When Quincy Wilson returns to Bullis School in Maryland next month, the 16-year-old will have some unbelievable stories to share with his classmates about his incredible summer.
He broke three track and field world records, sat down to dinner with some Baltimore Ravens football players, spoke on the phone with Pro Football Hall of Famer Ray Lewis and rubbed elbows with celebrities including Magic Johnson and Snoop Dogg.
And Wilson will cap his whirlwind summer with a trip to Paris for the Olympics as Team USA’s youngest male track and field athlete to reach the Games.
Wilson — a Chesapeake native who attended Great Bridge Middle School — has been interviewed by every major television network and newspaper, including CNN, Good Morning America and USA Today.
A memorable summer indeed.
“It’s been a long schedule, long days, a lot of people to talk to. But it’s been a great experience,” Wilson said recently from his home in Maryland. “I’ve learned so many different things and heard so many different stories from so many different people. It’s just been a great experience meeting different celebrities, knowing that you’re 16 and you’re in the limelight with some of these same people.”
Wilson admits that he’s had to pinch himself several times to make sure he’s not dreaming.
“I told my mother, ‘Can you believe it?’ And she said, ‘No, I can’t believe it,'” he said about his mother, Monique. “It feels amazing just being able to be on this ride and knowing that you’re blessed. I’m just running for the Lord. I’m just so thankful to be who I am and for my parents, my sister and all of my family’s sacrifice to get me to the place I’m in right now.”
Wilson was born in Chesapeake. Once he started to excel in track, his parents, Roy and Monique, relocated to Potomac, Maryland, so he could attend Bullis High, nationally known for its powerhouse track program under coach Joe Lee.
Last September, Wilson signed a name, image and likeness deal with New Balance, making him one of the youngest high school athletes to do so with a major sports apparel company.
His success on the track went to another level in 2024.
He began the year running 45.76 seconds in the 400 meters at the New Balance Indoor Nationals. His performance was the nation’s fastest time by a high school athlete this indoor season.
In March, he ran 45.19 at the Florida Relays, which earned him an automatic bid to the U.S. Olympic trials.
In April at the prestigious Penn Relays in Philadelphia, Wilson turned in splits of 44.37 and 44.69 in the 4×400 relay, leaving the crowd in awe. His 44.37 is the fastest 400 split by a high school runner in Penn Relays history.
He wasn’t done.
In June at the New Balance Nationals, he ran 45.13 to win the title.
Wilson arrived at the Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon, with nothing to prove. Just to qualify was an amazing feat.
But Wilson ran a personal-best time of 44.66 in the first round, which set an under-18 world record. It was a high school record that had stood for more than 40 years.
He followed that with a 44.59 in the semifinals, which again broke a world record and qualified him for the finals.
44.66 for a U18 WORLD RECORD in the men’s 400m for high school sophomore Quincy Wilson 👀 #TrackFieldTrials24
pic.twitter.com/B4cnC5nzDE— FloTrack (@FloTrack) June 21, 2024
Prior to the finals, he had a talk with three-time world champion hurdler and Chesapeake native Grant Holloway, who has known Wilson since he was 8.
“I was just like, ‘Hey, just run and have some fun. You did the hardest part,'” Holloway said he told him. “You went through the rounds. You qualified and (ran a personal best) every time, you’ve done the hard part.”
Wilson ran under 45 seconds for a third consecutive time when he posted a time of 44.94 to place sixth at the trials against some competitors old enough to be his father.
“I went out there and my mom kept telling me, ‘Quincy, you have nothing to lose,’ ” said Wilson, who will be a rising junior and still doesn’t have a driver’s license. “I’m just 16 years old. Just having this opportunity itself to be able to compete at the highest and biggest competition of my life, I was able to perform super-well because I put the Lord first.”
Many wondered, however, if Wilson would be chosen for the U.S. Olympic relay pool because of his age.
Olympic silver medalist and 400 hurdler Rai Benjamin thought he should.
“He deserves it,” Benjamin told ESPN. “The kid came out and ran 44s all three rounds. I’m not worried about him on the technical side of things because he’s run multiple 4x4s, and he and his coach know how to keep it simple.”
Wilson got his answer when Lee received a phone call from USA Track & Field after the trials to confirm that Wilson had been chosen to be a part of the pool for the men’s 4×400 relay and mixed 4×400 relay for Team USA.
“To be honest, I was excited, I was ecstatic,” Wilson said. “When I got the call, all of my family was around. And to be able to embrace that with my family meant a lot to me.”
Holloway also was happy for him.
“I told him, ‘You’ve already solidified yourself going to the Olympics, whether you run the mixed relay or the open relay,'” Holloway said. “He’s 16 years old, so the sky’s the limit. I am excited to get there with him.”
In a tune-up for the Olympics, Wilson competed last week at the Holloway Pro Classic in Gainesville, Florida.
Wilson excelled again and ran a personal-best 44.20 seconds to set another world record. His time is the eighth-fastest in the world this year and the third-fastest by an American.
He also is the 47th-fastest 400 runner of all time, joining Portsmouth’s LaShawn Merritt (43.65) and Chesapeake’s Michael Cherry (44.03), who are ranked ninth and 27th, respectively.
Of the 46 other 400 runners on the all-time list, only four others were born in the 2000s.
Wilson began his athletic career in Hampton Roads and played football for the Virginia Beach Mustangs and ran for the Track 757 club.
“I think that’s where my competitiveness instinct came from because everybody in the 757 doesn’t want to lose,” Wilson said. “Everything that I wanted, I had to work hard for it, had to earn it.”
Keenan Galloway, who coached Wilson in club track, said there was always something special about Wilson, even at an early age.
“I’m not surprised, he’s been setting records since he started with us,” he said. “When you combine somebody with immense talent with a great work ethic, these are the results you get.”
Brent Nieter coached Wilson at Great Bridge Middle and said he was a nervous wreck as he watched Wilson compete during the Olympic trials. He remembers telling Wilson two years ago that he, too, could be an Olympian like Holloway.
“I absolutely had no idea that we’d be talking about him going two years later,” said Nieter, bursting into laughter. “For him just to be at the trials was an amazing thing.”
Nieter said he can’t wait to watch the Olympics.
“I would have watched the Olympics regardless. But now, it’s totally different having Grant and Quincy in it,” he said. “I don’t know how many middle schools in the country can say they have two former athletes in the Olympics, but it can’t be that many. But I do know one, and that’s ours. So, it’s pretty neat.”
Larry Rubama, 757-575-6449, larry.rubama@pilotonline.com
___
Olympic coverage
Visit pilotonline.com/sports/olympics or dailypress.com/sports/olympics for more on our 757 Olympians, including a look back at gold medalists Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker, Gabby Douglas, Thompson Mann and LaShawn Merritt.
___
Coming up
Saturday: Old Dominion women’s basketball coach DeLisha Milton-Jones talks about her gold-medal performances in the Olympics as a player. Former Cox High star Leah Crouse is going for gold in field hockey in Paris.
Sunday: Former Grassfield High star Grant Holloway returns to the Olympics intent on winning gold after a silver-medal finish in Tokyo.
