SAINT-DENIS, France — It took a valiant comeback to pull it off, but 16-year-old Quincy Wilson and Team USA’s men’s 4×400-meter relay team is heading to the event’s final Saturday.
The Americans, normally dominant in this event, needed a late push to make the cut with a third-place finish in Friday morning’s opening-round heat at the Stade de France.
It took anchor Chris Bailey’s explosive kick for the finish line across the final 50 meters of the race to propel the team into one of the final qualifying spots.
Wilson, who led off with a sluggish 47.27-second showing in his 400-meter sprint, was disappointed in his Olympic debut. When he handed off the baton to second-leg runner Vernon Norwood, the Americans were in seventh place.
“They got me around the track,” Wilson said of his teammates. “My grit and determination got me around the track. I knew I had a great three legs behind me. I knew it wasn’t just myself [Friday], because if it was myself, we would be in last place.”
During the handoff, there was a nearly 3-second gap between Wilson and Letsile Tobago, the 200-meter champion from Botswana who was a last-minute replacement.
“It’s going to be motivation for me,” Wilson said of his race.
As the 32-year-old Norwood grabbed the baton from Wilson, the youngster who is twice his junior, he bolted quickly into the first turn. A 400-meter veteran who Wilson has even looked up to for years, Norwood knew exactly what he had to do to pick up his teammate.
“Honestly, I was kind of in the moment, because I’m watching a 16-year-old run an Olympics, making history,” Norwood said. “So I was very proud of him, and I’m just looking at him like, ‘Oh, snap back in and let me get this thing going.'”
Between Norwood’s sprint and Bryce Deadmon’s third-leg run, the Americans rallied from seventh to fourth place.
Then, it fell on Bailey to close the gap and surge into third place, and automatic qualifying position. Bailey said his mission was simple.
“Get out there and go,” Bailey said. “There’s nothing else I can better focus on than just executing my race and focusing on my ability, I know what I can and can’t do.”
With a 44.14-second final leg, Bailey ran just the race the Americans needed.
At the U.S. trials in late June, Wilson’s star blossomed when he broke a pair of under-18 world records in the individual 400-meter dash. He ran them in 44.66 and 44.59 seconds. Although he didn’t qualify for the Olympics in that event, his performance at trials was enough to place him in the relay pool for the Summer Games.
Then, a week before the Opening Ceremony, Wilson ran an electrifying 44.20-second 400-meter race in Florida that gave even more reason for Team USA to be excited he was part of the relay group. That time was even lower than the two under-18 world records he set at U.S. trials.
“I told him before we go out there, just embrace it,” Norwood said. “You belong here, this is a privilege. Nobody in this world gets this opportunity so make the most of it.”
With his appearance Friday, Wilson became the youngest American male to compete at the Olympics in track. He surpassed Arthur Newton, a steeplechase runner from 1904 who competed at 17, according to Olympic historian Bill Mallon. Other young runners to compete at the Summer Games include Jim Ryun, who was 17 when he qualified for his first Olympics in 1964, and Erriyon Knighton, who made it to Tokyo three years ago when he was 17.
From a military family, his parents decided to move to Maryland so he could attend Bullis high school, which is known for producing elite athletes.
In the women’s 4×400 relay, the team of Quanera Hayes, Shamier Little, Aaliyah Butler and Kaylyn Brown won their heat by more than 3 seconds over Great Britain.
