Gout Gout has broken Jamaican icon Usain Bolt’s world record, but the legend has a warning for the teenage phenomenon.
Sprinting icon Usain Bolt has advised Australian teenage phenom Gout Gout not to forget about athletics and to find a good support network to stay focused on his career goals.
Gout, 18, retained the 200 meters title at the Australian Athletics Championships on April 12 with a time of 19.67 seconds, smashing 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 captured the national under-20 100m title, broke the 20-second mark at last season’s championships with a wind-assisted time of 19.84 and once had the fastest time by a 16-year-old in the 200m when he recorded that time, 20.04, in 2024.
The Jamaican GOAT, an eight-time Olympian, has some advice for the teenager and spoke in an interview with CNN.
Bolt expresses hope for young Gout Gout: “Hopefully he has the right group of people to guide him and keep him focused on athletics because the rest of the things will always be there.”
While warning about the sensation of teenage sprinting, Bolt said: “But if you make a mistake in athletics, then everything disappears.”
Australian sprinter Gout, 18, is set to make his Diamond League debut in the 200 meters in Oslo on June 10, 2026.
But focusing on the upcoming Under-20 World Championships in Oregon in August, he has indicated he will not be part of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, scheduled for July this year.
