Athlete of the Week: C.E. King sophomore Dillion Mitchell has eyes set on 2028 Summer Olympics

HOUSTON — At 16, C.E. King High School sophomore Dillion Mitchell is already faster than every freshman and sophomore who has ever stepped onto an American starting line, yet he greets the milestone with the shrug of someone late for class rather than someone rewriting record books.

“I’ve really just been living life,” Mitchell said after posting the nation’s top 60-meter time last month. “It’s the same thing. I really don’t let anything get to my head—it’s just track.”

Just track, indeed. The blink-of-an-eye sprint he describes has become a blur of gold-standard marks: a new U.S. No. 1 in the 60 meters, a freshman class record that still stands, and now sophomore standards that no one has touched. Each performance adds another line to a résumé that began at age six when he won the 100 meters at the Carl Lewis Relays.

“I’ve been building for it my whole life,” Mitchell said. “Ever since I really started to take track seriously, it’s just been like it was bound to happen.”

Bound, perhaps, because his first coach has never lowered the bar. Billy Mitchell, Dillon’s father, has guided him since the age of four and long ago stopped being surprised by the stopwatch.

“It used to,” Billy said of his astonishment, “but I also have to remember I’ve been coaching him since the age of four. So I’ve seen him do a lot of amazing things.”

The elder Mitchell keeps his son’s focus on history rather than hometown competition.

“I tell him all the time, he’s racing against ghosts,” Billy said. “He’s racing against the guys, the best that have ever done it. Right now, he’s in uncharted waters. He understands that the only limitations are the ones he puts on himself.”

That mindset has kept Dillon training above his grade level—literally. “My dad knows what it takes to be at the next level,” Dillon said. “He never really taught me to play down at my level; I always play above my level.”

Above his level still includes being a teenager. With Karen and Billy Mitchell prioritizing balance, Dillon plans to continue playing football and running track in college before chasing his biggest stage yet: the 2028 Summer Olympics.

“His mom and I are really proud about the fact that he’s a kid,” Billy said. “He enjoys being a kid. He wants to be a kid. He’s not trying to hurry up and grow up.”

For now, the only thing rushing is the clock when Mitchell explodes from the blocks. Everything else—records, headlines, Olympic trials—can wait its turn.