Carson Tyler Leaving Colquitt County as State Champion, Diving Into Indiana
As a youngster growing up in Moultrie, Georgia, Carson Tyler was a typical 5-year-old with a lot of pent-up energy, and he was looking for a way to let it all out.
“I was always a really hyper kid, and I loved doing flips anywhere I could,” Tyler, a Colquitt County senior, said.
That love for flipping would eventually lead Tyler to diving, where he could flip without worrying about hitting the ground. That was surely a relief to his parents, Laura and Charlton Tyler. He would eventually be led to diving through a more conventional sport: tennis.
“I was taking tennis lessons when I was five years old,” he said. “We were having a tennis camp one summer, and the courts were located next to Moss Farms (Diving). I enjoyed watching them dive, and I would walk over there when I finished up my tennis lessons. My dad and I would walk over and watch them. They were always very nice to me.”
It wasn’t long before he went from watching to joining the Moss Farms Diving Tigers program. When he turned 6 years old, he began taking lessons, and he found the perfect outlet for his love of acrobatics.
Tyler would spend the next few years learning the basics of diving, practicing on a daily basis, until one day when he knew he was ready to take the next step.
“I really gained a whole new passion for diving when I discovered that I could compete at the highest level,” he said.
So, at the age of 10, Tyler qualified for his first national meet, but didn’t actually attend and compete at the national level until 2014. He points to his first year of competing in the 14-15-year-old age group at the National Championships as his “breakthrough” moment.
Finish reading his story in the digital magazine below:
