SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Quincy Wilson is in line to race for the Americans in the men’s 4×400 meter relay on Friday, which would make the 16-year-old the youngest male to compete for the U.S. track team.
Wilson posted on his Instagram page a picture of himself with the reminder to “tune in at 5:05 a.m. Friday morning” (on the U.S. East Coast) for the men’s relay.
At the Olympic trials earlier this summer, Wilson broke the under-18 world record twice with times of 44.66 and 44.59 that put him in the final of the 400 meters. He finished sixth there and was later chosen as part of the U.S. relay pool for the Olympics.
“I’m 16 years old running grown-man times,” the Maryland native said at trials.
According to Olympic historian Bill Mallon, the youngest U.S. male in Olympic track was Arthur Newton, who ran the steeplechase in 1904 at age 17. Jim Ryun was 17 when he qualified for his first Olympics in 1964, and Erriyon Knighton was 17 when he made it to Tokyo three years ago.
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