Source: Quincy Wilson, 16, to run 4×400 relay at Olympics
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PARIS — Quincy Wilson, the 16-year-old who turned heads at the U.S. track and field trials in June, will have the opportunity to do the same at the Olympics on Friday, a source confirmed to ESPN.
The Maryland native will be part of the men’s 4×400-meter relay team that morning when it takes part in the opening heat of the Olympic relay. After Wilson missed 4×400 mixed heats earlier this week, it was uncertain whether he’d end up running at all or be an alternate in the overall relay pool.
When Quincy Wilson runs in the 4×400 meter relay on Friday, he will become the youngest American male to have ever participated in an Olympic track and field event. Patrick Smith/Getty Images
When he takes the track inside the Stade de France, Wilson will become the youngest American male to have ever participated in an Olympic track and field event.
In July, Wilson said he was overjoyed when he received word that would be added to the Team USA relay pool after he didn’t qualify for the individual 400-meter dash at trials.
“When I got the call, I was like, I was ecstatic,” Wilson said. “I started running around the house. It was just a moment for me because everybody dreams about going to the Olympics as a young kid.”
Wilson said he first started dreaming about participating in the Games during the 2016 Olympics in Rio, when he was 8 years old. That same year, he began running his premier event, the 400, and has become a force in it.
After twice breaking the event’s under-18 world record while at U.S. trials, running it as quickly as 44.59 seconds, Wilson went even lower three weeks ago at a tuneup race in Florida. There, he ran a 44.20-second race that had the track world buzzing in anticipation of what he could do on American relay teams once the Olympics arrived.
Now, his chance is here.
Allyson Felix wins athlete election to join IOC as member
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PARIS — Seven-time Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix won an election Thursday to represent athletes at the IOC for the next eight years.
Felix, the retired United States sprinting great, got the most votes — 2,880 of the 6,576 ballots cast by athletes at the Paris Olympics — of four athletes elected by their peers, the International Olympic Committee said.
The other winners from a slate of 32 candidates were Germany gymnast Kim Bui, Australia canoeist Jessica Fox — who is a double gold medalist in Paris — and New Zealand tennis player Marcus Daniell.
One of the four athlete IOC members they will replace, who all were elected at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, is Yelena Isinbayeva, the Russian holder of the world record in women’s pole vault.
The IOC has a maximum of 115 members, which include members of royal families in Europe and Asia, a head of state — the Emir of Qatar — former heads of government, sports officials, former Olympic athletes and an Oscar-winning actor, Michelle Yeoh.
Member duties at annual IOC meetings include approving recommended candidates as future Olympic hosts.