Life comes at you fast, especially when you are Gout Gout. In April, the 18-year-old prodigy became the fastest teenager over 200m in history. Then last month, he finally got his own bedroom for the first time, having bought his family a new six-bedroom house in Brisbane. Now, in Oslo on Wednesday, he is one of the headline acts in his first senior Diamond League race.
Excited? You bet he is. “It’s definitely a special event, knowing that it’s my first race against the big boys,” he says, with a smile that lights up a drab summer’s day. “It’s a different ballgame for sure.”
Alongside him will be the Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo, as well three other men who have run 19.80 seconds or quicker. Gout is not just diving in the deep end, but doing so off a 10m high board. Not that he is worried. “I am going for the win,” he says.
There is someone else he will also be chasing too. Ever since Gout became a viral sensation, aged 15, he has been compared to Usain Bolt. Now, for the first time, he has a realistic chance to take down one of the Jamaican’s many records.
In 2013, Bolt ran 19.79sec for the 200m in Oslo, which is still a Bislett stadium record. Gout’s personal best is 19.67sec. So if the weather gods are kind – and the 12C forecast suggests otherwise – that time could be in his grasp.
“It’s definitely a great feeling being compared to the greatest athlete we’ve ever seen in track and field,” Gout says when asked about Bolt. “He’s the Goat for sure. I definitely want to follow in his footsteps, because he was the best to do it, but I want to follow my own path.”
However Bolt, he confesses, isn’t his hero. Instead, it is the 23-year-old Tebogo, who he first saw compete at the 2022 World Under-20 Championships. “I was like damn, he’s pretty good,” says Gout. “He’s just like me, a chilled guy.”
At that point, Gout was just 14 and had personal bests of 10.95sec over 100m and 22.14sec over 200m. But soon afterwards he took a second off his 200m best, went viral, and the rest is history.
Yet in many ways he remains like any other teenager. He is a big gamer, who enjoys playing Fifa and Ghosts of Tsushima on his PlayStation. His favourite musician is the rapper J Cole, while his favourite foods are steak and pasta. But few other teenagers have signed a £4m contract with Adidas that will see him up to the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, or have attracted such fame.
However, Gout and those around him insist that he hasn’t changed at all, despite the global attention which has included a 13-minute segment on 60 Minutes in the US.
“My life hasn’t changed too much,” says Gout. “I’m still doing the same old, usual stuff. Training, hanging out with friends. But I definitely had a good experience when I went to the F1 in Miami. That was pretty sick.”
The biggest difference, he reveals, is that for the first time he no longer has to share a room with his 23-year-old brother, having moved with his parents and six siblings into a new house.
“It was one of my biggest goals for sure, and to be able to do it for my family so young was definitely a big accomplishment,” he says. “I have my own room now. It’s definitely different, because I used to share it with my brother, but it’s kind of cool.”
So far there has only been one blip on his résumé – a slightly disappointing world championships in Tokyo last September, when as a 17-year-old, he failed to reach the final having run 20.36sec in the semi-finals.
However his highly-rated coach Di Sheppard says that there was a valid explanation. “He had mock exams for 10 days leading into Tokyo, so a lot of times I had to flip the programme because he was cooked with the studying,” she says.
“He was combining running with being a straight A student back then. But now he’s a full-time professional and does four days on track, as well as gym on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays.”
Gout’s agent, James Templeton, who has managed some of the biggest names in track and field, including the London 2012 Olympic champion David Rudisha, confirms that what you see is what you get.
“His authenticity is very natural,” he says. “He’s amiable, friendly, easy going and authentic.”
That goes for the family, which emigrated from South Sudan before Gout was born. His father works at a local hospital, while his mum raises his younger siblings.
“I’ve managed Gout since he was 14,” adds Templeton. “Back in November 2022, Di said, ‘I’ve got a young guy, it’s early days, but I think you should get involved’. He broke through shortly after that but he hasn’t really changed.”
Templeton also confirms that Gout still drives a very sensible Hyundai car with good fuel economy. “He was a good student at school,” he adds. “He has high emotional intelligence. He grasps things quickly, and he adapts.”
Before I leave, I ask Sheppard what Gout’s superpower is. “He is super calm and he is very easy going,” she says. “When it comes to sprinting, it’s his cadence. He has immense ground force. He is also extremely elastic, but you have to be careful you don’t overload it.”
Gout, though, has a slightly different take. “I guess my superpower is that I run fast, but I also put a smile on everyone’s faces when I run.”