American sprinter condemns Gout Gout's Australian races as teenager's Tokyo performance draws scrutiny

An American college sprinter blasted Gout Gout on a TikTok post, accusing him of racing 'white nobodies and bums' in Australia before criticizing his performances at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. Erin Brown, 22, a student-athlete representing Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, has followed the Ipswich Grammar School athlete's rise and used a social post to weigh in on his development.

Brown posted the clip amid Gout Gout's early-season results, noting that Brown's personal best over 200 meters is 20.55 seconds, compared with Gout Gout's 20.02 seconds clocked at the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava, Czechia, in June. The remarks followed Gout Gout's fourth-place finish in his semi-final in Tokyo, where Brown offered blunt advice: 'The next Usain Bolt got brutally destroyed at the world championships. Gout Gout, the 17-year-old from Australia who turns 18 in about two months, went out there and got embarrassed. You are a professional athlete now... you running (against) those little white kids in Australia running 22 seconds (over 200m). It's easy to run fast against nobody. Your body is relaxed, it's easy to maintain your posture and your form because you're not under pressure. He's never been in a race where it's been close and he's had people in front of him. He only races bums.' Brown has clearly been keeping tabs on Gout, referencing a race where the teenager lost to Lachlan Kennedy earlier this year: 'There's literally professionals in Australia who run around the same time and he doesn't even race them. He raced Lachlan Kennedy one time and Lachlan Kennedy beat him.'

'My advice to bro now is you're a pro now. All that kid s**t is out the window. Sure, you're still in school or whatever, but you need to go race your peers – people who get paid to run because the intensity is different.' Brown's comments drew attention to the different competitive environments and prompted reactions from fellow sprinters and observers alike.

US superstar Noah Lyles, who won gold in the 100m at the Paris Olympics, has a less critical view of Gout Gout's potential. 'He's more talented (at 17) than I was,' Lyles said. 'Gout's an amazing kid. He's got a great head on him, a great team around him. It's going to be interesting to see how he develops.' Gout and his coach, Di Sheppard, have signaled alignment with that developmental view. 'The biggest eye-opener is knowing that I can compete at a young age against the best men in the world,' Gout said. 'It definitely makes me hungry, knowing that I'm just a kid right now, but knowing that I can compete. The thing I have on them is time. They may not have 15 years – but I've got 15 years. I know that if I can do this at 17, then I can do this at 25 and I'll be even better at 25.'