After his school days are over, the young Australian begins to fully focus on further progress as an elite international sprinter. writes Nicole Jeffery.
School is out for gout. The 17-year-old Australian sprinter graduated from historic Ipswich Grammar School, just 40km south-west of the 2032 Olympic host city of Brisbane, late last month, marking the end of his schooling career.
And what a phenomenon. A silver medalist at last year’s World Under-20 Championships in Lima, aged just 16, he officially became the fastest 200m runner Australia and Oceania have ever produced earlier this year. His outstanding performances meant he ended 2025 having been voted AW’s International Men’s Under-20 Athlete of the Year.
Gaut’s domestic season was highlighted when he ran 20.05 minutes at the Queensland championships in March, bettering the 57-year-old Australian benchmark and area record (20.06) set by 1968 Olympic silver medalist Peter Norman, and the qualifying standard for September’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. He followed that up later that day with his first sub-20-second clocking (19.98, albeit in a 3.6 m/s wind) at the state finals.
Gut improved to 19.84 to win the Australian senior title in Perth in April. Again there was illegal wind, but only (2.2). The same weekend he also recorded his first two 100m times under 10 seconds (both 9.99, both windy) to win the national under-20 title.
The demands of the final year of school kept him largely away from the international tour in 2025, except for a quick school holiday excursion to Europe in June and July, where he improved his national 200m record to 20.02 to win the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava, and won the 23 200m to 23 200m at Monstiacowin heading of a2. -1.9 m.
Until his arrival in Tokyo in September, he had not been featured at international level again, which is rare for a teenager outside the world’s top ten. His shoe sponsor, Adidas, organized a media conference for him, attended not only by the Australian media, but also by international journalists who have also been following his astonishing progress.
Gaut’s primary ambition, he told the audience, was to get a legitimate sub-20 clock under his belt. Unfortunately, the Tokyo weather did not oblige. He did make it to the semifinals with a 20.23 effort for third, but that left him in a highly competitive semifinal where his fourth-place finish (20.36) was not enough to advance to the final.
The result was about as expected by seasoned athletics judges, who were unfazed by the hype surrounding the long-walking teenager and believed his inexperience would be a factor in the big show. However, his appeal to the Australian public has not been denied. Television ratings showed that more than three million of her compatriots watched her run both her heat and semi-finals.
There wasn’t much glamor for the young athlete in Australia as 15-year-old Ian Thorpe won the 400m freestyle title at the 1998 World Swimming Championships in Perth on his way to becoming a triple Olympic gold medalist in Sydney in 2000.
Gut is already one of Australia’s most recognized athletes and the fortunate timing that will bring him to his home Olympics at the age of 24, in his sprinting prime, has only heightened expectations of what he can achieve on the track.
But he and everyone around him have been careful not to get too far ahead of his current stage of development. Born in Brisbane, the third of seven children of South Sudanese immigrants Monica and Bona Gut, she is kept grounded by her family, her coach Dee Sheppard and experienced athletics manager James Templeton, who also managed the career of 800m world record holder David Rudisha.
A long-time coach at Ipswich Grammar School, Shepard first spied Guth at the age of 13, tagging along with a friend to try out for the school’s athletics team.
“I saw him running on the oval and there was something about him and the way he was moving,” he recalls. Who is that kid?
The no-nonsense veteran and the easy-going kid have forged a powerful bond ever since. They brought in Templeton when Gout’s profile exploded on the back of grainy YouTube videos of him destroying his rivals in an inter-school competition, his gait eerily reminiscent of a young Usain Bolt’s.
Templeton’s primary responsibility has been to keep the world at bay and give the coach and athlete a chance to work on his development. It means “say no to 95 percent of what is asked of him.” One of the few exceptions was last year’s signing of a long-term deal with Adidas that could last until the Brisbane Olympics.
Gaut bid farewell to school athletics in October, winning the 400m in a record 46.14 and helping Ipswich Grammar win the 4x100m relay at the Queensland Large Public Schools Championships, then called off his training to sit his final exams.
Now the big world awaits and a challenge to climb the senior ranks to become one of the best sprinters in the world (he’s currently ranked 17th in the world).
With his debut in Tokyo, he’s had a taste of what’s ahead, but there’s still plenty to taste and much more to learn in the years to come.
Templeton rates Gaut’s athletics report card this year as an “eight out of ten” – ten would be needed to finish in the top four in Tokyo – but the manager remains confident they are on the right trajectory to join the world’s elite.
Without school distractions, Gout’s training load and competition exposure will increase next year, but steadily. Templeton believes “being patient” is key.
They are likely to announce a few new trade partners before the end of the year to help offset the costs of international careers, but they will be chosen strategically.
Templeton is conscious of “not pushing himself” on or off the track. Next year, gout will continue to race less. Competitions on his schedule so far include the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne (March 28) and the Australian Championships in Sydney from April 9-12 (a qualifier for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the U20 World Championships in Eugene); the adidas City Games in the USA in May, the Golden Spike in Ostrava and maybe a few other one-day matches.
He is unlikely to commit to a full schedule at the Commonwealth Games (July 27-Aug. 2) as he approaches the U20 World Championships in Eugene (Aug. 5-9), where he will look to capture the gold medal that eluded him in Lima, but the approach to that double is yet to be determined.
If it continues to develop at the same express pace, gout will not lack opportunities. The trick now is to decide on the right one.
