A coach in life as well as sport who volunteered at The Centre for Bermuda’s young people enjoyed a long career in telecommunications.

Michael Swan was widely known as a runner as well as the vice-president of the Bermuda Track and Field Association.

He was also skilled at football, including for a short time as a forward for Young Men’s Social Club when they were a dominant force in Bermuda.

Mr Swan’s love of sport, track and field athletics, in particular, went back to childhood.

He attended Prospect Primary School, where his mother, Sheila, taught — and excelled in athletics at The Berkeley Institute.

Mr Swan won medals in interschool sports and set an under-17 record in the 400 metres at the Carifta Games.

He credited The Centre, formerly Pembroke Youth Centre, with teaching him life skills as well as sport, and became a committee member for the organisation, based on Angle Street in Hamilton.

Mike Watson, a top runner and friend who also served with the BTFA, trained with Mr Swan in the 1970s and recalled his Carifta success.

He said that it was the first year the 400 metres was offered in the under-17 category of the games.

“Mike won the event in record time,” Mr Watson said. “It was not until Usain Bolt came along as a junior that the record got broken.”

Mr Watson said that to have a record bested by Bolt, Jamaica’s legendary Olympic sprinter, was “a testament to how talented Mike was as an athlete”.

He said that Mr Swan had the unusual talent for his sprinting range, taking on anything from 100 to 800 metres contests.

Mr Swan was easygoing and good-humoured, he added.

“I used to call him the gentle soldier — he was always very mild-tempered.

“He certainly was not the type of guy you could say anything bad about, that’s for sure. Mike, probably of all of us, was the most kind-hearted guy.

“The way you met him as an adult, Mike was like that as a child. Many of us can’t say we were that mature or sensible as children.”

In 1978, Mr Swan won an athletics scholarship to attend Jackson State University in Mississippi.

Mr Watson and other Bermudian athletes were there at the same time.

The older runner recalled the university team winning a 4 x 800 metres relay at the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.

“He did well as a freshman, and of course he held the distinction of a Carifta record that it took a Usain Bolt to beat.”

Donna Raynor, a former president of the Bermuda National Athletics Association, said: “Mike was a couple of years behind me in school. I mainly remember him from when he came and joined the national squad under the coach Clive Long.”

Ms Raynor, who also attended Jackson State, said that Mr Swan’s jovial nature belied his determination as an athlete.

She recalled: “He was comical and joking, always a smile on his face. I don’t think I ever saw him upset or disappointed. But he was a hard worker.

“He wasn’t tall like most other athletes, which was the same with me — so he had to put in the work. He did that, and he got the results.”

After his first year at Jackson State, Mr Swan moved to East Carolina University in North Carolina, where he pursued a Bachelor of Science in technology.

He joined the university’s football and track team — and met Donna Thorn from Goldsboro, North Carolina. The couple married in 1985.

After a stint in Bermuda, the Swans moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1988 and began a family with daughters Martinique and Angelique.

Mr Swan joined the scientific staff at Nortel Networks, a manufacturer of telecommunications and data-networking equipment.

The couple moved back to Bermuda in 1997, with Mr Swan wanting his daughters to experience the same freedom of an island childhood that he had enjoyed.

He worked at the Bermuda Telephone Company, earning an MBA in technology management from the University of Phoenix in 2005.

Throughout this time, Mr Swan threw himself into the BTFA, where he swiftly rose to the position of vice-president.

He retained his affection for The Centre, telling The Royal Gazette for the hub’s 50th anniversary in 2018: “You learnt so much there — when I first came there was always music, card games, a library.

“You had to prove yourself at each sport as a rite of passage. It provided an atmosphere for you to become better.”

Mr Swan served as a committee member for The Centre, and continued to be a mentor to young people.

Dexter Smith, Editor of The Royal Gazette and a longtime friend of Mr Swan through their association at The Centre and Young Men’s Social Club, said: “Swanny may have been small in stature but he was always someone you looked up to. He will be dearly missed.”

Olympic relay competitor Dennis Trott recalled that Mr Swan initially struggled with his coach during his time as a young athlete at Jackson State.

“He trained extra hard and held his own,” Mr Trott said. “He had a big heart, ran very well.

“Mike had no problems. Everything was smooth sailing; he was always cool — life was sweet. That’s what Mike was about.

“His children should be proud of their dad.”

• Michael Humphrey Carlyle Swan, a vice-president of the Bermuda Track and Field Association, was born on February 26, 1960. He died on December 23, 2023, aged 63