Fabien DeSilva: Colonie’s Ivy League Track Star

By: Ava Coogan

“One of the most important things I have learned from track and field is how to push past mental barriers that I had encountered throughout my training and furthermore to break physical barriers that I never knew I could break,” Fabien DeSilva shares.

DeSilva began his athletic career playing soccer at just three years old and was always the fastest on every team.. Realizing his potential, DeSilva’s mother brought him to the high school where he met the sprints coach, Coach Palmer. He was introduced to the team at their practice and began running that same year when the indoor track season started. He began his track and field career at the age of fourteen and has been running for four years now.

As senior year rolled around, it came time to apply to college and decide where he would want to pursue his future and if that future included track.

Fabien applied to five schools, three of which he planned to participate in track and field. The three schools were, Stony Brook, Columbia and Cornell; he was accepted to all of them.

“I filled out an online questionnaire for Men’s Track and Field with information about my athletic and academic abilities,” explains Fabien. In order to fully be recruited there were many objectives to complete. Fabien sent in his transcript, course schedule, an early financial aid estimate, and reviewed his college application; similar to the typical application process.

Fabien had a huge decision to make as it would affect both his academic and athletic future. After much thought, DeSilva chose to continue his schooling and track career at Cornell University.

As he continues on at Cornell, DeSilva plans to major in Environmental Engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) while running for a Division 1, Ivy league team.

One of Fabien’s known PRs is in the 400m leg where he set a new time of 48.57 seconds. DeSilva still has many future goals for track. “My future goals in track are to break 48.00s in the open 400m dash and to break 22.00s in the open 200m dash.”

Fabien jokingly says he’s inspired by himself. Probably because of all of his hard work and self motivation. He goes on to say that it is his mom who truly inspires him.

“My mom had very little growing up and she has worked hard to get to where she is now. She has been raising my sister and I basically our entire lives by herself. I feel as though all my accomplishments are a way of showing respect to the effort she has put in,” Fabien shares.

Fabien’s advice to young athletes is, “Finish through the line! When you think you’re nearing the end of the race, or game, always remember to finish strong and give every bit of energy you have left. When it's over...it's over.”

It’s a bittersweet ending to his high school career, but what lies ahead is exciting.. Going Ivy is a big achievement, even though he stays humble about it. Fabien is not scared or intimidated to go to Cornell University and Colonie wishes him the best of luck.

“If I go pro and you remind me, I’ll invite you to my meets,” he reassures me while laughing.