He’s 16 and seen as Usain Bolt’s successor – but Australian Gout Gout keeps his feet on the ground

It’s hard to be the next big thing. There’s all the excitement and promise, but also a lot of expectation. It’s the minefield that 16-year-old Australian sprinter Gout Gout and his coach Di Sheppard have negotiated this year – ever since a viral video emerged of the young Queenslander destroying a group of schoolboy sprinters with a long stride that strangely reminiscent of Usain Bolt. .

Comparisons to Bolt abounded, but Gout, the third of seven children born to South Sudanese immigrants Monica and Bona Gout, tried to take matters into his own hands. He acknowledges that it’s “pretty cool” to be put in the same sentence as the greatest sprinter in history, but he makes clear that that’s not what he’s there for. “My name is Gout Gout, so I’m trying to make a name for myself.”

Related: Australian sprint prodigy Gout Gout hits new 200m heights

The internet buzz started before Gout left Queensland, but it grew with every glimpse the world saw of him. In August, he won a silver medal in the 200m at the Under-20 World Championships in Lima, Peru, where he competed against teenagers up to two years older than him, while achieving a record personal 20.60 seconds.

That was all Adidas needed to sign him to a professional contract in October, but he underlined his potential less than a week later when he ran a personal best of 20.29 seconds at the athletics championships all Queensland schools in Brisbane. The run, an Australian under-18 and under-20 record, was the fastest run by an Australian in more than 30 years and propelled him to fourth on the national all-time list, almost within arm’s reach of revered 1968 Olympic silver medalist Peter Norman. reference of 20.06s. Remember, gout is only 16 years old.

Olympic champion Sally Pearson and renowned commentator Bruce McAvaney are among those in the athletics community who marvel at its potential, knowing that gout is expected to peak around the time of the 2032 Brisbane Olympics. timing will only intensify the attention. in the years to come.

Sheppard and Gout’s manager James Templeton are confident he will be the fastest man in Australia – and soon. But in the meantime, they’re working hard to keep his feet on the ground and protect him from the pitfalls that come with early celebrity in the sports world.

Sheppard tells the story of a conversation she had with the schoolboy a week after returning from Peru. Gout turned to her and said, “What we did was pretty important, huh?” She agreed, replying: “Yes, it was really big, but we don’t act like that, do we?” He just nodded and replied, “No, it’s not.” »

“We both knew it was an important moment, but we also understood that it was only part of a much longer journey,” she says.

Sheppard worked with generations of teenagers as an athletics coach at Ipswich High School, a historic private school based in the working-class stronghold west of Brisbane. She first saw Gout at the age of 13 with one of her classmates for a tryout for the GPS championships in 2020.

“I saw him running on the oval and there was just something about him and the way he moved,” she said. “I couldn’t place him, but my instincts screamed: Who is this kid?”

Sheppard has a history of scouting talent, having guided fellow Sudanese-Australian teenager Joseph Deng into the sport 10 years earlier. Deng went on to break the Australian 800m record and was an Olympic athlete in Paris this year. Despite his excitement about Gout’s potential, Sheppard slowly brought him into athletics. For the first eight months, he only trained twice a week and continued to play football. Then she sat him down and said, “Dude, I think you can go all the way.”

However, she continued to take it with care, managing a growth spurt, focusing on her technique and training discipline. She emphasizes the responsibility of athletes “because it’s their journey – you can’t make someone something if they don’t want to do it”.

Still, the speed of its development disconcerted her. She expected him to run around 20.50 seconds this year, but he’s way ahead of schedule, so she’s now more wary of predictions. “I had already written a record in pencil [20.06] for 2026, but it could happen sooner if we stay on track,” she says.

So far, she thinks he’s doing “really, really well” with the hype. “I’ve talked to Gout about a lot of things over the last two years, because they need to know. You can’t hide anything from them, otherwise it will just come out and hit them in the back of the head. We must therefore keep their feet on the ground. Everything you do is a stepping stone and we are far from the top.

His naturally laid-back personality contributed to this approach. “He’s a very laid-back, happy kid,” Sheppard said. “It is extremely nice to have him on our team because he is always optimistic.”

Gout will return to the track for the Australian All Schools Championships in Brisbane this week, where he will run the 100m on Friday and the 200m on Saturday. His aim will be to break Sebastian Sultana’s national under-18 record of 10.27 seconds in the 100m. He comes in with a best of 10.29, set in March, but given his substantial improvement over 200m since then, he should also run much faster over the shorter distance, if conditions are right.

But Sheppard and Templeton are also aiming for a milestone in the 200m. The qualifying standard for next year’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo is 20.16s, while Usain Bolt’s best mark in the under-18s is 20.13s. Neither seems out of the question for him this summer.

After the school athletics season ends this month, Gout will continue his sprint education on the toughest training ground on the planet. Through their joint sponsor Adidas, he and Sheppard secured an invitation from Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles and his coach Lance Brauman to join their training group in Florida for a few weeks in January.

Sheppard says it will be a learning opportunity for both of them: experiencing the best performance environment in the world and understanding what it takes to reach that level. She also hopes to “gather some clues on how to handle things when the media doesn’t side with you.”

She admits the company jump will be “a bit surreal”, but she won’t allow it to distract them from the work still needed if Gout is to rise into the rare air occupied by the world’s fastest men. “We know that the work is not yet done: we have not even reached Everest base camp,” she says.

And if his efforts aren’t enough to keep him grounded, those of his family will be. It is said that Gout may not become the fastest in his family. “There’s a little one who’s 10 years old – he says, ‘I’m going to be better than my brother,’” Sheppard said.