It is stated that a sprinter who was hailed as an Olympic great after outpacing a teenage Usain Bolt in a 200-meter time has quit sports.
James Gallaugher, a native of Ulladulla, a small Australian seaside town, gained notoriety in 2012 after a video of his race in the NSW Primary Schools Championships surfaced on YouTube. As shown in the video below, a 12-year-old Gallaugher wins a spectacular victory in the 4×100-meter relay by coming back from a deficit of at least 20 meters with 100 meters remaining.
His time set a new record for his age group and was 0.08 seconds faster than 14-year-old Usain Bolt, the eight-time Olympic gold medallist. James is exceptional.
I wouldn’t say it merely because I coach him. Scott Richardson, a previous sprinting champion at the time, remarked, “He is a freak, and I mean that in the best way possible.”
“When I talk about him with my wife and my family, we just say he is going to be the greatest sprinter we have ever had if he keeps improving at the rate which he is.”
Richardson, like many others, would advise Gallaugher to run competitively if he kept getting better, but after such a bright beginning to his career, it seems that things will take a turn for the worse after just two years.
“The difficulties of early celebrity became evident,” he stated.
“At the national level in Australia, he found it difficult to dominate, even though he improved his 100-meter time to 10.77 seconds at the age of 15.
It was challenging for him to keep his advantage when competing against contemporaries who were more physically developed.
“Experts pointed out that although James was quick, he lacked the stature, physique, and biomechanics of elite sprinters like Usain Bolt.
He stopped participating in competitive sports at the age of sixteen.
His early departure was probably caused by a combination of his physical limits and the tremendous pressure of being compared to a legend.
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