Quincy Wilson, 16, was just fractions of a second away from becoming the youngest American Olympian ever

EUGENE, Ore. — Quincy Wilson, a 16-year-old from Bullis School outside Washington, D.C., finished sixth with a time of 44.94 in Monday’s 400-meter final at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Championships.

Quincy Hall clocked 44:17 to take the lead, and Michael Norman (44:41) and Chris Bailey (44:42) also earned a spot on the team heading to Paris.

Although Wilson failed to make the team as an individual runner — becoming the youngest man ever to do so — he will have a chance to be part of the U.S. 4×400 relay team.

The result does not detract from the high school student’s amazing weekend after he set – and then bettered – a world record for under-18 runners that had stood for 42 years.

“I’ve never been this happy in my life when it comes to track,” Wilson said after running a 44.59-second semifinal. “I’ve been working for this moment. This record I broke two days ago means 42 years no one has been able to break this record. I broke it twice in two days. It means a lot to me, because it means the hard work is paying off.

Wilson, who finished his sophomore year of high school just 19 days ago, competed this week with some of the fastest runners in the world. Vernon Norwood is 32 years old, twice Wilson’s age. Michael Norman (26 years old) ranked fifth at the Tokyo Olympics.

Norman described Wilson’s performance as “amazing”.

“A 16-year-old comes out here and competes like a real competitor,” Norman said. “He never lets the moment get too big. He lives in the moment and competes, so it’s great to see young talent like him step up and push us to run a little faster and get us out of our comfort zone. He has a bright future ahead of him as long as he stays consistent and focused.”

Wilson, who is 5-foot-9 and 140 pounds, could have faded in the semifinals. At the final turn, he was in fifth place with a lot of room to make up. He said “the race plan went out the window” at that point and he had to dig deep.

“Stay calm,” he said to himself at that moment. “I didn’t go out the way I wanted, but as my coach said, the race starts at 300 metres. To go from fifth to third means a lot. If you look at me, I’m not strong, so it’s 100% heart inside.