Australian teen sprinting sensation Gout Gout turns pro
The 16-year-old silver medallist from the World Athletics U20 Championships, with a personal best 200m time of 20.60 seconds, is one of the fastest teenagers in track history.
Athletics
Australian teen sprinting sensation Gout Gout will soon be able to find out just how fast he can really run, as a professional.
He is the budding young sprinter who drew comparisons with eight-time Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt, after breaking the Jamaican’s 200m record for 16-year-olds when he took silver at the 2024 World Athletics U20 Championships in 20.60 seconds.
“I’m super excited to have signed with Adidas,” said Gout whose personal best in the 100m is 10.29 seconds, told Citius Mag.
“I’m not stopping here. I’ll work so hard to repay the faith they have shown me.I’ll stay hungry and chase down what’s next.”
Gout, born in Brisbane to South Sudanese parents raced to the second fastest 200m time by an Australian this year, a time that has only been beaten by compatriot Calab Law with his 20.54 seconds. The prodigy’s time has him in the top 30 of the world all-time U18 list for 200m.
Gout's fast races have excited the athletics world, with Olympic 100m hurdles champion Sally Pearson tipping him to be at his best shape by the time Australia hosts the Games in his hometown at Brisbane 2032.
“What you see of him on those videos is pretty impressive and, god, he’s going to be at the ripe age for the Brisbane Olympics coming around in a home country,” Pearson, who suggested that ‘maybe we are seeing the next Usain Bolt’, told Fox Sports.
“He’s just going to set the world on fire, I think. He’s doing the blue-riband events, as well, which everyone wants to see, so that’s going to take a lot of, I think, courage from him to be able to step up and have that belief in him, which he obviously already does, but to hold onto that all through a couple of Olympic cycles that we’re going into [leading up to] Brisbane.
A video of the Oceania U18 200m record holder went viral last August, and along with it came the expected comparisons to legendary Bolt.
“It’s pretty cool because Usain Bolt is arguably the greatest athlete of all time and just being compared to him is a great feeling,” Gout said.
“Obviously, I’m Gout Gout so I’m trying to make a name for myself. If I can get to the level he was, that would be a great achievement.”