‘I’m Gout and I’m here to stay’: The 17-year-old Australian sprinter being compared to Usain Bolt

Credit: Casey Sims/ Oceania athletics

He’s already been dubbed a “sprinting sensation” and the “fastest teenager in the world” - and his name is rarely mentioned without a nod to Usain Bolt.

Meet Gout Gout, the 17-year-old Australian sprinter, who made his international senior debut by winning the 200m at a World Athletics event in the Czech Republic on Tuesday night.

He beat Cuban Reynier Mena into second place and British sprinter Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake into third place, in what was his European professional debut. Gout has long attracted comparisons to Bolt, an eight-time Olympic gold medallist, because of his youthful success - he broke the Australian 200m record just before turning 17.

However, the Australian says he is keen to make Gout Gout a name in it’s own right.

“Although I do run like Usain Bolt and I do maybe look like him, I’m just trying to be myself and trying to be the next Gout,” he told ITV News' Australian partner Channel 7 in March.

Gout Gout speaking to Bruce McAvaney in 7NEWS Spotlight special. Credit: Seven

Last year, Gout won the 200m silver at the World Athletics U20 Championships, aged just 16.

In December, he broke Olympic silver medallist Peter Norman’s long-standing Australian 200m record, as well as Bolt's U16 world best. He bettered that record on Tuesday, finishing the 200m in 20.12 seconds.Gout was born in 2007 to South Sudanese parents, who had emigrated to Australia a few years before he was born. His name, which is pronounced Gwot, should have been spelt Guot, but there was an Arabic spelling mix-up by the Sudanese government when his parents left the country.

Gout Gout was first Australian to beat the 20-second barrier for 200m in the U20 final of the Queensland State Championships. Credit: Australian Athletics/Oceania Athletics

He has always shown promise as a sprinter - as a 15-year-old, he not only won the men’s under-18 200m final at the 2023 Australian Junior Athletics Championships, but set a national under-20 record as a teenager. Gout will be 20 years-old by the time the Olympic Games takes place in LA in 2028.

He told Channel 7: “I want to go to the big events. I want to go to the Olympics. I want go to the ‘28 Olympics in LA. I want to go to the Brisbane Olympics. "And I just want to show the world that I’m Gout and how I’m here to stay - and the Olympics is the best place to do that.”

Watch the full Channel 7 documentary, Gout Gout: Australia's Sprint Sensation, here

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