By Chris Chavez
October 28, 2024
16-year-old Australian sprints star Gout Gout has turned professional and signed a contract with adidas.
Here’s what you need to know:
– Gout earned a silver medal in the 200m at the World Athletics U20 Championships with a personal-best time of 20.60 seconds. He lowered his Australian U18 record, which was 20.69 heading into the championships. Gout is No. 23 on the world all-time U18 list for 200m. He holds the Oceania U18 200m record.
– Gout was the second-fastest Australian man over 200m this year. Only Calab Law, who ran 20.54 and 20.60 in March and April went faster. The Olympic standard to compete at the Paris Olympics was 20.16, which is the same standard for the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo.
– He also owns a 100m personal best of 10.29 from the Queensland Athletics Championships in March. That puts him at No. 35 on the world all-time U18 list for the 100m.
– If all goes well, he will be 20 years old when the 2028 Olympics will be held in Los Angeles. He would be 24 years old when the Olympics are held in his home state in Brisbane.
Backstory
– Gout was born in Brisbane to parents who migrated from South Sudan and is one of seven children.
– His impressive speed has gone viral on social media, making headlines even before his global championship debut. A video of him winning a 100m race in Australia has been viewed more than 13 million times on Twitter.
– Because of his fast times at 16 years old and his tall stature, he has drawn early comparisons to 100m and 200m world record holder Usain Bolt. Bolt ran 20.61 at the 2002 World Junior Championships, so people quickly noted that Gout ran 0.01 second faster. Gout told FOX Sports, “It’s pretty cool because Usain Bolt is arguably the greatest athlete of all time and just being compared to him is a great feeling. Obviously, I’m Gout Gout so I’m trying to make a name for myself. If I can get to the level he was, that would be a great achievement.”
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Chris Chavez
Chris Chavez launched CITIUS MAG in 2016 as a passion project while working full-time for Sports Illustrated. He covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and grew his humble blog into a multi-pronged media company. He completed all six World Marathon Majors and is an aspiring sub-five-minute miler.
