Gout Gout, the 16-year-old sprint sensation from Australia, must sidestep the ‘next Bolt’ tag

The theatrics were in response to the display on the clock — 10.04 seconds. If not for the illegal wind speed, Gout Gout would have entered the record books as the fastest-ever youth athlete in the 100 metres. Not one to be deterred, Gout wrapped up the day by winning the final in 10.17 seconds. He walked away with the title of the fastest Under-18 Australian ever and moved to sixth on the all-time list.

On Saturday, Gout did even better by breaking Peter Norman’s 200 metre Australian record of 20.06 seconds set at the 1968 Olympic Games. Gout made it a one-horse race in the home stretch to clock 20.04.

GOUT OF THIS WORLD 🌏🌏

In 20.04-seconds, 16-year-old Gout Gout has sprinted into athletics history as Australia's fastest ever man over 200m, taking down Peter Norman’s Australian record of 20.06 from the 1968 Olympic Games.

20.04 (+1.5). The oldest record in the books is… pic.twitter.com/wVpPSebbAp

— Athletics Australia (@AthsAust) December 7, 2024

This is not the first time Gout has hit the headlines. Nor the only instance when comparisons with Usain Bolt have emerged. Since the great Jamaican retired in 2017, many young sprinters have been labelled the ‘next Bolt’. The fixation to unearth the next superstar is not restricted to track and field, many ‘new Maradonas’ or ‘next Tendulkars’ have fizzled out like combusting shooting stars. After scorching the track and making waves as teeanagers, young sprinters have met a similar fate.

SORRY WHAT?!👂 10.04? 👀

Teenage sensation Gout Gout gets the crowd roaring with a spectacular though windy 10.04 (+3.4) performance in his U18 100m Heat – the fourth fastest time in all conditions by an Australian in history.

Stay tuned for the final at 3:40pm AEST. Tune in… pic.twitter.com/UbXfzH5mj6

— Athletics Australia (@AthsAust) December 6, 2024

For Gout there is no escaping the early stardom in sport-crazy Australia.

In August, Gout caught the world’s attention. At the Under-20 World Championships in Lima, he won a silver medal with a personal best of 20.60 seconds. Bayanda Walaza, the winner from South Africa, was two years his senior. Gout joined the big league of Next-Gen stars when Adidas signed him up after Lima. His timing at the Peruvian capital immediately raised his profile. He had bettered Bolt’s gold-winning timing of 20.61 back in 2002. Bolt was 15 back then, Gout will turn 17 on December 29.

Lima was a stepping stone. A few months later at the Queensland School Championships, Gout went quicker (20.29s) for a new Australian Under-20 record with another Bolt-like finish, the rest of the field not even in the frame as Gout dipped at the finish line.

Similarity in running styles

There is a likeness in the running styles of Bolt and Gout. Gout’s tall, looks amazingly unhurried on track for a sprinter, is a slow starter but has blazing speed in the last 30 to 40 metres. He’s aware of the long shadow of Bolt creeping up on him.

“I do see it (comparison with Bolt). My stride length is pretty long, my knee height is pretty high and just the amount of tallness I get when I’m running. I’m just me trying to be me. Obviously, I do run like him (Bolt). I do sometimes look like him, but obviously I’m making a name for myself, and I think I’ve done that pretty well. I just want to continue doing that and continue to be not only Usain Bolt but continue to be Gout Gout,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Early next year Gout will have the golden opportunity to train alongside Noah Lyles, the Olympic Champion in the 100 metres. Since Bolt’s retirement, Lyles has become the rock star of men’s sprinting. Being in the same training group as Lyles couldn’t have come at a better time for the 16-year-old with lots to learn.

His coach Di Sheppard, accompanying him to Florida, realises that Gout’s peak is far away. “We know the job is not done yet… we haven’t even reached the base camp of Everest,” Sheppard told The Guardian.

Plateau or burnout

Not getting carried away by early triumphs is an important lesson in a sport where prodigious sprinters can plateau or burnout.

There’s Trayvon Bromell. At 18, he ran a wind-aided 9.77 seconds at the NCAA Big 12 Conference. Seen as the next spriting sensation, Bromell now 29, has never won an Olympic medal of any colour.

Japan’s Yoshihide Kiryū at 21 became the first from his country to run a sub-10 second 100 metre race. Prior to this, he had equalled the world junior record to raise hopes of the emergence of an Asian superstar. At 28, Kiryū has an Olympic silver and two World Championships bronze — all in the men’s 4x100m relay.

Even in Australia, there is the cautionary tale of James Gallaugher, a boy-wonder sprinter who peaked too early. When he was 14 years old, Gallaugher from New South Wales, clocked 21.73 seconds in the 200 metres, faster than Bolt at the same age. Gallaugher fizzled out at 16.

Erriyon Knighton, the 20-year-old who missed out on a podium finish at the Paris Olympics, is still seen as a legitimate successor to Bolt. He’s broken Bolt’s Under-18 and Under-20 in the 200 metres, has a bronze and a silver in successive World Championships. But he’s yet to challenge Lyles at the big events.

Gout needs to look no further than Bolt to realise that setting junior records or being supremely talented does not guarantee a podium finish at the Olympic Games.

On the High Performance Podcast, Bolt talks about his reality check at the 2004 Athens Games, his first Olympics.

“Because of my talent I thought I was doing well… because I did well in the Jamaican trials. Then you get to the Olympics and meet up all these guys who have been training all year around and dedicated to their craft and I didn’t make it past the first round. For me that was a little bit of a wake up call. That showed how far behind I was,” Bolt said.

It took Bolt another three years to get his act together.

Gout is bound to experience setbacks on the track. Whether he fades away, like the many of the ‘next Bolts’ or sprints to dazzling heights. Only time, split into one-hundredths of a second, will tell.