PARIS — Quincy Wilson, the 16-year-old who turned heads at U.S. track and field trials in June, will have the opportunity to do the same at the Olympics on Friday, a source confirmed to ESPN.
The Maryland native will be part of the men’s 4×400-meter relay team that morning when it takes part in the opening heat of the Olympic relay. After Wilson missed 4×400 mixed heats earlier this week, it was uncertain whether he’d end up running at all, or simply be an alternate in the overall relay pool.
When he takes the track inside the Stade de France, Wilson will become the youngest American male to have ever participated in an Olympic track and field event.
In July, Wilson said he was overjoyed when he received word that would be added to the Team USA relay pool after he didn’t qualify for the individual 400-meter dash at trials.
“When I got the call, I was like, I was ecstatic,” Wilson said. “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.”
Wilson said he first started dreaming about participating in the Games during the 2016 Olympics in Rio, when he was 8 years old. That same year, he began running his premier event, the 400, and has become a force in it.
After twice breaking the event’s under-18 world record while at U.S. trials, running it in as little time as 44.59 seconds, Wilson went even lower three weeks ago at a tuneup race in Florida. There, he ran a 44.20-second time that had the track world buzzing in anticipation of what he could do on American relay teams once the Olympics arrived.
Now, his chance is here.