For those of you who have not met me, I am Mikhail Carvalho, a freshman student-athlete at Troy University in Alabama.  Today, I wish to share the story of my journey from Combermere to Troy, that is Troy University in Alabama, USA. 

This journey started when my mother, Priscilla Carvalho-Lovell, realized that I had a talent for track and field. She once told me, “Mikhail, when you were younger, I could not get you to stop running.” 

When I became old enough to be enrolled in primary school, I attended Pine Primary School, now known as Grantley Prescod Memorial Primary School.  While there, lunchtime was a very competitive and exhilarating time. Whenever it came around, we would just run up and down the field against each other in the hope of beating the other person sometime that day. This happened during every lunch period for several years in primary school..

When I was five years old, I went to NAPSAC and represented my primary school. This only reinforced the thoughts my mother had about my athletic abilities. She saw from this that there was potential for me to receive a track scholarship someday. With this newfound confidence she received, she proceeded to find a program for me to attend to enhance my talent. 

Then she discovered Jump Start, a programme coordinated by Jasper Blades which kept me fit to perform at various weekend meets, make it onto my primary school team every year, and compete at NAPSAC from 2007-2012. I attended the relay fair from 2010-2012 with Jump Start. My Jump Start team also participated at The Flying Angels International Classic Track Meet in Toronto, Canada. This was my last meet with Jump Start, and I achieved second place in the 100m, the 200m, and first place in the sprint medley.    

Thereafter, I started to train with Freedom Striders in class 4. In 2013, I thankfully attained a spot at Combermere School where, I represented the school every year at BSSAC.   At Combermere, I continued to train with Freedom Striders and over the course of a 3-year period, I continued to train and sharpen my skills to perform well at BSSAC and the C.U.T (Caribbean Union of Teachers) Games in 2014, which was held in Trinidad, and in 2016 in Tortola

After Freedom Striders, I started to receive personalized training from my coach, Dr. Dale Brathwaite, in Barbados. He focused on changing the errors in my form and strengthening my limbs and joints. This made a huge difference in my performance and carved my path to achieving a track and field scholarship in the United States. My times started to improve dramatically yearly; going from 12.3s to 11.5s, to 11.0s, to 10.71s for the 100m. With personal bests of 10.71s in the 100m and 21.41s in the 200m, this set me as a great candidate for a track scholarship. 

After Freedom Striders, I started to receive personalized training from my coach, Dr. Dale Brathwaite, in Barbados. He focused on changing the errors in my form and strengthening my limbs and joints. This made a huge difference in my performance and carved my path to achieving a track and field scholarship in the United States. My times started to improve dramatically yearly; going from 12.3s to 11.5s, to 11.0s, to 10.71s for the 100m. With personal bests of 10.71s in the 100m and 21.41s in the 200m, this set me as a great candidate for a track scholarship.

It was not all athletics during my time at Combermere, I achieved success in my CSEC examinations gaining 3 grade 1s, 3 grades 2s, 1 grade 3, and 1 grade 4 at the CSEC level. With the help of many teachers at school, I went on to achieve two grade 2s, two grade 3s, two grade 4s, one grade 5, and one grade 6 at the CAPE level. Additionally, I was given the responsibility of being the Vice President of the Student Council, Set Captain of Set E, as well as Prefect in lower 6 and then School Captain in upper sixth.  I was also given the responsibility of being Form Captain from 1st to 5th form.

In upper 6, I started to get offers from many universities in the United States by using the services of ASMscholarships. They helped me to get placed at a university best suited for me. I decided to commit and attend Troy University, which I currently represent.

At Troy, my record times are 6.88s in the 60m and 21.84 in the 200m indoors. For the outdoor season, my season’s best are10.65s in the 100 and 21.7 in the 200m. I am currently preparing to participate in the Sun Belt conference meet for my school. I am genuinely excited about it and hoping to attain the goals that I have set for myself.

As I pursue studies in Financial Economics, my aim is to maintain a GPA of at least 3.0. And my goals as it relates to track and field are simple, to run a 10.4s and 20.8s in the 100m and 200m respectively.

Beyond owning a realtor company, I want to be able to go to the Olympics and represent Barbados in the 100m and 200m and be able to bring home a gold medal in both events. I also want to be able to better the athletic situation  currently in Barbados. I truly believe that us Barbadians have a God given talent and drive when it comes to any sport but especially track and field.

My first step to doing all of this is to train hard, whilst pursing my degree, so that I could graduate and become a professional athlete. This would be the major start to creating that shining light that our current talent and the talent that is to come so deserve.