Quincy Wilson at 16 Becomes Youngest Male American Track Olympian as He Will Be Part of USA’s 4x400 Meter Team

American men have competed in track and field in the Olympics for 128 years. However, no one has ever been as young as Quincy Wilson.

By Blesson Daniel

Published on Aug 09, 2024 | 08:51 PM IST | 53.9K

Quincy Wilson [Credit-Instagram@_quincy_wilson]

Quincy Wilson, a 16-year-old track and field runner from Virginia, will make his Olympic debut in the 4x400 meter relay on Friday in Paris—but the young gun is no stranger to making history and shattering records.

Quincy Wilson, 16, has always been speedy. It's a fact that has catapulted him to the Paris Olympics, where, according to ESPN sources, Wilson will become the youngest US male track and field athlete to compete in the Games.

Monique, Wilson's mother, was the first to race after her 10-month-old baby as soon as his feet hit the earth.

“It was a lot of energy, jumping and running around at a very young age,” Monique says. “And [real] running, like he wanted to be all over the place. I could tell that he was going to be something.”

Quincy's father's name is Roy. He is a US Navy submarine commander. He traveled constantly, leaving Monique to care for her Tasmanian devil and his older sister, Kadence, who would go on to run for James Madison University. Monique had played soccer in college and thought athletics might help her kid pass the time and burn off some of his limitless energy.

She enrolled three-year-old Wilson in a local soccer league, where he outperformed even the older youngsters in terms of speed and agility. Later, in tag games on the school playground, he was always the chaser, and the other kids rarely cared to follow him.

"The other kids said it wouldn't be fair," says Wilson, who was found to have an unfair edge. Nonetheless, his classmates were simple to trap, so Wilson made it a challenge to catch them as soon as possible. In his brain, he had already begun chasing the clock.

When her kid began to easily outrun his contemporaries by the age of seven, Monique sought out a more structured club, the Fort Meade Highsteppers, a juvenile track and field team on the Maryland military installation.

Wilson had anticipated that joining the squad would provide her with additional opportunities to compete outside of her town. The results were instantaneous. Wilson, at eight years old, finished fourth in the 400m in his age category in the AAU Junior Olympics, America's premier child sports championship.

Wilson's race, the men's 4x400 relay, is set to begin Friday at 5:05 a.m. ET. He will most likely race in the first leg, according to USA Today. Whether Wilson will compete in Saturday's final if Team USA qualifies. It is not rare for teams to switch and change their rosters between the semifinals and finals.

Despite finishing sixth and being seconds away from qualifying for the individual 400-meter sprint at the Olympic trials in June, Wilson was chosen for the men's relay team. He told ESPN that he was "ecstatic" when he received the call.

"I began sprinting around the house. “I started running around the house. It was just a moment for me because everybody dreams about going to the Olympics as a young kid,” he allegedly stated at the time.

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