James Gallaugher, a 12-year-old Australian, is being hailed the next Usain Bolt by some media outlets after a video began circulating of the young sprinter in action. James catches and then speeds by a relay rival 20 meters ahead of him in the New South Wales primary schools championships.
James, who is from Ulladulla, has run an official electronic time of 11.7 seconds in the 100 meters, which EuroSport pointed out would have won the 1896 Olympics and "is faster than any recorded in Australia or the United States" for his age.
"He is a freak and I mean that in the very best way," James' coach, Scott Richardson, said in the article.
James appears to be a genuine prodigy. Richardson said he began working with the lad just last year, after James nearly won an Australian national championship without proper coaching, the Daily Telegraph notes.
"He has just got the build and the legs and just the natural propensity to running with a good technique without much interference," the coach told the paper.
But James has some fast company in the grade-school athlete department.
According to USA Track and Field's website, James would have lost to North Carolina's Bryce Love when Love was the same age. In 2009 Love ran 11.64 seconds in the 11-12 age group category and also had a 200-meter best (23.37) that eclipses James' current personal record of 23.76. Love, now a high school football and track star in Wake Forest, N.C., recorded at least some of his clockings as an 11-year-old that were also faster than James'. He, too, earned comparisons to Usain Bolt.