Sixteen months ago, among a bunch of teenagers who had stepped onto the track for a 200m meet, there was one runner in lane 6: Gout Gout. By the end of the race, jaws had dropped, and the commentator said, “That is not human”. Well, as it turns out, he was just an 11th grader then, but had already run 20.04s, the fastest time in Australian history. However, that version of him, or even the one today, is far from the finished product, his coach believes.

After all, coach Di Sheppard spotted the sprint phenom when he was still a young child and has coached him since then. However, she still believes the 18-year-old is an unfinished product and failing to acknowledge that can bring about injury or potential burnout.

“If I tried to make him super quick now, I’d break him,” Sheppard told 60 Minutes. “It’s the fact he’s a kid, and he’s got so much more physical development. Like, he only really hit puberty in the last 12 to 18 months, basically.

Not just that, Sheppard pointed out the fact that she and the Australian sprinter had been dealing with growth issues.

“I had to deal with a lot of growth issues with Gout,” she explained. “When I met Gout, he walked right up on his toes. Took me six months to get the heel down, and it wasn’t all the way down. He still walked… That’s why he looks like he kinda [makes a bouncing-like gesture].”

This is not the first time that someone has pointed that out. Sports therapist Chong Xie did so in April 2025, citing it as a potential problem. “What is actually causing him to raise his heel so high? Here is the thing that we’re trying to show people that is lacking, which is a fascia connection.”

Furthermore, Dylan Hicks, an expert in sports biomechanics, told 60 Minutes, “He’s got these springs in his legs now.” While speaking about Gout Gout, he further explained, “Everybody has springs in their legs because we’ve got these things called Achilles Tendons. But when we have them at a longer length, the Achilles Tendons are very powerful at storing elastic energy. So we see him [Gout] sort of bouncing his way down the track and using less steps than everybody else.”

However, that’s clearly something Di Sheppard and the sprinter’s team focused on improving since then. Meanwhile, beyond his growth, another problem with Gout is his slow start.

That’s partly thanks to his frame, as unlike Usain Bolt, the teenage phenom is still only 6 feet and weighs around 150 pounds. It’s the frame more typical of a long or mid-distance runner, not someone who aims to become a 200m specialist. 

However, time is on his side because after all, Gout Gout’s target isn’t the here and now. If anything, the teenager has lofty goals with a potential target likely the 2032 Olympics. Set to be held in Brisbane, it’ll probably mark the 18-year-old’s peak of his powers as a sprinter. That is likely their aim, although Sheppard knew from the very start that the sky was the limit for Gout.

“They were showing me a particular boy, and Gout was running against a particular boy, and I’m just going, ‘Mm, no, who’s the other kid? Who’s that? I want him.’” Sheppard explained.

“I looked at him and just went, ‘Oh my God.’ Something just, gut punch. It was just like, this kid’s the real deal.”

That’s why comparisons to Usain Bolt have followed Gout Gout ever since his breakout run. And now, the fastest man in history has weighed in on the teenager’s future as well.

Usain Bolt offers Gout Gout some advice

Things have changed for Gout Gout in 2026, and it all has to do with Usain Bolt. The 18-year-old didn’t just break the U20 200m record again; he broke Usain Bolt’s U20 200m record. The same one that the world’s fastest man set when he was a teenager, when he clocked in 19.67. Ever since then, the world has taken even more notice of the rising Australian star, and it has shown.

Adidas has reportedly given him a four-million-dollar deal, his social media following has risen, and so has his popularity. And the latter worries Bolt because he knows what it’s like to be a teenager while attracting all this attention.

“At that young age, because I was there, you start getting put left and right, and then you forget track and field,” Bolt told CNN Sports.

“Hopefully, he has the right set of people to guide him and keep him focused on track and field because the rest of the stuff will always be there. But if you mess up on track and field, then it all goes away.”

Yet, Bolt’s warning may be unwarranted because Gout Gout has been laser-focused. The 18-year-old struggled during the 2025 World Championships, his only senior meet so far. Since then, however, he skipped the indoor season, locked in, and has steadily improved. He then broke Bolt’s U20 record and clocked in 10.21 seconds in the 100m at the Australian U20 Championships.

However, he’ll now travel to participate in his first senior Diamond League meet, where he’ll be up against some of the world’s best again. And only time will tell how Gout Gout deals with the pressure.