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| Photo: Usain Bolt / Instagram |
Usain Bolt, the former sprinting legend, has praised 16-year-old Gout Gout, who recently broke one of his records. Gout, an Australian sprinter, set a new 200m event record at the Under-20 World Championships in September, running 20.60 seconds. This narrowly beat Bolt's previous record by just 0.01 seconds, which had stood for 22 years.
Bolt appeared on the High Performance Podcast with Jake Humphrey to reflect on his early career and share advice for young athletes like Gout.
“When I started out, I didn’t understand the concept of ‘being great’ because I was young,” Bolt said. “At 15, I was winning just because of my talent. But when I turned professional, I started losing. That’s when I realized I had to work harder to improve.”
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| Photo: Usain Bolt / Instagram |
Bolt encouraged Gout to stay confident and keep learning from challenges, reminding him that progress isn’t always straightforward.
Gout has already drawn comparisons to Bolt, something he says is “pretty cool.” But the young sprinter is focused on building his own legacy. “Usain Bolt is the greatest, but I’m Gout Gout. I want to make a name for myself,” he said.
Gout has shown incredible potential this year. He ran the fastest 200m by an Australian in 31 years (20.29) and is now aiming to break the national record of 20.06 set in 1968. He also has a personal best of 10.29 in the 100m, setting him up as a future contender for senior records.
His talent hasn’t gone unnoticed. Gout signed a sponsorship deal with Adidas and joined athletes like Olympic gold medalist Noah Lyles in the brand’s elite team.
Bolt’s own journey serves as inspiration. At 21, he won a silver medal at the World Championships and went on to set world records in the 100m and 200m. By 2008, he became a global star with double gold at the Beijing Olympics and a 200m world record of 19.30, later lowered to 19.19 in 2009.
Could Gout follow in Bolt’s footsteps? With his talent and drive, he might just have what it takes. Source
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