Quincy Wilson's Complete Transformation To Olympic Star

Quincy Wilson's sport of track and field probably isn't the first one that comes to mind when Olympic fans think of a teenager competing on the world's biggest stage. Instead, they might remember how making the Olympic team at age 15 was one of the high points of swimmer Michael Phelps' life before he went on to become the world's most decorated Olympian. Other Olympic athletes who made history before reaching adulthood include gymnasts such as Simone Biles and Shawn Johnson. Olympic viewers have become accustomed to seeing high schoolers on the balance beam and in the pool, but it's rare to witness them excelling on the track. This, however, is the domain that Wilson set out to conquer while he was still in elementary school.

Wilson's specialty is the 400-meter dash, a race that legendary sprinter Michael Johnson didn't start mastering until he was in college. During his freshman year at Baylor University, Johnson was first clocked at 46.29. This was child's play for Wilson by the time he was a freshman in high school — at the 2023 Penn Relays, he ran his leg of the 4x400m relay in 45.06.

Despite becoming dominant in his sport at such a young age, Wilson said in a 2024 WCHS Eyewitness News interview, "I promise you, if you asked people a year ago and said I told them I want to go to the Olympics of 2024, they would probably laugh at me." After witnessing his transformation into an Olympian, they're certainly not laughing now.

Quincy Wilson grew up around a family of athletes. As reported by The Washington Post, his mother, Monique Wilson, had a collegiate soccer career at North Carolina's Barton College. His father, Roy Wilson, preferred the American version of football, playing the game while he was in the Navy. Quincy also has a sister named Kadence, who joined the track team at James Madison University.

At age 8, Quincy discovered that he possessed some natural speed. His family was living in Severna Park, Maryland, where a coach encouraged him to join a nearby track and field club. Quincy kept training when the Wilson family moved to Chesapeake, Virginia. "I started running with Track 757, which is Grant Holloway's dad's organization," he told Track & Field News.

Quincy was initially passionate about following in his father's footsteps. "In the off-season for football, we liked to keep both our kids active. We used track as a thing for him to try," Roy said. But then he saw how thoroughly his son smoked the competition on the track. After Quincy's parents realized he had something special, they headed back to Maryland to enroll him in the Bullis School. The private prep school has a renowned track and field program and is where Quincy met his longtime coach, Joe Lee. Monique also liked the school's academic reputation, telling The Washington Post, "Those legs can wander away anytime, but your education will take you anywhere."

By age 8, Quincy Wilson was competing at the AAU Junior Olympic Games for the first time and dreaming of making it to the real deal when he got older. "I remember I see Justin Gatlin and Usain Bolt go head-to-head and I was just like, 'I want to be up there one day,'" he recalled to ESPN. While he still had a ways to go to catch up to the two speedsters, Wilson finished fourth in his age group in the 400-meter dash at the Junior Olympics. When he competed in the same event the following year, he improved so much that he won the gold medal.

Wilson's dominant performance also scored him a post-victory interview. He told MileSplit that he hadn't expected to win, especially since he was behind another competitor coming into the final straightaway. But he found another gear and discovered that he had quite a kick, finishing at 1:02.

Wilson also shared what his pre-race breakfast had been that day, and it was loaded with carbs and protein: "waffles, eggs, and ham." In a 2024 interview with FloTrack, he revealed that it was still the breakfast of champions as far as he was concerned, but he had replaced the ham with bacon. "It's a tradition. ... I mean, it's not the healthiest, but if gets you around the track, I'm gonna keep doing it," he said.

Quincy Wilson experimented with some other track and field events before becoming laser-focused on becoming a 400m specialist. When he was in the fifth grade, he even tried the pentathlon. For his age group at the time, the multi-event sport consisted of the 80m hurdles, shot put, long jump, and 1500m run. He got a silver medal at the AAU Junior Olympics event, per Track & Field News.

Wilson also put his hurdling skills to use by competing in the 200m version of the race at age 13. In a 2021 interview with MileSplitUSA, he expressed disappointment that he finished seventh in his age group at the Junior Olympics when he had gone into the race believing that he had a chance at medalling.

That same year, Wilson failed to make the final in the 200m and won the 400m with a time of 50.5, so it was becoming more evident that the latter was what he should start devoting his training to. He stopped hurdling after seventh grade but had a harder time dropping another sport. In a December 2023 YouTube vlog, he said, "Football has always been a first love to me ... this was my first year not playing football to focus on track." According to The Washington Post, he played wide receiver, running back, and safety. 

