WATCH: 16-year-old Quincy Wilson meets Jay Z after becoming youngest male U.S track athlete to win the Olympic gold medal

By Animesh Pandey

Modified Aug 19, 2024 04:55 GMT

Quincy Wilson has been on cloud nine after his outing at the Paris Olympics. The 16-year-old sprinter is not just the youngest American to compete for the USA in track and field at any Olympics, but also the youngest male Olympic gold medalist in this discipline.

However, this was just the beginning. Ever since USA's historic gold medal win, Wilson has been meeting many celebrities, the latest being popular rapper and entrepreneur Shawn Corey Carter, better known as Jay-Z.

In a video posted by track and field portal Citius Mag on their X account (formerly Twitter), Jay-Z is seen congratulating Quincy Wilson and asking about his well-being, although the exact conversation is not very clear.

At 16 years old, Quincy Wilson became the youngest male athlete from the USA to take part in any track and field event at the Olympics, breaking the erstwhile record of Jim Ryun and Erriyon Knighton, who were 17 years old when they participated at Tokyo Olympics 1964 and Tokyo Olympics 2021 respectively. Wilson is also the youngest male track and field athlete from the USA to win an Olympic gold medal.

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Quincy Wilson's performance at the Paris Olympics

Quincy Wilson in action during the preliminaries of the Men's 4x400m Relay event at Paris Olympics 2024 [Image Source: Getty]

Though Quincy Wilson finished only sixth at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, he was selected for the men's 4x400m relay team for the Paris Olympics by virtue of his record-breaking performances.

The 16-year-old sprinter broke the under-18 world record for the men's 400m not once, but twice at the trials. He further improved his timing at the Holloway Pro Classic, where he clocked 44.20 seconds to win the race in a close photo finish. Wilson became the youngest male and the second youngest American track and field athlete to qualify for the Olympics, with Esther Stroy being the youngest athlete at the age of just 15 years.

Wilson ran the first leg of the preliminaries of the men's 4x400m relay. However, it nearly ended in a disaster for the USA, since Wilson covered the distance in an underwhelming 47.27 seconds, leaving the USA in seventh place in the first leg. If not for Vernon Norwood, the USA would be on the brink of being eliminated for the first time in the preliminaries. They eventually qualified for the finals by finishing third overall.

However, in the finals, Team USA switched gears and the quartet of Christopher Bailey, Bryce Deadmon, Vernon Norwood and Rai Benjamin didn't stop until they achieved a new Olympic record of 2 minutes, 54.43 seconds to win the Olympic gold medal.

Botswana finished second with a timing of 2 minutes, 54.53 seconds, while Great Britain finished third with a timing of 2 minutes, 55.83 seconds. By virtue of participating in the preliminaries, Quincy Wilson won the Olympic gold medal, becoming the youngest male track and field Olympic gold medalist from the USA.