Jazmin Carlin
Jazmin Carlin, also known as Jazz, is a Commonwealth and Double European Swimming Champion from the United Kingdom. Born Sept. 17, 1990 Carlin is a mid-distance freestyle specialist, and trains at the National Performance Centre, Bath. Her favorite events are the 400m freestyle and 800m freestyle.
Early swimming
“Jazz” was first recognized in 2005, when she finished third, winning a bronze medal at the European Junior Championships. After her first medal win she developed herself as an athlete over the next few years, swimming at the 2008 European Championships and winning a silver medal at the 2009 British Championships. The same year she made a huge step in her swimming career, when she won a bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships.
Carlin makes Welsh history
At the 2010 European Championships in Budapest, Carlin helped GBR’s 800m freestyle relay land a medal. She followed up her performance that year by winning silver in the 200m freestyle at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, and breaking the Welsh record. Her finish was the first Welsh female swimming medal won in 36 years. She then added a bronze-medal win in the 400m freestyle, becoming the first in 80 years to win two medals at one Commonwealth Games.
Success post London
Despite facing illness in 2011 and 2012, Carlin won three silver medals at the 2011 British Championships. And in 2013 Carlin finished fourth at the World Championships, and picked up three gold medals at the British Championships. At one point she held the world’s fastest 800m freestyle time in 2013.
Post-swimming career
Carlin loves sports, and she wants to somehow be involved in teaching and helping people get fit after her swimming career. She’s a qualified personal trainer, and is pursuing a Business & Accountancy degree at Swansea University – Carlin’s also a fully qualified nail technician.
Great Britain’s royalty
Carlin won gold in the 400m freestyle at the 2014 Mediterranean Open, and kept rolling when she won the 800m freestyle later in the year at the British Championships – breaking her own record time. She won Wales’ first gold medal in 40 years at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow – she won the 800m freestyle and finished with a silver in the 400m freestyle.
2015 World Championships
After excelling internationally in 2015, and making it to the top 10 in the world rankings, Carlin competed at the World Championships in Kazan. The mid-distance star competed in the 800-meter freestyle as well as the 400-meter freestyle, event that American Katie Ledecky was highly anticipated to win.
In the 400-meter freestyle Carlin had a solid preliminary swim, which put her in 6th going into the final. She took out the first 200 meters strong, but relaxed, and charged home in a three-way fight for a medal with Sharon Van Rouwendaal and Jessica Ashwood. All three women were within less than one second of each other, but Van Rouwendaal and Ashwood stayed enough ahead of Carlin to go 2-3 and push Carlin to 4th place. In the 800-meter free Carlin was in a neck-and-neck battle for most of the race with Ashwood, who were following Ledecky and Lauren Boyle. Ledecky had no contest in the event, but Boyle’s lead was dwindling at the 700-meter mark. Although Carlin’s last 100 meters was extraordinary, she couldn’t break Boyle’s lead, finishing 3rd behind Boyle by half-a-second.
2016 Rio Olympics
Carlin swam to a second place, silver medal, in the 400M Freestyle, losing only to phenom, Katie Ledecky, with a 4:01.23.
Once again Carlin swam a great race to finish second in the 800M Freestyle, two tenths ahead of bronze medalist Boglarka Kapas of Hungary with a time of 8:16.37, and losing only to Katie Ledecky of the US.
