U.S. sprinter Quincy Wilson wrote himself into history books as Team USA’s youngest male track and field medalist in Olympic history this summer, an astounding achievement that came at the expense of his private school education.
The 16-year-old Wilson ran the opening leg of the first qualifying round of the men’s 4x400-meter relay in the Paris Games, becoming the youngest male U.S. track athlete to compete at the Olympics. The previous record holder was 17-year-old Jim Ryun, who competed at the 1964 Games.
Wilson was swapped out for Raj Benjamin in the final round of the relay on Aug. 10 and would watch Team USA win gold from the stands at Stade de France.
Following the team win, Wilson shared a funny TikTok video in which he flexed his newly-won Olympic gold medal. Wilson filmed himself reading a book for school with a distressed look on his face. He captioned the video, “POV - reading my summer reading books late because I was at the Olympics.”
— Quincy “Q” Wilson (@QuincyWilson5) August 14, 2024
Wilson is entering his junior year at Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland, and postponed getting his driver’s license to compete in the Games. The teenage track phenom broke the U-18 world record in the 400-meter race twice at the Olympic trials earlier this summer with blazing-fast times of 44.66 and 44.59 seconds.
Wilson has poked fun at his scholar-athlete status in the past, posting a gold medal selfie last week with the caption, “Dang, I really got school in 2 and a half weeks.”
“All I know is I gave everything that I had and then some,” Wilson told The Washington Post in June after qualifying for Paris. “I can’t go back and be disappointed. At the end of the day, I’m 16 running grown-man times.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Olympian Quincy Wilson Shares Funny Back-to-School Video After Gold Medal Win.
