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Nestled just outside of Brisbane is the same racetrack Gout Gout used to plot his ascent to superstardom.
Back then, as a student of Goodna’s St Francis Xavier Catholic Primary School, he could not have anticipated how closely his life would be followed.
Few athletes have attracted the level of fanfare the 18-year-old has, lauded as Australia’s great hope to at last deliver Olympic sprint glory.
Gout Gout visiting students at his old school, St Francis Xavier Catholic Primary School.
With that comes a pressure to perform, a responsibility to be a role model, and a degree of focus and dedication that leaves little room for other areas of his life to be explored.
But for Gout, it is what he signed up for.
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“It’s a different experience to other teenagers, the pressure, and I guess I’m upheld to a different standard. But it definitely feels great – people have to have athletes to look up to,” Gout said.
“At times, it’s definitely draining, but I look at it from a good perspective. People think something great of me, and that’s why they hold me to a great standard. It’s definitely not something I dreamed, but it’s something that’s really special.”
Ahead of a year in which he has already been forced to make some tough career decisions, Gout returned to his old school on Friday and interacted with the next generation.
Now, he has bought a house in Springfield for his whole family on the back of the fame and endorsement deals which have come – most famously his multi-million dollar deal with Adidas.
In part, that was why Gout decided to pursue the World Championships in Oregon, relishing in his final opportunity to feel like a kid before plotting a global athletics takeover.
Gout Gout has secured a new partnership with Vegemite.
“Obviously being my last year in the under-20s it’s such a great meet, and a great experience to be on the world circuit,” he said.
“To know there are still going to be more Commonwealth Games coming up, I think stepping out of this one isn’t a big issue for me, and I’ll be back for sure.”
He said Oregon was one of the best tracks in the world, and many runners had achieved personal bests there.
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“The competition itself is amazing, it’s hard to describe – it’s kind of like the Olympics, but junior athletes,” he said.
“I just wanted to be a kid for a little longer, and just be around my friends ... I just wanted to compete with them and against them for the last time. It was definitely a difficult decision, but I think it was a decision that had to be made.”
Gout knows every success and failure will be watched, celebrated and scrutinised, yet he is still far from the finished product. By year’s end, he hopes to be consistently cracking the 10-second barrier in the 100 metres, and 20 seconds in the 200 metres.
While he is currently taking a gap year to hone his training, he revealed studying psychology at university was high on his radar from 2027, as he sought ways to ensure he did not follow a trend of young athletes suffering from burnout after undergoing such rapid rises through the ranks.
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