Gout Gout broke Jamaican icon Usain Bolt’s world record, but the legend has a warning for the teenage phenom.
Sprinting icon Usain Bolt has advised Australian teenage phenom Gout Gout not to forget athletics and find a good support network in order to stay focused on his career goals.
Gout, 18, retained the 200m title at the Australian Athletics Championships on April 12 with a time of 19.67 seconds, crushing American sprinter Erriyon Knighton’s under-20 world record (19.69) and surpassing Bolt’s time of 19.93 seconds from 2004, the Jamaican’s fastest time as a teenager.
Gout, who also claimed the national under-20 title in the 100m, went sub-20 seconds at last season’s championships with a wind-assisted time of 19.84 and previously held the fastest time by a 16-year-old in the 200m when he posted that time, 20.04, in 2024.
The Jamaican eight-time Olympic GOAT has some advice for the teenager and spoke out in an interview with CNN.
Bolt expresses his hope for young Gout Gout: “I hope he has the right people to guide him and keep him focused on athletics, because the rest will always be there.”
While cautioning the teenage sprinting sensation, Bolt said: “But if you get it wrong in athletics, then it all disappears.”
Australian sprinter Gout, 18, is set to make his Diamond League debut over 200m in Oslo on June 10, 2026.
But focusing on the upcoming Under-20 World Championships in Oregon in August, he indicated he would not take part in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, scheduled for July this year.
