Gout Gout is an Australian sprinter born in 2007 in Brisbane. His parents migrated from South Sudan to Brisbane in 2005. He made his senior competitive debut at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September 2025, aged 17.
At 16 Mr Gout covered 200 metres in 20.04 seconds, making him the fastest 16-year-old in history and the fastest Australian over that distance. He broke a national record that had stood for 56 years. In July 2025 he improved his time to 20.02 seconds. At the same age, Usain Bolt's fastest 200-metre time was a tenth of a second slower.
Mr Gout has a distinctive, upright running style, appearing to leap rather than sprint across the track. His team says he has an unusually long and strong Achilles tendon, which gives him the elasticity to stride over metres.
Mr Gout signed a multi-million-dollar deal with Adidas. More than 10,000 people attended a small meet in Melbourne in March 2025 to watch him run a 200-metre race, the biggest crowd for a one-day event in Australia in more than 20 years. His manager is James Templeton. Bolt has said Mr Gout "looks like a young me".
Mr Gout's long-term targets are the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane in 2032, his home town. He will be 24 in 2032, close to the age when sprinters typically peak.
Absence makes the heart go wander.