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What would happen if sprinting legend Usain Bolt raced against teenage sensation Gout Gout?
Bolt, 38, is the fastest man of all time over the 100m and 200m distances, having secured world records in both events at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin, Germany.
The Jamaican registered a time of 19.19s in the 200m event and 9.58s in the 100m – both records still stand.
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The 38-year-old retired in 2017 with eight Olympic gold medals - and eight years on no one has run faster.
However, like with most sports, when a new prospect bursts onto the scene, comparisons are inevitably made with the best players or competitors in the given discipline and the same goes for sprinting.
17-year-old Australian sprinter Gout Gout has shown huge promise in recent years – notably in September 2024 when he clocked a then-personal best time of 20.20s in the 200m event at the U20 World Championships Peru, 0.01s faster than Bolt did at the same meeting back in 2002.
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Two months later, in December 2024, Gout, 17, clocked a time of 20.04 seconds 200m run in the Australian All Schools Championships, making him the fastest under-16 half-lap runner in history.
So, what would happen if he raced Bolt over 200m? Well, we will never find out due to the 21-year age difference between the pair – but a simulation provided some interesting findings.
MotionAthlete modelled their performance against each other, which, at least, gives a clue about how a one-on-one race would play out.
The 3D simulation rewound to Bolt's performance in 2003 and raced it against Gout based on typical race patterns, and the result is both instructive and watchable.
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The Jamaican is slower out of the blocks as the Australian sprints past him to clock a time of 5.89s over the first 50m of the 200m distance.
However, from that point, the eight-time Olympic gold medallist creates a gap by hitting 100m in 10.33s, while Gout registers 10.69s over the same distance.
By 150m the teenager is just a tenth of a second behind bolt.
MotionAthlete's animation reveals the explosive finishing power of Gout as he reels in the rejuvenated future world record holder inside the final 50, blasting past him to take gold with that 20.04-second personal best almost a tenth of a second faster than 16-year-old Bolt's time of 20.13s.
