Cayenne Pepper In Yogurt? Here's Everything An Olympic Swimmer Eats In A Day
Dylan Carter is poised to make a splash at his third Olympic Games in Paris. The 28-year-old swimmer from Trinidad and Tobago holds national records in multiple events, including the long and short course 100-meter freestyle and butterfly, the latter of which he set at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. During a remarkable performance at the 2022 FINA Swimming World Cup he claimed nine gold medals—five in record-breaking times—and became the first swimmer from Trinidad and Tobago to win the overall title. All this is to say, he’s a standout to watch at the Olympics this summer.
I was curious about what he eats in a normal day while he's training and what he plans to eat after he competes. So I got in touch with Carter over Zoom while he was in Turkey, straight after an intense training session, to discuss his daily diet, recovery process, and what culinary delights he’s most looking forward to indulging in post-Games. Our interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How long have you been swimming?
Dylan Carter: I started competing when I was 12, so that would be 16 years now.
How do you not get burnt out while training so much?
I like to try and keep things new all the time. Each season, I try to have a different focus, maybe a different event or a different approach or to do things differently because it is a very repetitive sport, so it helps to change things up. I think that no matter how fun what you're doing is, if you do it again—the same thing every day—it's gonna get boring.
How has your diet changed since you started swimming professionally?
Well, the stereotype with swimmers is they just eat everything, right? And that Michael Phelps thing came out in 2008 about how he drinks like three cans of Coke and eats chocolate chip pancakes, and it's like a 10,000-calorie diet or something. So I guess that's the stereotype of the swimmer diet.
When I was a teenager competing, you just swam so much and you don't really care, so you're just eating. You eat so much, you eat anything that you can see, your metabolism is high, and you can get away with it. But as I got into the professional level beyond college, it's definitely changed. I'm just way more particular about what I put in my body. Everything pretty much has a purpose, so food is either for repair or for fuel. And so I started to look at things as just more functional as [to] what I'm putting in my body, instead of just eating things because it tastes good or because I'm hungry.
What's your first meal of the day?
I have the same breakfast almost every day. I guess that's one thing I don't change too much. I change it up in different ways, but I love to have Greek yogurt or cottage cheese or something like that first thing in the morning, with maybe a little bit of greens, some oatmeal, or raw oats in there. And a lot of nuts, a lot of various different nuts. I like to put in hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, walnuts, almonds, about two tablespoons of honey and then chia seeds. I like to put a couple of different spices in to change up the flavors as well, but it's generally something like that.
I heard that you like to put cayenne in your yogurt. How did that come about?
My dad is one of those health nut kind of people and he's always at me about the newest thing like, “Oh, you need to have this, and you need to have that in your diet.” So he came to me once and said, "You know, cayenne pepper is so good and has all these things." And I was like, you know what, I like spicy food. And so one morning, for breakfast, I was like, you know, cayenne pepper is so good, so I chucked that in there. Breakfast is not usually a spicy meal, but now my breakfast is spicy and I look forward to that.
It gives you a little kick in the morning.
Yeah!
What about lunch and for dinner?
It depends on the day. If it's a training day, I love to have a light lunch, because if I train and I'm training again at night, I like to have something not so heavy. I'm a huge canned sardines guy or canned tuna. I love the really high-end canned sardines and olive oil with a piece of maybe focaccia bread, a little butter, and some raw spinach on there. Something like that, or maybe a tuna salad with that, that's like my classic lunch.
Dinner would be something more like a meal, but I like to keep it simple, especially if I'm cooking for myself, which is not super often. If I am cooking for myself, I like to keep it really simple and straight up: A steak and some rice, or a piece of chicken breast and some rice or salmon, and a little pasta with olive oil. I love olive oil on my rice and my pasta. And a little bit of grilled veggies always does it. If I'm doing a steak, I'll put some peppers on the grill or some asparagus on the grill and keep it simple, not too much ingredients. It's quick, it's easy, and it's healthy. I love that.
You mentioned eating now is more for sustenance and function. Do you also track calories as a swimmer?
No, I really don't. Personally, I don't think it's a super healthy way to live. I think that there have been times in my life where my body looks great but I haven't performed well. And when I say "great," you know, your body fat is super low, and you look really shredded or whatever, but I [still] haven't performed well.
