VIRGINIA BEACH — VIRGINIA BEACH (WTKR) — Bayside's Andrew Salvodon has yet to return to school since the Virginia Showcase.
He's got a feeling he knows what the reception will be when he walks the halls again on Tuesday.
"It's either going to be a whole bombardment of people I don't know," he said. "Or it will be quiet until the end of school, when all sports are in the cafeteria and they'll all bum rush me."
It will be the latest bit of star treatment for Salvodon after a life-altering win on Friday in the 2025 Virginia Showcase.
Going up against 2024 Olympic gold medalist Quincy Wilson in the boys 500 meter dash, the Marlin senior sprinter turned in the performance of a lifetime. He ran a time of 1:00.49, which shatter a national record and bested the rest of the field by two seconds.
"This is awesome. I'm ranked in the world instead of just high school now," Salvodon said. "I'm actually comparable to adults, Olympians. This is new."
He walked into Friday's race knowing most would be eyeing Wilson and for good reason. The Chesapeake native just won a gold medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics with the U.S. 4x400m relay team.
"I was thinking about the whole time. Before the race I was thinking, 'He's an Olympic gold medalist," Salvodon said. "'I'm about to race an Olympian.'"
Midway through the first lap the Bayside runner sped past Wilson and broke into the first lane. He would never give the lead back, extending his lead further over the final lap to turn in his record-breaking time of 1:00.49.
"When I broke in to get the first lane and once I did a full lap and I couldn't hear him super close, I felt like I had it," he said. "I turned around and everyone celebrated because no one expected me to win."
Since the win his life has turned on its head. Salvodon had to turn his phone onto "do not disturb" mode immediately after the race.
"I got 200, 300 texts. It just kept reloading over and over, my phone started lagging," Salvodon said. "I had to turn it off because it was just doing too much."
That was just the beginning. His Instagram following has grown by more than 3,000 people since the run and the race video has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times across all social media.
"When everyone kept bombarding me and everyone kept calling me, it really showed the thing I just did was so serious," Salvodon said. "It was like climbing Mount Everest."
"I thought I'd just do my big one here and then just go to college and have fun. But no this has turned into something more serious."
The South Carolina commit will focus on finishing his high school career out strong. He's won a pair of state championships, once in the 500 meter dash and another in the 400 meter dash in outdoor track.
Salvodon hopes to add a few more trophies and milestones to his resume before heading off to Columbia, but it will take quite the accomplishment to take the Virginia Showcase off the top of that list.
"I just thought about the good things that could happen if I win. So instead of being all worried about it, just imagined winning," he said. "And it became reality."
