Two Scottish para swimmers. One home Games. The data, the burnout, and the comeback behind their bid for Glasgow gold.
Making Waves at Home: Inside the Commonwealth Preparations of Two Scottish Para Swimmers
When the Commonwealth Games arrive in Glasgow this summer, two Scottish para swimmers will step onto the blocks with more than medals on their minds. For Ollie Carter and Sam Downey, competing on home soil represents the culmination of years of sacrifice, setbacks and a relentless commitment to figuring out what elite sport asks of a person body and mind alike. Both train out of Stirling University, one of British swimming's most respected programmes, and both have taken roads to Glasgow that were anything but straight. Their stories, though different, tell the same broader truth: that getting to a major game is only half the battle. Staying sane along the way is the other half.
In the Pool: Data, Margins and Getting the Details Right
Ask either athlete what a typical week looks like and they'll start with the water. That much is obvious. But what happens in the pool at Stirling these days goes well beyond the old model of clocking lengths and chasing volume.
For Carter, one of the most significant tools in his preparation has been underwater video analysis a relatively simple technology that has, he says, fundamentally changed how he understands his own swimming. "It allows the coaches to see what's going on underwater, which they can't see from the poolside," he explains. "But then it also allows me as the swimmer to see what I feel because I can be feeling something and then a video will show me I'm not doing that at all. Or vice versa." That gap between perception and reality, he suggests, is where a huge amount of athletic improvement lives. You can feel fast and be slow. You can feel smooth and be inefficient. The camera doesn't lie.
Alongside the video work, Carter has been putting in time on force pad analysis a more recent addition to the programme that allows him and the coaching team to examine the precise mechanics of his catch in butterfly and breaststroke. "It's all about marginal gains," he says. "Fine-tuning the catch, breaking down the swim into numbers you can see where there are glaringly obvious things to do with efficiency, counts, rates, all of that." In a sport where the difference between a final and a medal, or between qualifying and going home, can come down to fractions of a second, those numbers matter enormously.
Downey echoes the value of the data-led approach. For him, the science behind the programme has done something perhaps more important than improving his stroke it has given him something to trust. "We've got such a big team of people," he says, "and there's so much data behind my swimming now. That gives me the confidence mentally that what I'm doing in the pool is going to work." In elite sport, belief and evidence are closely linked. Knowing that your programme is built on rigorous analysis rather than guesswork allows an athlete to commit fully, rather than spending mental energy second-guessing every session.
Downey has also built his approach to the games around a carefully managed ramp-up in intensity. After trials, his coaching team made a deliberate choice to ease back before gradually increasing the load again. "We kind of took a more relaxed approach to training," he explains. "Still professional in the pool, but we're now gradually building into that full professional environment away from the pool as well as within it as we get closer to the games." It's a nuanced approach, and one that reflects a broader understanding within the sport that simply doing more, harder, faster, isn't always the answer.
The Stirling Setup: Why Environment Matters
Both Carter and Downey are quick to praise Stirling University as an environment, and it becomes clear in talking to them that it's not just the facilities they value though those are significant but the culture the programme has built.
For Downey, one of the biggest practical advantages is simply having everything in one place. "I can go in and my full support team are in that one building," he says, "meaning I'm able to get multiple things done in a day without having to do lots of travel." In the life of a full-time athlete, that kind of efficiency is precious. Time spent commuting between a pool, a gym, a physio clinic and a psychologist's office is time not spent resting, and rest, as both athletes will tell you, is training.
Carter's perspective on the environment centres less on logistics and more on relationships specifically his long-standing relationship with head coach Josh, with whom he has worked since 2018. "We've come to understand each other quite well," Carter says. "I'm a very independent kind of person in terms of I don't want a coach looming over me all the time. Me and Josh can go days without talking to each other because I trust his processes. I know why he's written me sessions." That mutual trust, he argues, has been as important to his physical development as any session in the pool. When you stop spending energy questioning your programme and simply commit to it, something shifts. "It's made my swimming career far longer," he reflects. "Otherwise, I would have burned out a while ago."
The programme itself built on the Jan Olbrick model is something Carter describes as genuinely distinctive. "It's quite divisive amongst some of us," he admits, "but it's worked for me and I do believe in it. I see the longevity in it. And it's just a lot more fun. Nobody likes to do a 60K week when you're a 100-freestyle swimmer. That just sucks." The approach prioritises sustainability and enjoyment alongside performance a philosophy that runs directly counter to the punishing high-volume models Carter encountered earlier in his career.
Outside the Pool: The Art of Switching Off
Perhaps the most telling thing about both athletes is what they do when they're not swimming. In an era where elite sport increasingly demands total dedication the Instagram posts from 5am sessions, the culture of sacrifice as identity Carter and Downey represent a quieter, more considered alternative.
