The 17-year-old Gout Gout is considered the future world star of athletics, he should be as good as Usain Bolt. He was taught how to deal with these expectations from Noah Lyles.
The sprint was, is and will always be the supreme discipline in athletics. Young runners who might have the potential to become a lot of attention to become the stars over 100 or 200 meters in the future. In the men there is an outstanding personality with Noah Lyles, with Letsile Tebogo a competitor who is at least equal in terms of sport.
Can an Australian really break the Bolt records?
However, they have in common that they do not come to Usain Bolt’s unmatched times so far. After a man who could pack his world records of 9.58 seconds over 100 and 19.19 seconds over 200 meters, sport is still looking. But he could be found because there is someone who is faster as a teenager than Bolt the same age. No American, even no Jamaican, as you would assume in the sprint – Gout Gout is 17 years old and comes from Australia.
Usain Bolt with his well -known jubilee pose
In December 2024, he set up a new state record – the previous one had passed for 56 years – over 200 meters with 20.04 seconds, with which he brought up the athletics world. A student from the eleventh grade in Ipswich, already over 1.80 meters tall, quite muscular for his age – and many meters sprinted many meters in front of his competitor: that reminded everything of Bolt. And Bolt also reminded of Bolt.
Usain Bolt: Gout “looks like my young me”
“He looks like my young me”the fastest man of all time wrote on Instagram. But Bolt was not as fast as Goat at a 16-year-old, and he also has to fear that his potential successor as a 17-year-old will be faster. In 19.93 seconds, Bolt managed half the stadium round shortly before the age of majority, and Gout has almost reached it. In Brisbane, he broke the magical 20-second mark for the first time in 19.98 seconds.
However, the time does not come into the official rating because the tailwind was too strong, but it is now anchored in the young Australian’s head. And there is little doubt that Gout will be faster than the 17 -year -old Bolt before his 18th birthday, which is only in December. “In the curve I thought that I could really do it. I am happy and surprised, but a big burden falls from my shoulders”said Gout.
Australia’s young sprinter Gout Gout
Because the athlete is already expecting what the public awaits from him: great. He wants to run under ten seconds over 100 meters this season, over 200 meters under 20 seconds – this would have already reached the (extended) world class in both disciplines. The fact that he recently contested a training camp with Lyles in Florida shows how big the confidence is from outside.
Training camp with Noah Lyles mainly helped him mentally
He learned from the 100-meter Olympic champion for two weeks. Given the short of time, not so much what he can do better on the track, but how he can deal with all the external influences. Because there is Lyles on a level with bolt, he uses the stage for himself. “I just learned to be myself and follow my processes. You can do everything in the world, but if you are mentally well positioned, you will be successful”said Gout afterwards.
The American sprinter Noah Lyles
And it is mentally an enormous task to run in the shadow of the largest of his sport, because Gout is no longer rid of the comparison with Bolt. “It’s pretty cool because Usain Bolt is probably the biggest athlete ever. It is a great feeling to be compared to him”said the Australian. “But I’m Gout Gout and I want to make my name as big as his. And then younger people can say: ‘You will be the next Gout Gout’.”
Gout Gout should actually be called Guot Guot
Although his history also includes that he shouldn’t actually be called Gout Gout at all. And, if his parents’ will, it will soon no longer be called that. They fled from South Sudan to Australia two years before his birth and through a mistake by the authorities, their actual families Guot became Gout, the English word for the disease. “When I see that people call him Gout Gout, I’m not really happy about it”said his father Bona, who “Bring back” wool.
However, it is questionable whether that would really be advisable and in the interests of his son. Because the name Gout Gout is already a global brand, the young sprinter has already signed a sponsorship contract with Adidas and is also likely to step on the big stage this year. Gout is entitled to start at the Tokyo World Championships in September. Open whether he will measure himself with the world elite beforehand.
Warning of Michael Johnson: “The greater the potential, the higher the risk”
“I have to do everything to show Noah that I want his place”said Gout after the joint training camp. He wants to be the best sprinter in the world. And many trust him that he can even be the best sprinter ever. But there are also those who warn. “It is fun to think about your potential. But despite this great potential it is a completely different thing to realize it. The greater the potential, the higher the risk”wrote 200 and 400 meter Olympic champion Michael Johnson at “X”.
Gout himself takes the expectations calmly. “Diamonds create under pressure and I guess I’m better than a diamond at the moment”he said with a wink. In front of him there had already been several sprinters who were caught as “the new bolt” – but there is a lot of indication that he really becomes.