EUGENE, Ore. — Quincy Wilson, a 16-year-old from Bliss School outside Washington, D.C., finished sixth in the 400-meter final at Monday's U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials with a time of 44.94 seconds.
Quincy Hall took the top spot in 44:17, with Michael Norman (44:41) and Chris Bailey (44:42) also on the team heading to Paris.
Although Wilson missed out on making the national team as an individual athlete (he would be the youngest male athlete ever to do so), he has a chance to be a part of the U.S. 4×400 relay team.
The result does not take away from a fantastic weekend for the high school student, who set and then broke the world record for runners aged 18 and under that had stood for 42 years.
“Track and field-wise, I've never had a happier day in my life,” Wilson said after clocking 44.59 seconds in the semifinals. “I've been working hard for this moment. The record I broke two days ago was a record that hadn't been broken in 42 years, and I broke it twice in two days. This means a lot to me, because it means all the hard work paid off.”
Just 19 days into his sophomore year of high school, Wilson competed this week against some of the fastest runners in the world: Vernon Norwood, 32, who is twice Wilson's age, and Michael Norman, 26, who finished fifth at the Tokyo Olympics.
Norman called Wilson's performance “superb.”
“At 16 years old, he's out here competing as a true competitor,” Norman said. “He's not making a big deal out of the moment. He's living in the moment and competing. So it's great to have a young talent like him develop and push us to go a little faster and take us out of our comfort zone. As long as he stays grounded and focused, he has a bright future ahead of him.”
The 5-foot-9, 140-pound Wilson looked like he might lose in the semifinals. He was in fifth place going into the final corner and had to make a comeback in the closing stages. “My race plan just fell apart at this point,” he said, and he had to give it his all.
“Calm down,” he told himself at the time. “I didn't run the way I wanted to, but like my coach said, the race starts at 300 meters. It means a lot to go from fifth to third. If you look at me, you can see I'm not that strong, so my mind is at 100 percent.”
