Australian prodigy Gout Gout has yet again earned high praise and compared to another legendary sprinter, not the usual Usain Bolt.
Australian sprinting prodigy Gout Gout is surely destined for greatness as he has since been compared to another successful athlete and it’s not Usain Bolt.
Gout Gout came into the limelight for all the right reasons and one thing for sure is that he is not exiting the big stage anytime soon. Just this season, he ran a personal best time of 10.29 seconds to claim the win in the U-18 Boys 100m at the Queensland Athletics Championships in Brisbane.
Gout Gout also claimed top honours in the men’s 100m at the Australian Under-20 Championships in 10.48 seconds. He represented Australia at the 2024 World Athletics U20 Championships in Lima, Peru, where he won the silver medal in the 200m. He made a huge career milestone at the end of the season, signing with Adidas and joining other top athletes like triple-world champion Noah Lyles.
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After signing with Adidas, he extended the winning streak to the Queensland All-Schools Championships where he clocked a time of 20.29 seconds, achieving the Oceania Under 20 record. With his striking performances, he has certainly earned praise from legendary runners with Aussie sports broadcasting legend Bruce McAvaney also joining the wave.
The 71-year-old compared Gout Gout to Olympic champion Cathy Freeman who earned a gold medal in the 4x100m at the 1990 Commonwealth Games at 16 before winning a silver medal in the 1996 Games in the 400m. The 51-year-old won a gold medal at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000.
McAvaney told Code Sports: "Has there been anyone more exciting? Freeman was but he’s at a more mature stage than Cathy was at 16 in terms of what he is doing.
"We have never had anyone quite like him and the potential is unique within this country I think."
However, his manager, James Templeton is not a fan of such comparisons and was very categorical as he noted that he just wants Gout Gout to live a normal life without pressure from the people.
He expressed dissatisfaction with comparisons to Usain Bolt but seemingly, such is not going away anytime soon as the youngster continues to drop faster times and make history for Australia.
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"I've avoided using the 'UB' [Bolt] comparison. I think that's unfair to a young athlete. For 18 months I've basically said a blanket 'no' to every media outlet in Australia that has asked. We just want to allow him to be a normal kid at school,” James Templeton told ABC News.
"We don't want him to have any distraction. It's all going to be ahead of him. We want his life to be as normal as possible for as long as possible. But the modern world with viral videos, despite saying no to media, he has gone viral and everybody is starting to get to know him."