High schoolers have taken over track and field by Wyatt Royster
Over the past decade high school track and field athletes have started to take over and dominate their older competitors. Within this time frame many high schoolers have been making their way into the national and world stage much more frequently than ever before.
Cooper Lutkenhaus (USA) competed in the Men’s 800m at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025 on September 16th at the National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Joris Verwijst/BSR Agency)
Cooper Lutkenhaus is a seventeen-year-old from Justin, Texas, who runs the eight hundred meters and over the past two years has skyrocketed through the ranks to become one of the best runners in the world. During the summer of 2025, Lutkenhaus had one of the greatest high school performances ever seen in the track and field world. During the United States championship to determine who was going to represent the United States on the world stage in Tokyo, Japan. In this race, Lutkenhaus went from a high school record holder to a world championship qualifier. Then this past indoor season, after signing pro with Nike at 17 years old, he became the youngest person to ever win a gold medal in any track and field event.
Another high school phenom from Australia is a sprinter named Gout Gout. On June 24th of 2025, Gout broke the Australian national record in the two-hundred-meter sprint in a time of 20.02 seconds. At the age of seventeen, Gout broke a record that had stood since 1968. Becoming one of the youngest runners to run this time and has been repeatedly compared to Usain Bolt when he was of the same age.
Many people have already heard of this third high schooler: Quincy Wilson. Quincy Wilson became well known when he broke the high school national record in the 400 meters as a freshman and has continued to do so every year since, as he is now a senior. He won an Olympic gold medal at the age of 16 as a high school sophomore in the 4×400-meter relay. Doing all of this before he has even graduated from high school.
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