Adidas are known to boast some of the world’s biggest and best sporting talent.
The global sports giants currently count football icon Lionel Messi and Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes among their flagship athletes, and they may well have just found their next superstar.
Gout Gout shot to fame at this year’s U20 World ChampionshipsGetty
Australian sprinter Gout Gout has gained worldwide acclaim for his Olympic-standard times whilst still aged just 16.
This included his staggering 20.60-second 200m effort in the Under-20 World Championships in September, which saw him surpass athletics great Usain Bolt‘s record in the same event in 2002.
And the youngster’s huge promise has not gone unnoticed by Adidas, with a sponsorship deal to match.
Announcing the exciting news to athletics platform Citius Mag, Gout said: “I’m super excited to have signed with Adidas.
“I’m not stopping here. I’ll work so hard to repay the faith they have shown me. I’ll stay hungry and chase down what’s next.”
The endorsement sees Gout become of the youngest athletes in Australia to turn professional and sign a contract with a major brand, confirming his enormous potential.
Dubbed ‘the next Usain Bolt’, the track starlet was born in Queensland in 2007 to parents from South Sudan, who had moved to Australia just two years earlier.
He boasts multiple national records, including the Under-16 100m record of 10.57 seconds he set as a 14-year-old, and the Under-18 200m record of 20.87 seconds.
Gout’s development this year has been particularly impressive, winning the under-18 100m title Queensland Athletics Championships with a personal best of 10.29 seconds.
This time is just shy of the 10 seconds flat required to qualify for the Olympics.
2022 World Cup winner Lionel Messi is among Adidas’ big-name athletesGetty
Kansas City Chiefs’ star quarterback Patrick Mahomes is also under contract with the sports giantsGetty
The 16-year-old’s exploits this year have raised hopes that Gout could become Australia’s first ever 100m Olympic gold medallist.
Two-time Games medallist and fellow Australian Sally Pearson has already tipped Gout for greatness, as she compared him to the fastest man alive, Bolt.
Speaking to World Wide of Sports, Pearson said: “I was in the same sort of era as Usain Bolt and he did set the world on fire; not just by his sporting achievements, but by his personality, as well.
“If you’re comparing him [Gout to Bolt] just on sporting talent, then maybe we are seeing the next Usain Bolt, and how lucky are we to have that in Australian sport.
“Let’s just see if he can keep continuing that rise over the next few years.”
And while Gout is on course to compete for a medal at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, Pearson talked up the prospect of a home Games at Brisbane 2032, where he will still only be 24.
She continued: “What you see of him on those videos is pretty impressive and, God, he’s going to be at the ripe age for the Brisbane Olympics coming around in a home country.
“God, he’s just going to set the world on fire, I think.”
Gout has been compared to Usain Bolt, who won an unprecedented 100m and 200m gold at three consecutive Olympics.Getty
With huge excitement already building around Gout, it is no surprise that Adidas have moved to secure his signature.
The German sportswear manufacturers previously snapped up Lionel Messi in 2006 whilst still a teenager, before penning a lifetime contract with the brand in 2017 worth an estimated $1 billion
And the young Australian is not the only sprint star to be endorsed by Adidas, as he joins current Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles as one of their flagship track athletes.
