‘Enormous publicity’: Breakout star Gout Gout set to cash in
With the world seemingly at the teenage sensation’s incredible feet, his manager and some all-time greats have spoken about his future.
Athletics
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Everyone is saying the same thing about athletics star Gout Gout as the teenager continues his rapid rise in the sport.
There was already a palpable buzz around Gout prior to his performance at this month’s Australian All Schools Athletics Championship in Brisbane.
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But he shot to global prominence after breaking Peter Norman’s 56-year-old national 200m record with a scintillating 20.04 seconds at that competition.
Two stunning runs in the 100m only added to the excitement and it led athletic royalty including Usain Bolt – who Gout is regularly compared to – and Michael Johnson to speak out about the teen phenomenon.
In a surprise to nobody whatsoever, Gout was named the Emerging Athlete of the Month from the Commonwealth Games Australia committee.
It appears the sky is the limit for the 16-year-old, with more records and incredible earning and marketing opportunities seemingly in his near future.
He had already signed a deal with Adidas prior to his jaw-dropping feats in Brisbane and
Bolt only added to the hype by stating Gout “looks like young me”.
His manager James Templeton was keen to preach patience, however, in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.
“We know we’re going to get plenty of interest from the big end of town,” Templeton told the masthead.
“But we have time on our side. Gout Gout is only 16. He is going to be around for a long time. We aren’t in an indecent hurry.
“But if Qantas are interested, they can always give me a call.”
Gout’s emergence had the likes of celebrity marketing guru Max Markson gushing over his “incredible future” and “enormous publicity”, but a wide range of athletics personalities are keen to push a different type of message for the young Queenslander.
Still a year 11 student at Ipswich Grammar, Gout’s career will need to be carefully managed from here, a thought echoed by four-time Olympic gold medallist Johnson.
“Great performances!” the 57-year-old sprinting legend wrote after Gout broke Norman’s record. “Fun to think about his potential.
“But even with such great potential, realising it is a whole different thing. The greater the potential, the higher the risk.
“He’ll need a solid team around him to help him navigate the journey.”
Middle distance great Sebastian Coe, the current president of World Athletics, was keen to emphasise a similar sentiment.
“He is clearly talented, but there is a bit of realism here as well,” the Briton said in an end-of-year call with reporters.
“He is 16, 17, he is an outstanding talent. But I think anybody that you speak to in the upper echelons of Australian coaching and certainly here at World Athletics will tell you that the biggest challenge in coaching is taking a really talented 17 to 18-year-old into the upper echelons of the senior teams.
“We have to be realistic about this … the vast majority of people who win world junior titles don’t go on to compete for their national team at senior level.
“This is a rare and precious talent that will need nurturing and protecting.”
Another national mark that is sure to be in Gout’s sights is the 100m record of 9.93 seconds set in 2003 by Patrick Johnson, the first and still only Australian to run under 10 seconds.
In an interview with ESPN, Johnson was also hopeful Gout had the right people around him as he plots what will be an extremely high-profile journey in athletics.
Stating he hopes Gout breaks his record, Johnson added: “But we should also make sure that we don’t put too much pressure on him too early.
“He’s still young and that is going to be the big thing now – how we nurture and support him.
“If you look to the next Olympics and further ahead to 2032, he’s got incredible potential to break records and shine a light on the talent in this country.
“And I’m really conscious that (his coach) Di (Sheppard) and his family, that he has got the best team around him because the spotlight is going to come on him hard.
“He is still a kid, so we need to let him enjoy being a kid, because the world will come very quickly at him and ask him to perform under the spotlight and the pressure.
“When he joins the circuit and the intense racing overseas, it’s really important that they manage that really well – and no doubt they will.”
Gout will train with current sprint king Noah Lyles in January and has plans to contest both senior and junior events in 2025.
Read more about Gout’s future and earning potential in The Daily Telegraph
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