Candace Hill is a 16-year-old metro Atlanta high school junior with a 4.6 grade-point average. She's also the fastest teenage girl ever clocked in the U.S.
"Hill's ascendance from the youth sprinting scene in Georgia to the national and now international arena has taken place over a matter of months, as she emerged from an ordinary high school track team with little specialized training," the New York Times' Lindsay Crouse reports.
"She lost her first race in high school, to an upperclassman, and won every one since."
Next up: the international racing circuit, plus a 10-year contract with Asics which will cover tuitition at any college where Hill is admitted.
And, of course, there are the 2016 Olympics.
Crouse writes, "Hill is the youngest track athlete to qualify for the U.S. trials in both the 100 and 200 meters, and has logged the eighth fastest time by an American woman in the 100 meters this year."
"There's something magical about breaking 11 in the 100, especially so young, and that's when she emerged," Hill's agent, Mark Wetmore, told the Times. "It didn't seem worth it for her to compete at the college level anymore because even as a sophomore she had already transcended that field. Suddenly she is in almost every conversation about the future of the event."
