South Carolina wide receiver Nyck Harbor posted a qualifying time in the 200 meters for the U.S. Olympic Trials but will not attend this weekend’s event in Eugene, Ore., David Cloninger of The Post and Courier reports. The speedy sophomore wideout instead turns his attention to the Gamecocks’ upcoming 2024 football season, ending his bid for Team USA at the Paris Games.
Harbor most recently competed at the NCAA Championships in Eugene, where he finished 10th with his 20.32 time in the 200 meters and earned second-team All-American honors. He qualified for the event earlier this spring with a 20.20 mark at the NCAA East Regionals, logging the second-best time in South Carolina program history. It was that mark that earned him a spot in the Olympic Trials.
“Nyck and (South Carolina track and field coach Tim Hall) sat down and talked, and he is not going this weekend,” South Carolina sports information director Steve Fink said to The Post and Courier. “They spoke about the likely results, which the best he could probably do was make the semifinals in the 200. Where he was with where he finished at the NCAA Championships and the professional athletes he would be going against, basically it was just kind of determined that it would be in his best interest to go ahead and get a little rest.”
Harbor was a five-star prospect in the 2023 football recruiting class. He ranked No. 15 nationally and was the top-ranked athlete in the cycle. While he compiled only modest production as a true freshman at South Carolina with his 12 catches, 195 yards and one touchdown, his breakaway speed and raw skills make him a breakout candidate for the 2024 campaign.
Despite his importance to the Gamecocks’ football team, coach Shane Beamer said during spring camp that he fully supported Harbor’s yearning to run in the Olympics. Had he qualified for Team USA, he likely would have missed the first two weeks of football’s preseason camp.
“It wouldn’t be great from a football standpoint because of the amount of time that he would miss with football,” Beamer said this spring. “But he and I have talked about it. We met in my office at the end of spring practice, and I told him that, ‘If you could get a chance to run in the Olympics, that is so cool and something that would be really, really awesome for him and our entire university.'”
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Harbor was the No. 1 prospect on 247Sports’ 2022 Freaks List due to his elite speed. He projected as an impact player either in a receiving role or on the defensive front seven, and he ultimately settled into the wide receiver position group at South Carolina.
