‘School in two-and-a-half weeks’ moans 16-year-old Team USA gold medalist as post-Olympics reality hits

QUINCY Wilson is set to return to high school just two-and-a-half weeks after starring at the Paris Olympics.

The Team USA sprinter, 16, made history by becoming the youngest male American track and field gold medalist in Olympic history.

X/Quincy Wilson

Getty

Wilson participated in the opening heat of the men’s 4x400m relay, helping Team USA qualify for the final.

He did not participate in the gold medal race but stood atop the podium with his teammates after Rai Benjamin, Christopher Bailey, Vernon Norwood, and Bryce Deadmon triumphed.

With last night’s closing ceremony bringing the curtain down on Paris 2024, teenage star Wilson has begun to accept reality.

With his gold medal, the track and field prodigy wrote: “Dang, I really got school in 2 and a half weeks.”

Wilson attends Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland.

He is set to enter his third year.

The Team USA starlet will return to school with dreams of the Los Angeles Games in 2028.

After four more years of development, Wilson hopes to run in the final and add to his gold medal earned this time around.

Having opened for Team USA during the men’s 4x400m heat, Wilson found himself in seventh, with his teammates having work to do to reach the final.

On his performance, he said after the race: “I wasn’t 100 per cent myself, but my team came out here and did it for me.

“I knew I had a great three legs behind me and knew it wasn’t just myself.

“Because if it was myself, we’d be in last place.

“But these guys come out there and gave it their all… They ran their hearts out.”

Wilson ran 47.27 in the first leg of Friday’s opening round.

‘IT’S ONE OF MANY’

He has already proven himself capable of better, having shattered an Under-18 record last summer that had previously stood for 42 years.

At U.S. trials in June 2023, Wilson ran 400m in 44.66 seconds – setting a new Under-18 world record.

Last week, Wilson name-checked a Team USA colleague he wants to emulate as he laid out his ambitions.

He said: “I know I have multiple world championships, multiple Olympics to go to, so it’s one of many.

“I will keep looking up, keeping out here like Sydney McLaughlin.

“So I will come back and get better for next year. This is just but a start.”