Quincy Wilson becomes youngest male U.S. track Olympian

Quincy Wilson is set to become the youngest male American track Olympian after being selected for the U.S. 4×400 meter relay team.

Annoncing the news on Instagram, the 16-year-old wrote: “WE GOING TO THE OLYMPICS #paris2024 #teamusa.” 

While the team will not be formally announced until later this month, Wilson’s coach Joe Lee told USA TODAY that that the teenage sensation received the news Sunday. “The call came directly to me from USA Track & Field,” he told the newspaper. “I called Quincy afterwards with the good news.”

Wilson, a student at Bullis School outside Washington, D.C., had a remarkable performance at trials, setting — and subsequently besting — the world-record for under-18 runners. 

“I’ve never been this happy a day in my life when it comes to track,” Wilson said after he broke the record in the 400-meter semifinals. 

Justin Robinson, an American, had held the under-18 world record for the 400-meter dash prior to Wilson’s runs during trials. Robinson ran 44.84 seconds in 2019, when he was 17 years old.

Wilson beat Robinson’s record on June 21, running 44.66 seconds. He beat his own new record on June 23, running a 44.59 during the semifinals.

Wilson was just seconds shy of making the team as an individual runner last week, after finishing sixth in the 400-meter final.

Nevertheless, Wilson’s already-historic trials experience only improved after he was named to the relay team.

Before him the youngest American male track athletes to qualify for the Olympics were Jim Ryun and Erriyon Knighton, both of whom were 17 when they became Olympians.

Ryun and Knighton both made their respective debuts at the Tokyo Olympics, 57 years apart. Ryun made his debut in 1964, and Knighton in 2021. Knighton will also be in Paris after qualifying in the 200 meter Saturday.