Nyck Harbor in the Olympics? Why USC’s Shane Beamer is ‘hoping it happens’

Nyck Harbor is a tantalizingly talented wide receiver and one of the top prospects in South Carolina football’s modern recruiting history.

He’s also a dedicated – and productive – track and field athlete who dreams of representing the United States in the 2024 Summer Olympics.

So, no, USC football coach Shane Beamer is neither surprised nor daunted at the possibility of Harbor missing a chunk of the Gamecocks’ 2024 fall camp schedule because of national team commitments in Paris.

Speaking on Tuesday at the Spartanburg area stop of South Carolina’s 2024 Welcome Home Tour event, Beamer said he’d love if Harbor had the chance to compete in the Olympics this summer.

Even if the overseas event in the City of Lights, which runs July 26 through August 11, ends up cutting into Harbor’s prep time with the Gamecocks football team ahead of the season. USC’s fall camp is tentatively scheduled to begin Aug. 2, according to Gamecock Central.

“It would be awesome for our university, for our football program, for our track program,” Beamer said during a media availability at The Lodge at Lake Bowen Commons in Inman. “But more importantly, for Nyck. I know how passionate he is about track. He’s a great young man. So humble as well. So I’m hoping it happens.”

Harbor, who is wrapping up his track and field outdoor season, recently ran a wind-legal personal best of 20.47 seconds in the 200-meter dash during the SEC outdoor championships.

The automatic men’s 200 meter qualifying time for the 2024 US Olympic Trials is 20.30 seconds, according to USA Track and Field, and the minimum time is 20.60 seconds.

The talented freshman from Washington, DC also ran a personal record time of 10.12 seconds in the 100 meter dash in April – the third fastest time in South Carolina program history – and could be in a position to automatically qualify for that event, too.

For the men’s 100 meter, the automatic qualifying time is 10.05 seconds and the minimum time is 10.20 seconds, according to USATF. Harbor (who’d obviously need to qualify for the Olympics at the Team USA trials) and South Carolina have their next meet May 22-25 in Lexington, Kentucky in the NCAA East Regionals.

Nyck Harbor’s busy spring

Harbor, 18, already split time between the Gamecocks football and track and field teams this spring, jumping from meets to spring practice with an emphasis on the sport that was in season (track) and careful monitoring of his football workload.

Beamer has previously praised Harbor’s commitment to both sports, as well his relationship with first-year track and field coach Tim Hall (who replaced longtime track coach Curtis Frye last summer) when it comes to “sharing” Harbor as an athlete on their roster.

In one recent example, Harbor set his 100 meter PR on Saturday April 20 during the track team’s USC open in Columbia and then, Beamer joked, was upset when his football coach wouldn’t allow him to suit up for the team’s Garnet and Black spring game later that night.

Beamer and Harbor set up a formal plan for his spring sport time-share, and the coach said that he’ll “touch base” with the freshman soon to set up a similar plan for the summer.

“Nothing new or updated, but headed in that direction,” Beamer said.

Harbor (6-foot-5, 242 pounds) played tight end and defensive end as a five-star recruit in high school but tried out a new position as a true freshman at South Carolina: Wide receiver. He played in all 12 games during a 5-7 season last year and came on late, seeing an increase in snaps and starting the Gamecocks’ final five contests.

Harbor caught 12 passes for 195 yards and a touchdown, with a career high six catches for 59 yards at Texas A&M and his first career touchdown catch against Furman, and could take a big step forward as a sophomore.

But Beamer understands that’s a fall concern. Harbor’s a talented athlete – ranked No. 1 in Bruce Feldman’s annual Freaks List on The Athletic before he played a single college snap last year – and he’s serious about his track and field career, too.

So even if it leads to a little time crunch on the back end, Beamer said, he’s happy to support Harbor as he tries to make his Olympic track dreams come true.

“It wouldn’t be great from a football standpoint because of the amount of time that he would miss football,” Beamer said, laughing. “But he and I have talked about it. We met in my office at the end of spring practice and I told him, ‘Man if you could get chance to run in the Olympics, that would be so cool.’”

“It’s something that would be really, really awesome for him and our entire university.”