Krish Gupta is a Troy High School Class of 2023 graduate and a sophomore at the University of Michigan. He has medaled in races across the country and competed in the 2024 Under-20 World Championship in Peru for Team USA.
Gupta considers his time in high school to be “fantastic.” Apart from his obvious athletic involvement, he was an active member of the DECA and Model UN teams. Gupta’s Advanced Placement Literature and Composition teacher Amy Feldkamp recalls that he was “always very thoughtful and curious, and one of those students that you could shoot the breeze with.” Looking back, he believes that Troy High School’s balance between academics, athletics and social life culminates into “a very happy image of [Troy High School].”
Difficult to believe as it may be, Gupta was not always a track star. In fact, like many other track athletes, he began as a soccer player. He acknowledges that he was always a very active kid; on top of soccer, he also played flag football, baseball and tennis growing up. He first joined track in sixth grade at Boulan Park Middle School to build physical stamina for the soccer season and continued until eighth grade while playing for Liverpool Football Club International Academy team. He says that he “loved the sport before [he] even knew it well,” because of its focus on numbers. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic and a broken ankle took him out of his freshman and sophomore years of track.
That all changed in his junior year. Since he hadn’t run since eighth grade, he didn’t expect much at the pre-season time trial: “I just wanted to run my hardest and see how fast I [was].” He sprinted 400 meters, one lap around the track, in 54 seconds. Already able to run that competitive of a time without any training, Gupta realized his potential future in the sport.
Senior year, Gupta refocused his attention from soccer to track, with the dream to be recruited by colleges for track, not soccer as he had believed for over a decade. In his two seasons on Troy High School’s Track and Field team, Krish Gupta was a five-time All State athlete, competing as a “complete sprinter” in the 400m, 200m, 100m and 4 by 4 relay.
One of Gupta’s coaches, Michael Reimann, Troy Athens High School math teacher and former Troy High School cross country and track and field coach, remarks: “Krish was a born leader who poured his heart and soul into the Troy High Track and Field program. Your leaders of your team need to be your hardest workers, and that’s exactly who [he] was for our team.”
Gupta’s mentee, now-senior Jason Charlie Hamilton remembers him as helpful, encouraging and “in control of everything.” Hamilton asserts: “He really helped me become a better track athlete.”
One of Gupta’s fondest high school track memories is competing in the 4 by 4 state final in Grand Rapids just hours after his graduation ceremony, which he described as “disorganized,” “crazy,” but “so cool.” His most exciting experiences were, and still are, anchoring 4 by 4 races since “everyone’s watching it, there’s crazy comebacks and all the stands are cheering for you coming down on the home stretch.” Overall, he believes that being at meets with his high school team was a “really special [experience.]”
After high school, when it came to choosing a university, Gupta clarified that, although he wanted to go to a school with a good track program, he didn’t want to sacrifice his education for one. Gupta knew if he took a gap year and reapplied the next application cycle, he could go on an athletic scholarship to a number of big colleges. His other option was to enroll in a college where he wouldn’t be a part of their team which he had narrowed down to Indiana University and University of California- Santa Barbara. Following much personal reflection, he concluded that taking a gap year was too big of a paradigm shift and he decided to enroll at Indiana University. During his year there, he continued to train himself, sneaking onto the track when the varsity team wasn’t there.
In track and field, an athlete can enter and compete in most collegiate meets as “unattached.” Every weekend of his freshman year, Gupta drove himself around the country to compete in collegiate meets and further improve his times. After racing very well that May, the sprints coach at the University of Michigan extended Gupta an offer for a spot on their team if he transferred. Gupta knew that Michigan was a perfect fit culturally, and the university had been on the top of his list. “It was, mentally, a really hard year for me. I spent a lot of time uncertain if my efforts would pay off at all. But I had faith in myself, and looking back, I would do it all over again because I am better off from that part of the journey,” Gupta acknowledged.
In August 2024, after self-training for a year, Gupta ran in the World Under-20 Championships in Lima, Peru for Team USA. He recounted that he was one-hundredth of a second too slow to qualify for the USA U20 race that would determine Team USA’s roster, but because of a teammate’s last-minute injury, he made it to the finals “by the skin of [his] teeth” and medaled. He went to Lima as an alternate for the 200m dash and the third leg for the 4 by 1 relay. Unfortunately, although Team USA was the gold-medal favorite, a missed baton handoff from first to second leg disqualified the team. Nevertheless, Gupta considers it a wonderful experience and “a full circle moment” that “still feels like a fever dream.”
Gupta is now in his sophomore year at the University of Michigan, double majoring in PPE (Politics, Philosophy, and Economics) and Data Science. “I’m living the dream here. It cultivates everything I would want out of a school: academics, athletics, [social life]. Life’s great, so I can’t complain. I love it here.”
In the future, Gupta wouldn’t mind going pro for track, though he’s “covering all of [his] bases” by focusing on his degrees and recruiting for jobs as well.
Gupta’s student-athlete schedule is “crazy busy.” Although their season is from January to June, the track team has been training daily since August. When asked how he balances his academics, athletics and social life, Gupta said that he thinks about his time management as always resting a part of his body. For example, when he’s in the gym, he uses it as an opportunity to give himself a mental break, or when he is in class, he’s taking a physical break. He encourages Troy High School student-athletes to employ the same mindset since “it can really help with burnout.”
Gupta’s motivation and ambition stems from a deeper place of reflection than the constancy of athletics throughout his lifetime: “There aren’t many people of an Indian or South Asian ethnic background in sprints, in track and field, especially, but also just American athletics. I never really had that type of role model to look up to so I could say ‘wow, that guy could be me one day.’” He went on to say that he believes that there is a subtle racism associated with that, having been commented on by those of other races and his own, alike, that South Asians “[aren’t] built for high-level athletics.” To him, it seems like “people can’t believe someone with an Indian ethnic background could accomplish what [he’s] accomplished.” As such, he wants to be a role model: “I want to show people who look like me that they can achieve just as much in the athletic world as anyone else.”
Gupta’s main advice to Troy High School students is to set their goals high and not believe anyone who tells them they’re crazy for doing so. Speaking from experience, he explains that high goals keep people accountable and provide motivation: “If you stick with it, and you really put a lot of effort and you’re intentional with how you go about things, it will work out, and you’ll get more from it than you could ever have imagined. Dream big.”
