Gout Gout is undoubtedly a remarkable sprinting talent – but he’s got a long way to go before matching Usain Bolt’s achievements at senior level.
The 17-year-old made history in December 2024 by completing the 200m in just 20.04 seconds, becoming the new Australian and Oceanian record holder for the distance. The previous record holder was Peter Norman, the 1968 Olympic silver medalist.
Gout’s achievement at such a young age has left everyone involved in Athletics wondering if he’ll go on to break Bolt’s records over the next two decades. Like Bolt, Gout is a specialist in the 100m and 200m distances. His personal best in the 100m is 10.17.
So, how does Gout compare to Bolt? The latter holds the world record in the 100m (9.58 seconds) and 200m (19.19 seconds) distances. Both of those records were smashed at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, where Bolt also won gold in the 4x100m relay.
Bolt’s incredible pace helped him win eight gold medals at the Olympics – including three consecutive golds in both the 100m and 200m distances – and 11 gold medals at the World Championships. He’s widely regarded as the greatest sprinter of all time.
While Gout is nowhere near matching Bolt’s career yet, he’s still got plenty of time. And he’s quicker than Bolt was as a teenager. Gout’s time of 20.04 seconds last month made him the fastest 16-year-old 200m runner in history. He turned 17 on December 29.
Bolt’s fastest 200m time as a teenager was 20.13 seconds, which speaks volumes of Gout’s potential. Only one man has ran the 200m quicker at U18 level – Erriyon Knighton of the United States, who ran the distance in just 19.84 seconds as a 17-year-old in 2021. Knighton, now 20, has gone on to become a two-time World Championship medalist and competed at the Tokyo and Paris Olympics, agonizingly finishing fourth twice in the 200m.
Gout was born in Ipswich, a city in the Australian state of Queensland, in 2007. His parents are from South Sudan and moved to Australia in 2005.
Bolt is a huge fan of Gout. “He looks like (a) young me,” the legendary sprinter wrote on Instagram after seeing the teenager in action. Bolt also offered Gout and other young sprinters some advice during a recent appearance on the ‘High Performance’ podcast.
“When I started out, I didnt understand the concept of being great because I was young,” Bolt said, “I was 15 when I won the world juniors, I was really young and I was really talented so I didnt have to work as hard as it was just talent, as I was winning and winning.
“I remember when I got to the professional level, and I felt like it was just going to be easy. And I got to the stage where I would go to meets and I would lose. And I was like, This is strange, this is new. So it took me a while to understand.”
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