In a 2023 YouTube Q&A, Quincy Wilson said he considered one record-breaking performance among his greatest achievements. At the 2022 AAU Junior Olympic Games, he ran a time of 47.59 in the 400m semifinals, which became the new 14-and-under record — that had previously belonged to Obea Moore for 30 years. Wilson also clenched his fifth Junior Olympics title.

At the 2023 New Balance Indoor Nationals, Wilson scored his first national title. The then-15-year-old ran a 46.67 in the 400m, breaking his previous freshman class national record. "Most kids are afraid to push through unknown barriers. He doesn't even have barriers," Coach Joe Lee told DyeStat after that race. Wilson had two competitors in front of him going into the final stretch, a position that would have been the kiss of death for other athletes. He later credited his victory to competing in longer races — he'd also broken records for the 500m and 600m distances.

Wilson added one of those records to his ever-growing list at the 2023 Millrose Games, another victory he mentioned on his vlog. He competed in the 600m there and felt the distance after he passed the 400-meter mark. However, he was determined not to let his competitors chase him down. "I could feel them and I could hear them behind me each step that I took. I knew that I had to put it into second gear," he told The Washington Post.

Quincy Wilson's 400m times just kept getting lower in 2023. That July, he competed against elite athletes at the USA Track and Field Under 20 Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, where his 45.87 in the prelims earned him a spot in the finals. "No boy is competing under 20 at 15 years old like I am, so I am the underdog coming into any race," he told MileSplit after his stellar performance. He was clocked at 46.12 in the finals and finished in third place. But two months later, he scored a huge win off the track when he inked a name, image, and likeness (NIL) deal with New Balance.

In true Gen Z fashion, Wilson shared the big news in a YouTube vlog. He proved to be a savvy salesman, showing his viewers that he had filled his suitcase with New Balance gear before jetting off to do a photoshoot with the company in Boston. Little did the company know how much its investment would pay off in the coming months as Wilson became one of Team USA's most compelling stories.

Wilson also used his new partnership to pay his good fortune forward. In 2023, he gifted some members of his church's congregation pairs of New Balance sneakers. "I wouldn't have been able to reach this point in my life without the support and prayers from Wayman Good Hope AME Church," Wilson told the Severna Park Voice.

Quincy Wilson didn't slow down in 2024. That February, he proved that he doesn't need to complete an entire lap around the track to win when he set a new national sophomore record in the 200m. At the East Coast Invitational, he blew the competition away by running a 21.02.

The following month, Wilson made the record books again at the New Balance Nationals, where his 400m time of 45.76 became the fastest-ever run by a high schooler at an indoor meet. After the race, he explained to FloTrack why he didn't feel like an "underdog" any longer. "There's a lot of younger kids that look up to me and also older kids, and even coaches, parents," he said. His growing group of fans watched him end that March on a high note. When he headed to the Florida Relays, he made sure to chronicle his trip for a vlog. "I hope I'm about to run something special," he said on race day. He did just that; his 45.19 in the 400m secured him a spot at the Olympic Trials.

In an interview with Flrunners.com, Wilson revealed that he prepared for the race by watching videos of Justin Robinson, another 400-meter specialist who started his track and field career as a record-breaking phenom. "I was studying different things, taking notes in my room, figuring out what I had to do to improve," he said.

In May 2024, Quincy Wilson lowered his personal best time in the 400m to 45.17 at the PUMA East Coast International Showcase. It was the eighth-fastest time ever recorded for an American high schooler — and exactly the type of performance Wilson wanted to see as he prepared for the Olympic Trials. On race day, he had been thinking about how he wanted to do a good job for his sister, who had suffered a season-ending hip flexor injury. "I think that took a toll on my body 'cause I really care about my family the most," Wilson told Citius Mag of his empathetic nature.

While Wilson overcame his worry and made his sister proud, he was hospitalized the day after the meet. He revealed that he had a nasty case of the stomach flu, which prevented him from training for a week. "It took me some time, and when I came back, I wasn't fully ready — like, I wasn't fully there," he said. However, he didn't lose focus and kept preparing for his next big meet, New Balance Nationals.

Despite everything he had gone through, Wilson was able to shave his PR down to 45.13 and set a meet record a month after his illness had disrupted his training. His next big event was the Olympic Trials. "This was just a good warm-up race," he said.

