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Born and raised in Lisbon, Portugal, rising track-star Edson Gomes has always been miles ahead of the rest. Infatuated with the intensity of track and field at the early age of five (thanks to his older sister), Gomes took the first chance available to get in on the action by joining a local track team in grade-school. Since then, the 23-year-old Lisbon-native has been unstoppable and he’s showing no signs of slowing down. After making the move to the U.K., Lisbon’s most promising hurdler is now is taking London’s track scene by storm—placing in each race he’s competed in. And while he may have only a few years and a few races under his belt, Gomes has shown he has all the makings of an olympian—and with his unwavering dedication to be the best, he is on track to be just that.

Get to know Edson Gomes in an exclusive interview below: 

V Magazine: How did you first get into running/track?

Edson Gomes: So I got into track because of my older sister. My older sister and I have a 9 year age gap, so when I was about 5 she was in high school and used to do track & field. I used to go watch her train and compete and I thought it was really cool. So when I got to the 5th grade I decided to also join the track team that she used to be on.

V: As a full-fledged athlete today, what does a training season look like for you?

EG: In essence track and field athletes train throughout the whole year. Our seasons are divided into 2. The first being the indoor season which roughly goes from late December till late march. Following that we have outdoor season which starts around mid April till sometimes September. During these periods I will train from 5 to 6 days a week depending on what point in the season we are in. Off-season is the only time we have an extended period of time off from training or competing and that is usually a period of about 4 weeks right after the end of outdoor season.

V: I think for a lot of disciplines or passions that become a “job” theres often a spillage into the personal areas of our lives. How has sports affected the non-athletic parts of your life?

EG: Sport has impacted my life in many ways, it has made me a lot more resilient, patient, confident and made me extremely goal driven. It also has given me the opportunity to travel the world, meet different people and experience new things.

V: You briefly touched on your inspiration for getting into the sport, but when did you realize you wanted to run track professionally?

ED: I realized I wanted to run track when I saw my sister train and compete. However, I truly realized I wanted to take this seriously when I first lost a race. At the time it was the worst feeling imaginable and from that point onwards I decided that i would work hard on bettering myself so I wouldn’t feel like that again.

V: Who inspires you in the realm of track or who is someone you view as a hero in the sport?

ED: Someone who really inspires me in the realm of track would definitely be Aries Merritt the current world record holder. He raced whilst having kidney issues in 2015 and later on had to have surgery in which his sister gave him a kidney, he then came back the year after to compete in arguably the hardest olympic trials in the world ( The US trials) and came 4th by 0.1 of a second. This was one of my biggest inspirations when I broke my hip in a race in 2017 and some doctors said I wouldn’t be able to come back and compete and the level that I previously was at.

V: If you didn’t play your sport professionally, what do you think you’d be doing?

ED: I had a lot of interest in technology growing up which led me to getting a computer science degree at university. Therefore, I would most likely be in that industry if sports wasn’t my profession.

V: What are 5 essentials you can’t compete or train without?

ED: 5 things I can’t train without are my running shoes, spikes, one of my many colored durags, my backpack filled with anime pins, and a foam roller.

V: In sports, athletes are often in situations where you have to push your body to do these exceptional things. When you are facing a difficult moment in training or competing and you are simply at your physical limit how do you continue on? How do you push through?

ED: Whenever I’m nearing my physical limit, I always remind myself of how badly I want to achieve the goals that I have set for myself. I remind myself of the overall dream of going to the Olympics and getting the medal. 

V: Touching on goals what is something you are looking forward to most in 2022?

ED: In 2022 I’m most looking forward to making every national team for the upcoming World & European indoor & outdoor championships.