Michael Ogbeiwi on His Track and Field Career

Michael Obewe is a thrower on the track and field team at the University of Arizona. He specializes in throwing the hammer and chaplains. In the US, the hammer throw is considered dangerous and not competed in high school, unlike in Canada where Michael was able to develop his skills. High school track is less competitive compared to college track, and Michael had to adjust to the higher level of competition in college. He had a wrist injury that required surgery and a year of recovery. Despite the ups and downs, Michael has stuck with the sport. One of his favorite memories is the trip to the Bahamas with the team. He is excited about the move to the Big 12 conference and the opportunity for Arizona to excel in track and field. Hi, my name is Michael Obewe. So what sport do you play here at the U of A? I'm on the track and field team and I am a thrower. Okay, and what do you do on the team? Like what's your specialty? I throw the hammer as well, I throw chaplains. Okay, and can you go ahead and explain the two of those to me? Yeah, so the hammer is a, it's like a shot put but it's on a wire and you kind of spin it around. It's cool, you can look it up, but I don't know. It's hard to explain because people don't compete in high school in America as it's deemed as dangerous, which I can see that, but in Canada, we do it all the way through high school. So I was able to use that to my advantage to be able to come down here and play Division I sport. Interesting, I literally did not know that it was only, it wasn't a thing in the U.S., I had no idea. Yeah, it's deemed as like dangerous. Which makes sense, it's a lot, yeah. And okay, so when and why did you start track? When I was 10 or 11, I think. My sister, older sister, was already involved in track and I kind of looked up to her a little bit. And so are there any differences between high school track versus college track that stick out to you? Yeah, totally. In high school, the competitive level was not as high. I think a lot of us, I mean, even me, myself, we all kind of go through sports in high school, kind of find out what we like, what we don't like. And so with that comes people just kind of trying it out for the first time. So the jump was kind of big and I learned that a lot during my freshman year. Now that I'm back for my second year, my sophomore year, I think the experience is, I know what to expect when it comes time to compete. I think the track season's in the spring, so right now we're in the off season. We're kind of just training and lifting and building up a base. So just the level of competitiveness, to answer your question, is the biggest jump. Different, okay. Do you think that your relationship with the sport has stayed consistent throughout the years and if not, elaborate for me? Yeah, no, it's definitely been up and down. I mean, I think with anything that you're interested in when you're young, as you start to grow up and mature, your interest and your love for that thing or sport may vary depending on what's going on in your life. But I've been able to keep it going. There's been times that I've wanted to quit or whatnot, but yeah, I've been able to stick with it. Have you ever gone through an experience that has made you want to quit? And if so, when or what was that experience and what made you stick with the sport? Would you kind of cover the last part of that question? Yeah, no, I hurt my hand two years ago. My wrist was broken for a while and I didn't know it was broken because my first x-ray had come back clean, or as Phil did say. And then I got an MRI about six months later and that's when I noticed that there was a broken bone in the scaphoid. So that put me back a little bit because I was out for about a year. So I had to get surgery on the hand and the hand's still a little bit messed up right now, but we're getting through it. Besides performing well at your meets, what is the most mentally rewarding feeling or attribute about your sport to you? I think being able to get through the meet and through the six throws is enough. It's really easy to kind of crash out at meets, especially in the sport. So just being able to overcome, like even having a bad day is like a win. So small wins here and there, but winning is everything. Yeah, for sure. And then what is a favorite memory that you have in regards to your time on the Arizona track team in specific? Definitely the trip to Bahamas last spring. That was cool. We spent a week over there and there was a track meet and that. So yeah, definitely that. And then since we are going into a different division, do you have any worries or anything that's on your mind in regards to maybe the competition becoming different for you and becoming increasingly harder? How are you feeling about that? No, I'm definitely excited to go into the Big 12 next year. I think that'll be a very good experience. Very big change, different schools competing against. The West Coast schools have always been really good in track and field, obviously, because of the weather. So I'm not saying that the East Coast schools aren't good, but it'll just be an opportunity for Arizona as a program to be on top rather than getting third or fourth to the likes of USC and Oregon. Yeah, definitely. Okay, well, that's all I have for you. I appreciate you doing this. It was nice to meet you. Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me.