Expectations can be the heaviest burden sometimes. Just ask Quincy Wilson and Gout Gout, two teenage phenoms who recently tasted the bitter tang of silver when gold seemed all but certain.  Wilson, Bullis School’s 17-year-old sensation, watched his championship dreams dissolve as Tywan Cox exploded off the blocks and stormed to victory. With each punishing curve, Cox widened the gap, eventually anchoring Miami Northwestern to triumph with a blistering 45.14s, leaving the crowd favorite floundering in his wake. And what about Gout Gout?

Half a world away, Australia’s wonderkind, who shattered Peter Norman’s 56-year-old national record last December, found himself outpaced in front of a packed Maurie Plant Meet. The 17-year-old’s 20.30s wasn’t enough against 21-year-old Lachlan Kennedy’s personal-best 20.26s. And Well Stars run they draw eyeballs and Perspectives. Well, we have one now, coming straight from a former World Champion!

Former world champion Justin Gatlin didn’t mince words on his ‘Ready Set Go’ podcast on April 3. He made a passionate plea to stop the comparisons. Gatlin delivered an impassioned defense of 17-year-old Australian following his recent second-place finish. “Stop putting labels on these young athletes when it’s not time for them to have these labels,” Gatlin insisted. “Let Gout Gout be Gout Gout. Don’t need to be the next Usain Bolt or anybody else. Let Gout Gout be him and let him go out there and run.”

Gatlin, who famously captured world championship gold in 2017 by defeating Bolt in the 100m, understands the mental burden better than most and his analysis of Australian’s performance suggested the pressure might have already begun affecting the teenager’s approach. “The first thing you going to think about in them situations when you have that pressure on you is the fact of what’s the media going to say to me now,” Gatlin explained. “I gotta sit here and try to reverse and rehearse something that will sound politically correct and that does not make me sound weak. That’s what you have to think in those situations.”

Gatlin’s solution was refreshingly simple: “So take the pressure off this man. Let this man have fun, cuz trust me, the longer his career, the more competition, the more pressure that’s going to be added on to it. He’s a young kid right now. He runs great times. He’s exciting. Let him have fun. Let him entertain us.”

Pressure is real in on Quincy Wilson and Gout Gout

With success there comes Scrutiny and and there has been plenty of it for Quincy Wilson and Gout Gout! Quincy Wilson, America’s 17-year-old Olympic gold medalist, has felt the sting of public opinion shift with each disappointing finish. After being crowned “the next big thing” following his historic Olympic Gold at just 16, recent performances at the Virginia Showcase, Millrose Games, and a fifth-place finish at the USA Indoor Championships have unleashed a torrent of criticism.

Social media has been merciless, with people calling out his hype, the weight of gold, it seems, grows heavier with each passing race. Half a world away, Australian faces similar scrutiny. After shattering Peter Norman’s 56-year-old national record with a blistering 20.04s in the 200m last December, the 17-year-old has been christened “the next Usain Bolt, a comparison that’s become both blessing and curse for him.

When wind gauges spoiled two sub-10-second 100m runs at the Australian Athletics Championships, critics pounced. His defeat to Lachie Kennedy only intensified the spotlight. “There’s obviously those moments where the media gets too much,” Gout admitted recently. “At this moment, I just let it sink in and focus on training, focus on my race plan and get the job done.”