Carter's off-pool life is, frankly, vivid. He writes fantasy short stories. He listens to audiobooks and philosophy podcasts at work "basically guaranteed 23 hours a week," he says, "I am listening to some kind of story or philosophy book." He does Muay Thai boxing, a passion he has carried since spending time in Thailand. "It's such a fun, still physical activity, but because it's social and there are no stakes, you're just vibing," he says. "Hitting pads, a little bit of friendly violence between friends with consent, for ethics reasons." He laughs, but the point is a serious one. Finding physical outlets that carry none of the pressure of your primary sport is genuinely useful. The body stays active; the mind gets a break from the scoreboard.
The philosophy reading, he admits, occasionally triggers "a bit of an existential crisis," which he takes with good humour. But the broader habit of feeding his mind with things that have nothing to do with swimming stories, ideas, a different kind of movement seems to be a key part of how he remains engaged and motivated over a long career. "It just takes my mind off swimming," he says simply. For a swimmer who has been at Stirling since 2018, that capacity to mentally reset is probably what's kept him going.
Downey's version of balance looks different but serves the same function. Hes focus outside the pool has been on making use of every resource available to him within the Stirling environment not just for his swimming, but for his life. he speaks of the lifestyle support available through the programme: help with day-to-day organisation, mental strategies, and the kind of practical scaffolding that allows an athlete to focus on performing rather than firefighting. "It's very easy to get a confidential chat," he says of the psychological support. "There are so many opportunities to speak about things, whether publicly or privately."
Confronting Burnout: Carter's Year Away
The word "burnout" comes up naturally in conversation with Carter, and there's a reason for that he lived it. After missing out on selection for the Paris 2024 Paralympics, following a year in which he had already been dropped from the Aquatic GB programme in painful circumstances, he decided that many athletes in his position would never consider: he walked away.
"It was clear, so clear I needed a break," he says. The plan had always been to retire after Paris. When Paris didn't happen, the prospect of grinding through another year of uncertainty felt impossible. "I couldn't stick at swimming for another year for a maybe." So he went to Thailand, taught English, trained Muay Thai, and tried to remember who he was beyond being a swimmer.
"I went to see how big the world truly is," he reflects. "A hard reset on life." He still swam occasionally in a baffling, one-metre-deep, 50-metre pool, he adds but the point wasn't fitness. It was perspective. Coming back, he felt ready in a way he hadn't for years.
The Stirling programme, to its credit, was waiting for him. "The programme was so receptive," Carter says. Coach Josh simply asked what his plans were and told him he'd be welcomed back. "He was quite receptive he was also suspecting maybe I'd just call it quits. But I didn't want to leave swimming yet. I felt I had more to give." The return coincided with a new training cycle, and Carter has been building steadily ever since. "I put all the eggs in the basket," he says of his bid to make Glasgow. "And it paid off."
Mental Resilience: Two Approaches to Pressure
How do you stay mentally strong when the pressure of a major competition is building? Carter's answer is, characteristically, blunt: "Simply not caring. Or trying my best not to care." It's a philosophy shaped by experience, specifically by his time on the GB programme, where he says athletes were only valued if they were producing medal-worthy times. "If you weren't PBing, you simply weren't acknowledged by the coaches. It was awful." The pressure to perform for external validation for a place on the programme, for funding, for a coach's approval sent him into what he describes as a "downward spiral."
The antidote, he found, was to strip it back to something simpler. "You're doing it for yourself. We're all doing the sport because we enjoy it and we want to be the best." He describes a process of separating his identity from his results “I am Ollie. Ollie swims, but he does other things. He's not defined by being a winner or a loser." It sounds simple. In practice, for elite athletes who have built their entire lives around performance, it's one of the hardest things to believe.
Downey has found his own route to resilience, one shaped by having already endured public criticism and a difficult period in the sport. "I've already faced that backlash from social media previously, so I'm more adapted to dealing with it," he says. "The opinions that matter to me are from the professionals within my team. Whatever else anyone says is almost like fuel now I want to prove them wrong." There's a steeliness to it that suggests someone who has genuinely processed what he's been through, rather than just pushing it down.
Glasgow: Coming Home
For both athletes, competing in Glasgow this summer carries an emotional weight that no away games can replicate. Carter describes feeling a different kind of energy in training simply by picturing it. "You get more hyped when you think about walking out in front of Scottish people, having Scottish people cheering you on," he says. "You just end up having a little bit more oomph. It's all two sides of the same coin it transfers into the physical prep because you're wanting to do yourself justice and do your country justice."
Downey draws on the memory of Birmingham 2022, where the Scottish support was substantial even at a distance. "Scottish fans like to be heard, even in small or large numbers," he says with a smile. In Glasgow, those numbers will be much, much larger. "That atmosphere is really going to push everyone on especially in those closing metres, when you hear the crowd and you know it's for you."
For Carter, the goal is clear: reach the final, make his competitors work, and soak up every moment of an experience he came close to never having again. "We put all the eggs in the basket, and it paid off," he says. "Now we're just vibing. Now we're just loving it."
For Downey, there's a simpler image he's holding onto her friends and family in the stands, close enough to share the moment properly. "It could just be seen as a moment for me," he says. "But I feel like it could be a moment between myself and my family the fact that they can be so closely involved."
Two swimmers. One pool. One city. All of Scotland watching. They're ready.