Quincy Wilson seemed to peak at exactly the right time. At the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, he managed to dip below the 45-second mark, and his 44.66 PR also broke the under-18 world record. Darrell Robinson had set the previous record in 1982 — over 25 years before Quincy was born. After the race, he revealed that he hadn't been nervous about facing off against some of his country's top sprinters at all. "To me, everybody puts spikes on the same way as I do," he explained to Citius Mag.

Quincy's parents were understandably thrilled with his performance, and Roy Wilson told NBC Sports he knew his son was capable of taking the record down. As for Quincy's mom, she was already thinking about his next race. "I'm just proud of him, and let's keep moving, keep moving. We're going forward," she said. Quincy didn't disappoint his family two days later in the semifinals when he broke his record by clocking in at 44.59.

Quincy was beaming when he spoke to FloTrack after the race. "I've never been this happy a day of my life," he said. Wilson revealed he had altered his training a bit before the race by putting in more time on the track. However, if he had tried carefully visualizing how he would run beforehand, it wouldn't have done him much good. "The race plan went out the window," he confessed.

After leaving back-to-back performances on the track that were bigger than any he had wrung out of his body before, Quincy Wilson had to get in the starting blocks for a third time at the Olympic Trials. He was also facing off against his toughest competition yet. Still, only three other athletes ran faster than him during the semifinals, and the top three finishers during the finals would automatically make the U.S. Olympic team.

While it seemed that Wilson had a solid shot at making the podium, he finished in sixth place, and his time of 44.94 ended his mini-streak of breaking records. It was hard for Wilson's coach to see the teen's dreams crushed; Joe Lee compared himself to the famous teary-eyed Michael Jordan meme. Lee was also worried about how his young charge would handle the loss. "Usually when we fall short in life, it's not on a platform like this," he told The New York Times.

However, Wilson told reporters, "I can't go back and be disappointed, because at the end of the day, I'm 16 running grown-man times (via Citius Mag). He was also able to laugh and joke with the media. When discussing the possibility that he could still land a spot on the 4x400m relay, he quipped, "I don't know if my season's over yet ... I don't want to go out and go eat some ice cream too soon."

Great stories don't always end the way sports fans would like them to, as the many athletes snubbed from the 2024 Paris Olympics can attest. The decision not to include WNBA star Caitlin Clark on the USA women's basketball team is a prime example of such a situation. But Olympic enthusiasts did not have to be outraged on Quincy Wilson's behalf — he was one of the athletes included in Team USA's 4x400m relay pool.

Wilson learned that he'd made the team from his coach. "He called me and said just like, 'Unfortunately, we have some bad news,'" Wilson recalled to ESPN. "And then he was like, 'I'm just kidding. We're going to Paris.'"

Wilson told WCHS Eyewitness News that he was playing a video game when he received the call. He didn't share the game's title, but he told The New York Times that he's a fan of "Call of Duty: Warzone." He was also eager to talk about gaming to Citius Mag, sharing that "Fortnite" and the "Madden NFL" franchise are other faves. "When I tell you I'm nice at the game, any game you see me in, I'm nice at it," he said. He added that he planned on eventually creating a Twitch account, and proved that it's not all work and no play for him in a vlog where he showed off his "Fortnite" building skills. 

Quincy Wilson can count himself among the Olympic athletes who have led double lives. While he becomes The Flash when he puts on his cleats, he's just a normal kid in a June 2024 "day in the life" vlog. Wilson gets on a yellow bus, goes to school, complains about the cafeteria food being "mid," and goes to French class — which he was probably grateful for when he learned that he would be going to Paris.

The vlog is a reminder of just how young Wilson was when he made the U.S. Olympic team. In fact, he broke another record at age 16 by becoming his country's youngest-ever male track-and-field Olympian. Wilson hadn't obtained his driver's license yet when he competed in the 2024 Olympic Trials. The teen told WCHS Eyewitness News he planned to get licensed over the summer, but found out he'd be busy hanging out with some of the world's biggest sports stars in the City of Light instead of learning how to parallel park.

Another sign that Wilson was still just your average teen going into the Summer Games was his excitement over the Parade of Nations, where he would get to walk alongside NBA GOAT LeBron James. "Just going out there and competing for the USA as a whole is just a win for itself," Wilson said.