Colin Jambekar: Grit, Faith, and the Comeback Throw

August 25, 2026

Colin Jambekar: Grit, Faith, and the Comeback Throw

On May 1, 2026, at the MIAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, a Calvin University senior named Colin Jambekar stepped onto the javelin runway for his fourth attempt of the day. Eight months earlier he had been sitting in a Detroit infusion chair for up to seven hours at a stretch, losing his hair, his muscle, and twenty pounds to chemotherapy. He had not competed in nearly eleven months. On this throw, he uncorked a career-best 49.08 meters [1] [2].

A Breakout Season, Interrupted

Jambekar, a native of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, came to Calvin for its engineering program and settled into the javelin as a walk-on-turned-scorer, improving from a tenth-place conference finish as a freshman to eighth, then fifth, in the years that followed [2]. He spent the summer of 2025 in the best shape of his life, training hard and adding muscle, and entered his senior year at 210 pounds with a personal goal of clearing 50 meters [2]. It looked like the breakout season he had been building toward for three years.

The Diagnosis

In late August 2025, Jambekar noticed a series of bumps during a self-exam. With a history of cancer in his immediate family, he moved quickly to see a urologist in Detroit and was diagnosed with testicular cancer [1] [2]. Doctors soon found it had spread into his lymph nodes, leading to surgery in October and three rounds of chemotherapy that stretched from November into December [2]. "It's shocking at first," Jambekar said. "It forces you on your knees to pray and I prayed a lot" [1] [2].

Chemo, Coursework, and a Community That Held Him Up

Jambekar kept up his civil engineering coursework through daily infusions that ran five to seven hours, spending part of Christmas Eve in the hospital during one round of treatment [2]. "My professors were great," he said. "I would not be graduating from Calvin without their help" [1]. The physical toll was steep — he dropped from 210 to 190 pounds, lost his hair, and battled anxiety and PTSD-like flashbacks to his treatment [2]. At the MIAA Indoor Championships in February, a stray smell triggered a full panic attack severe enough to send him to the parking lot [2]. Through it, he leaned on his parents, both cancer survivors themselves, and on his teammates. His younger brother Lucas and a group of friends shaved their heads in solidarity while Jambekar was in treatment [2]. "I kept telling myself that it wasn't about me," Jambekar said. "It was about glorifying God through my struggles" [1] [2].

Back on the Runway

In late March 2026, Jambekar rejoined the Calvin travel squad for a meet at Emory University, competing for the first time in nearly eleven months and throwing over 46 meters before straining a calf muscle [2]. He kept training and competing through the injury, and by the MIAA Outdoor Championships on May 1 he was healthy enough to give it everything he had. Calvin needed every point it could get in a tight team race against rival Hope College, and the javelin corps delivered: Jambekar placed third with his 49.08-meter career best, his brother Lucas won the event outright at 54.81 meters, and teammate Jarrett Febus also hit a personal best [1] [2]. Calvin won the conference championship by 25 points [2]. "Getting to watch Colin overcome everything and find joy in the performance was something right out of a movie," said Calvin associate head coach Jacob Graham [1] [2].

Present Day

Eight days later, Jambekar walked across the commencement stage as a civil engineering graduate, a cancer survivor, and a conference champion [1] [3] [4]. He has since started a job with Anchor Construction in Grand Rapids and continues follow-up appointments to confirm the cancer has not returned [1] [2]. "I know that God is in control and that His will is perfect," Jambekar said. "That brings me peace and the confidence to live for Him moving forward" [1] [2].

What This Story Asks of the Rest of Us

Jambekar's coach put it simply: he wanted to use his diagnosis to make other people's lives better and to further God's kingdom by showing His grace through hardship [1] [2]. That's grit and faith working together rather than in spite of each other — the discipline to keep training and keep studying through a season that had every reason to stop him, held up by a trust that the outcome was never entirely his to control. None of it happened alone. Professors adjusted deadlines. Teammates shaved their heads. A brother sat beside him during infusions. It's a picture worth sitting with: perseverance rarely survives in isolation, and faith rarely stays private for long — it shows up in the people who show up for each other.