Meet the 7 Year Old.... Being Hailed as the Next Usain Bolt

mcvred wrote:

I am with WeJo on this. He's a kid. Let him be a kid. Thousands of followers on social media and a young prodigious talent is a formula that rarely works out unless his well being is put first 100% of the time. The youth track system is great, and as long as he's enjoying what he's doing then there should be no problem. But starting to draw these comparisons and putting expectations on him is going to hurt him heavily if he stops progressing or finds his interests draw him elsewhere, especially if people around him (mainly coaches and trainers) start making plans for him he doesn't want or have to follow

How do you feel about girls in gymnastics, age-group swimming, high-level tennis players, hockey players, hockey, soccer? If you want to be good, you start early. Everyone once in a blue moon you see someone take this route in track, but it's commonplace in swimming and gymnastics and tennis. People seem to be fine with that for whatever reason.

Poor kid. These child phenom stories rarely end well. He's undoubtedly got some dysfunctional parents behind that camera.

Good luck to the kid. But his hyper development is not necessarily a good thing. There are several adverse developmental syndromes which can cause someone to develop too early. Also his face looks older than 7. If he’s producing high levels of testosterone at this age, he can malform.

It depends sport to sport. Swimming isn't too hard on the body. Soccer depends on the seriousness of the organization kids are in, I played soccer for fun as a kid just to get active and switched to running. Hockey is pretty f*cking brutal. Gymnastics is another thing altogether. It depends on the culture that's created by coaches, parents, administrators, fans.... But all I know is that running should be fun for kids. My fondest memories are being chased around a playground and having a ball. Taking that away regardless of talent due to injury concerns and competition at age 7 is counterproductive to the individual and community. Track and field doesn't need child stars the same way gymnastics or figure skating do, and setting any kind of precedent in that regard is a detriment to our sport

He is super fast but he is unlikely to be world champ.

He's just a kid. He should be playing games on his phone and dressing up as characters from Toy Story. He's going to miss out on so many things other kids his age are doing.

Not.

Huapango wrote:

He's just a kid. He should be playing games on his phone and dressing up as characters from Toy Story. He's going to miss out on so many things other kids his age are doing.

Not.

.

exactly.

he should be scoffing down at burger king, and looking at diabetes at age 20, googling wtf went wrong.

at the end of the day, there are tons of dad's creating greats, and tons of ahole dads .

better to have dad at your back in the end, so long as he's not psycho.

Did anyone else notice?

The kid's head is huge compared to the rest of him.

Happy for him and his success

Media will hype him and compare him to Bolt, why not, that is what media is for - promotion and making stories.

But yes there is no way in hell you can tell if he will have Bolt level talent.

Human nature to be drawn to young and exceptional talent

lots of talented people, young and old

Will he be a fast sprinter as an adult?

observations for Yes: As a kid and as a dad, in general the kids who were the fastest on the playground in grade school were still the fastest on the playground in high school.

observations for Maybe Not: Over the years I've known two families who had their little kids (multiple kids in each family) in the sprints in youth track. They traveled all over and won lots of meets. None of them were any good by high school. Whether they lacked talent, burned out, or just found other interests I don't know.

Being a big fish in the very small pond of pre-pubescent sprinting is no guarantee of future success. I honestly think that there are so few doing it, that if you put your kid in and he works hard, he'll win meets.

This kid is faster than the other kids in the small pond, so he obviously has some talent and maybe it's enough talent to be successful later on. We'll see.

But puberty changes everything. I was a below-average athlete as a kid but puberty suddenly gifted me with long springy legs and I became a D1 high- and triple-jumper. Meanwhile, although most fast kids were still fast after puberty, some really good pre-pubescent athletes got left in the dust after the T hit all the kids.

At my son's high school, three of the fastest sprinters didn't even run track until their senior years. All three were doing other sports and someone said "you're fast, you should run track". Once those kids show up, the kid who was the fastest at age 7 might not still be the fastest.

He's 7 years old, and its 13.8 seconds

Enough said.

Lets leave him alone until he hits 12 and runs 10.1. ET not HT

Impressive for a kid, but we all know how this is going to turn out.

Will he even be in the sport in 10 years, never mind crushing records? Probably not.

wejo wrote:

Meet the 7 Year Old.... Being Hailed as the Next Usain Bolt

Meet the man... who doesn't know how to use an ellipsis.

Do they drug test 7 year olds at AAU? I never put it past overzealous parents.

Ah, another 10 year old 7 year old.

And so it goes.

Apologies for necro’ing this thread, but...I’ve been searching everywhere trying to verify this kid’s alleged 13.48 time, and can’t find any official results anywhere to support it. MileSplit lists his 100m PR for 2019 as 14.56, at a competition later that year. Seems bizarre that he’d run 13.48 at the beginning of the season and then be nearly a second slower by the end of the season. Shortly afterwards, he stopped competing.

Wikipedia took his page down because they couldn’t verify the result either. I suspect his father fabricated the time so he could promote his son, and no one bothered to fact check. Anybody who does ask for corroboration on his Instagram gets deleted and blocked.

He’s still a fast little dude, but he’s not the next Usain Bolt.

For fvck’s sake leave the kid alone. Who the F goes prying into the life of a 7-yr old?

Even if he went 13-flat, who cares, unless you are his friends or family.

IMO it’s unnatural to have this kind of athletic interest in the life of a small child.

Unless you’re 7 or 8 years old, that is.

If so, have at it—and welcome! Excuse my French.

Amazing to think that 7-8 yr olds could be in this forum😮