from this month’s World Cup, it is bracing for a new documentary series on corruption within FIFA. That series is set to be released on Netflix this month and may potentially touch upon the issues that the sport, locally still under management by a “normalisation committee,” has been trying to move beyond.

Mr Carter’s unbridled success, therefore, is something of a breath of fresh air.

Let’s hope it will focus attention on removing the usual administrative and infrastructural obstacles our sportsmen and women face long after their podium appearances, and leave clear water for them to aim to reach the finishing line first.