Quincy Wilson wrapped up his summer break from Bullis School (Potomac, Md.) in a way that rewrote history books: With the Team USA 4×400 men’s victory in the finals on Saturday, Wilson became the youngest male athlete to win a gold medal in a track and field event, according to MaxPreps.
Wilson, who ran a disappointing 47.27-second lap in the preliminaries, watched from the stands as his United States teammates raced for victory in the finals. Three of the four runners were below 44 seconds, with Rai Benjamin anchoring and setting the best mark at 43.18 seconds to close out the victory. See the final lap below:
Three-peat complete! 🥇
The United States win men’s 4x400m gold for the third Olympics in a row. #ParisOlympicspic.twitter.com/4YHWKilUrg
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) August 10, 2024
Team USA, whose time of 2:54.43 is a new Olympic record, defeated silver medalist Botswana (2:54.53) and bronze Great Britain (2:55.83). For the third year in a row, both the U.S. men’s and women’s 4×400 teams won the gold medals (the women’s team has won eight straight, per USA TODAY).
Vernon Norwood, who posted a time of 43.26 as the second leg and was vital in helping the U.S. regain its position in the preliminaries, told ESPN he ran for Wilson.
“I wanted to run for Quincy,” Norwood said, “because he put out a significant amount of effort for us [Friday] and that gave me a lot of motivation to try to do my best out there.”
USA has the gold and Wilson goes back to Maryland, where he’s set to start his junior year of college with a gold medal around his neck.
While he didn’t compete in the finals, this experience will bode well for the rest of his high school career and Olympic hopes for the future.
