Australian sensation Gout Gout is already being hailed as the future of sprinting.
The teenager smashed the previous 200 meter record for a 16-year-old with a time of 20.04 seconds during the Australian schools championships in December.
Gout Gout is dominating Australian youth sprinting
Gout Gout is dominating Australian youth sprintingCredit:
It is the second fastest effort over the distance by anybody under 18 — Erriyon Knighton posted 19.84 seconds as a 17-year-old in 2021.
Gout, who turned 17 just before the New Year, has already broken Peter Norman’s Australian 200m record from when he won silver at the 1968 Olympics.
Four-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson knows a thing or two about the sport and is launching the upstart Grand Slam Track League in 2025 with $12.6 million in prize money.
He spoke to talkSPORT at the Super Bowl and revealed that fans should pump the brakes on the Gout hype train.
“There have been so many phenoms that have come up at 15, 16 years old and didn’t get to ultimately be best of all time or a gold medalist because it’s a very difficult sport,” he said.
“I’m always hesitant in talking about him because everybody’s talking about him right now. I’m hesitant to put more pressure on him. You know, that’s undue.
“Let him just go out there and keep having fun and develop quietly. And that’s where he will have his best chance.
“He’s compared to Usain Bolt a lot. You know, a lot of people don’t know this — Usain Bolt was in the 2004 Olympics. Didn’t win, didn’t make the final.
“But ultimately he went through the Olympics. He did OK, right? He ultimately ended up being the greatest of all time, full stop, bar none. He’s the greatest.
“It’s a journey. So you don’t want to put too much pressure on this young kid, but he is a phenomenal talent. I’d like to see him just continue to be able to quietly and slowly develop into this because it’s a very difficult sport.”
Gout has also clocked 10.04 seconds in the 100 meters, leading many to anoint him as Jamaican legend Bolt’s heir apparent.
Gout is already the fastest ever Australian over 200mCredit:
Bolt won eight Olympic gold medalsCredit: Getty
The GOAT has even admitted that the newcomer ‘looks like me at the same age.’
Athletics Australia president Jane Flemming says she will attempt to protect the young athlete.
“You can imagine at the moment he’s going to have every sporting code, every agent, every commercial entity, they’ll all be chasing him and he hasn’t even finished year 11,” the Commonwealth Games gold medalist told 2GB’s Wide World of Sports.
“Part of our responsibility as an organisation is to make sure the young man gets to his 30’s in good physical and mental shape so we need to try and temper it. Make sure he gets back to school, hangs out with his mates, has a good time with it all, while still progressing him on the way through.
“It’s a long road. Rightly so he’ll probably make next year’s world championships and then Olympic Games and another Olympics and maybe another Olympics after that.”
Gout’s father Bona recently confirmed his son’s name is Guot, and is pronounced ‘Gwot’.
Bolt and Johnson are two of the greatest sprinters of all timeCredit:
“His name is Guot, it’s supposed to be Guot,” he insisted. “When I see people called him Gout Gout, I’m not really happy for him.
“I know that Gout Gout is a disease name but I don’t want my son to be called a disease name. It’s something that’s not acceptable.”
A translation error by the Sudanese government as the family migrated to Egypt is the reason for the discrepancy, per Daily Mail Australia.
But Gout’s manager has oddly insisted the original pronunciation is correct.
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