Quincy Wilson, 16, made history in Paris as the youngest male U.S. track Olympian in history. He's still a few years away from high school graduation.
Quincy Wilson, 16, made history in Paris during the summer as the youngest male U.S. track Olympian in history. Unlike his teammates, he's still years away from graduation.“I like studying the muscles and knowing the way my body works,” Wilson, 16, told NBC News. “I have a lot of things that I need to track like dorsiflex in my foot. I need to know how I’m putting my foot down in the ground, how I’m going to be able to get fast.”, is already plenty fast.
Wilson’s situation is unlike that of almost any other Olympian in history. While the 4x400 medal-winning relay team is primarily made up of professional runners — including Vernon Norwood, who at 32 is double Wilson's age — the high schooler still has almost two years of coursework and exams awaiting him before graduation.
“I can actually enjoy lunch with my friends, go out there and talk, and I don’t have to think about track all the time,” he said. “I feel like track is a mental sport, and if you’re thinking about it all the time, that’s where you start getting messed up in the head.”At the Olympic trials last June, fans entered the gates at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon to see stars such as Noah Lyles, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabby Thomas and Sha’Carri Richardson. They left talking about Wilson.
Wilson finished sixth place in the final two days later but his 44.94 was enough to get him on the U.S. Olympic 4x400 relay pool. He traveled to Paris with the team and found out he would lead off the first heat with Norwood, Bryce Deadmon and Christopher Bailey. He told NBC News that he suffered a hamstring injury almost immediately after being named to the squad but that it wasn’t going to stop him from running on the world stage.
When Benjamin crossed the finish line in front of 200-meter gold medalist Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, Wilson screamed from the stands. Despite not running the final, his earlier contributions were enough to earn hardware — and the title of the youngest male track and field gold medalist ever. The school offers an advanced course licensed by the University of Texas-Austin. It’s entirely project-based, and earlier this year the students designed a pinhole camera for people with limited hand dexterity. Right now, the current unit is reverse engineering. Wilson and his classmates were given a hand-powered flashlight that they had to redesign and improve after conducting customer interviews. “There’s no sense of ‘let me just coast by here because I can.
Lee says Wilson will feel more pressure — both in high school and pro meets — because of what he accomplished during the summer.
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