There've been other times where maybe I've looked less good as I had before, and I swam fast. I think, obviously, what looks super fit is not always the healthiest body. That's why I think that when you get too caught up into calorie counting, I know at the end of the day, your body is asking for something it needs. So if you're hungry, it's for a reason. It's because you've done work. And I believe that you’ve got to be moderate in what you eat and not overeating, but the calorie counting thing can go a little bit too far in the other direction.
If I were to open your fridge right now, what's the most unexpected thing I would find in there?
I love to have apple cider vinegar. I take a shot of that twice a day. And then the secret sauce, well two of the secret sauces that I'm going to disclose to you here, is fresh Moringa powder, which my coach actually makes from his own Moringa tree. He grows the tree and he grounds and dehydrates the powder. That's something that I always have, like a couple of times a day. And then, the key thing that I always have to have in my swim bag, the number one thing is fresh dates. Love dates. Keeps the energy up in training. When I have a hard set, I come out, one date, I'm back in.
You've been at two Olympics so far. How has your attitude changed going into Paris? Are you nervous?
Nervous is one of the emotions. I think it's like an emotional soup every time for the Olympics. You got anxiety, stress, you know, nerves, excitement, optimism, confidence, and it changes day to day.
I think each Olympics is a very different experience. You know, my first one, I was 20 years old, and I was just so happy to go. I was just so happy to be there and to call myself an Olympian and everything was like Christmas. The second one was a bit strange because of COVID and the delay, and that really stretched out the year and I was very, very exhausted by the time Tokyo came around.
Now I feel a lot healthier. You know, I'm enjoying what I'm doing. I'm doing things in a different way. Like I said, it's the biggest competition. We don't like to call it that, but the truth is, it's one of the biggest competitions of our life. We try to treat it like any other competition, but it brings with it a lot of stress and a lot of nerves and stuff like that. But I think everybody experiences that and it's part of it, so just trying to roll with the emotions and enjoy them because it's part of the whole experience.
What does your recovery process look like while you're training?
I believe the best recovery is sleep. I don't do too much crazy [stuff]. There's always a new fad. There's the Normatec boots and there's the cold plunge and the sauna and the massage and the formula that vibrates now... You can get lost in it if you really try to look too much. I really believe that the best, most natural, and most helpful thing you can do is sleep healthily. And sleep as much as you can with a good circadian rhythm, sleeping consistently.
My rest days are just basically easy swimming and getting a great night's rest and doing something that recharges my mind as well, whether it be going out to play around a goal or watching sports with my dad, something like that. I think that my best, ideal recovery is just chilling at home on the couch, maybe some friends over, maybe we grill a steak, maybe we watch a football match, that type of stuff.
Does your training diet differ from what you eat when you're actually at the games and competing?
No, I try to keep it as similar as possible. Obviously at the games, at something like the Olympics, there's a massive dining hall with every sort of food you could imagine and cuisines from all around the world. So there's a lot of temptation, and it's easy to go in there and get [lost]. You know, you're so excited, it's the Olympic Games, you go in there you want to try everything. I try to keep it as similar to how I live my daily life and I look for the things that I know. So I look for my Greek yogurt, I look for my oats, I look for my chicken breast and my rice, my simple stuff and try to keep it the same.
You mentioned there's a lot of temptation. What has been the hardest thing to cut out of your life since starting swimming professionally?
I think the biggest poison, well I don't want to call it poison, but I think the hardest thing is just alcohol. It's terrible in so many ways, like for your sleep. I love a good beer, don't get me wrong, I love a good two or three beers with my friends. I think I'm always looking forward to that nice cold beer after the competition. That's something that I really look forward to because I miss that during the hard days and the hard months of training.
What are you most excited to indulge in again after competing?
Yeah, definitely one or two beers after the games and maybe some great French food. Pain au chocolat is like, my favorite thing whenever I'm in France. I'm definitely gonna have one or two of those with a nice coffee after the games, too.
How much do you think your diet plays into your success as a swimmer?
It's a good question. I think you've got to live well and take care of your body. But I think you've also got to remember that you're human. You've got to allow yourself those treats and allow yourself to have meals that you like, or just, you know, call it a cheat meal or whatever. I think it's definitely important.
I've seen the difference in my body, my mind, my energy, and my attention when I've made the changes in my lifestyle in how I live and how I pay attention to what I eat, especially as I've gotten a bit older. That being said, I think it's important to allow yourself the pizza every once in a while, you know, the dessert, or something like that. I don't know if that's a clear answer for you. I think it's important, but you’ve got to stay sane.
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