Carvin Has Olympics on His Mind

There is no rest for Chad Carvin, no time to savor the moment.

A triumphant performance at the World Short Course Championships in Athens last week is history. He is already looking at next week’s U.S. Swimming spring senior nationals in Seattle, and peeking ahead to this summer’s Olympic trials, where he hopes to be peaking.

“That is a long way off, but you want to always be thinking about it,” said Carvin, a Laguna Hills High School graduate who lives in Laguna Niguel. “I try to have goals along the way so that I feel like I’m stepping closer and closer.”

On next week’s agenda is to get a little faster.

Carvin, who will swim for the Mission Viejo Nadadores club team in the senior nationals, will compete in the 200- and 400-meter freestyles--his best events--and the 800 and 1,500 as well. His goal is to lower his times in the 200 (1 minute 48.2 seconds) and 400 (3:49.6).

“Place-wise and medal-wise, everything went fine at the World Championships,” Carvin said. “Time-wise, I was hoping to be a little faster.”

Carvin, 25, won the 400 meters in a time of 3:41.13. He was also part of the United States’ 800 freestyle relay team, which set a world record (7:01.6).

It was Carvin’s first individual title in the World Championships. But he has dominated the 400 over the last six months.

In November, he set an American record at a FINA World Cup meet. He followed that with another 400 victory at a World Cup meet in Shanghai in January.

After the senior nationals, Carvin plans to take a week off. Then he will go back to work, hoping it will lead to success at the Olympic trials in August.

This will be Carvin’s second time at the trials, having competed in 1992 as a 17-year-old, finishing 10th in the 1,500 and 13th in the 400. In 1996, he was considered a shoo-in for the team, but missed the trials because of cardiomyopathy, a virus that attacks the heart.

“I was a kid the last time I went to the trials,’ Carvin said. “After all the years of training, you know your body a lot better and you know how to race your race.”