This year at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Quincy Wilson became the youngest track and field olympian in U.S. history at the age of 16. He also earned himself a gold medal in the 4×400, as he competed for the United States in the prelim round for the relay team that went on to win gold. This begs the question, where did this sophomore in high school come from? Has he always been this elite? How does he compare to other high school athletes now and before? First we must go all the way back to 2015, when Wilson stepped onto the track for the first time.
At this time, Wilson was only in first grade, but it was immediately clear that he was incredibly talented. By 2017, Wilson won his first national championship at the junior olympic games in the 400. He continued on to defend his title in 2018 and 2019. During the 2021 indoor season, Wilson finally started to garner national attention. He ended up running a time of 51.78 at just 13 years old and winning the boys 400 meter rising stars race at Adidas Indoor Nationals, making milesplit headlines. While he was unable to defend his Junior Olympic title in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic, Wilson went on to win twice more during 2021 and 2022 outdoor track and field seasons.
At the start of his freshman year in high school, Wilson moved from Virginia to Maryland in order to enroll at Bullis High School. Bullis high school is well known for its wildly successful athletic program, and this was a major reason why he enrolled there. It didn’t take long for Wilson to make an immediate impact, as in just his season opener, he was able to tie the freshman national record with a time of 47.39 in the 400 meter dash. He eventually broke this record just two weeks later in 47.30. Not long after this, he won his first national title at the high school level, running a time of 46.67 and destroying a field of elite juniors and seniors at the New Balance Indoor Nationals. By the end of his outdoor track and field season, Wilson ran a time of 45.87, which was only .67 seconds off of the Olympic trials qualifying standard at just the age of 15.
Wilson’s domination did not end after his freshman year, it only continued to increase in massive proportions. At this year’s New Balance Nationals, Wilson not only destroyed a field of the best high school 400 runners in the nation with a time of 45.87, but he also broke a two decade old national indoor record as a sophomore. During his outdoor track and field campaign this year, he went on to qualify for the Olympic trials in the 400 not once, not twice, but three different times. His best time, 45.13, when compared with all of the best division one track and field times throughout the entirety of this past outdoor season, was ninth.
Going into the Olympic trials, nobody really knew what to expect from the 16 year old high schooler out of Bullis. After all, he was going to be going up against grown men, some of them twice his age, with years or even decades more experience than him. The athletes he was going to compete against had raced in the Olympic trials, the US Championships, the World Championships, and even the Olympics before. However, Wilson surpassed all expectations by qualifying in both the preliminary and the semifinal rounds, while running a 16 year old, 17 year old, and 18 year old world record with a time of 44.59. Not long after the trials, Wilson destroyed his personal best yet again at the Holloway pro classic in 44.20. This time when compared with all 18 year old records is statistically the fourth greatest record ever throughout all events. When compared with 16 year old records, the next performance isn’t even close.
Ultimately, Wilson went on to place sixth in the Olympic trial finals. While this didn’t put him in contention for the 400 meter individual final, it did place him in the relay pool for the 4×400 meter team that went on to win gold. While, according to him, his leg in the initial prelim round of the Olympic 4×400 was not his best performance, it doesn’t change the fact that he had just completed arguably the greatest run for any high school track and field athlete in the history of the sport. With 2 more years left to improve during his high school career, there’s no telling what Wilson will accomplish in the years to come.
