Vance Nilsson to compete at 2024 World Athletics U20 Championships

In Lima, 1,720 athletes from 134 teams will compete, including several Paris 2024 Olympians, in a total of 45 medal events. Of this total, 909 will compete in men’s events and 793 in women’s events, while another 18 will compete only in mixed events.

Nilsson has only been in Florida for a week, but he says he’s already lived up to the high expectations he had when he committed to the school. The food, which was a focal point for Nilsson during his recruitment, has been exactly what he expected. Nilsson, who is normally conservative in his eating habits, has even started branching out and has tried a new fruit for the first time: lychee.

He moved into his dorm with three roommates, all track athletes, and had a team meeting with the coaches.

But there is still one last task ahead before he can close the book on his memorable 2024 season.

“I’ve enjoyed it,” Nilsson said as he reflected on his spring. “We’ve been together, Coach Jayson and I, we get together, we do the work. It’s reps. I would say it’s been a lot of effort. I’m really excited. I think it’s going to pay off soon. I feel like I haven’t been able to compete with my people yet. I ran in high school, but I feel like I was pretty much better than everyone else and the competition wasn’t great there. And then I ran at the Olympic trials, where pretty much everyone was better than me.”