Usain Bolt better watch his back, because there's a new competitor coming for his world record... and he's only seven years old.
Rudolph 'Blaze' Ingram, an elementary school student from Tampa, Florida, smashed his previous 100 metre sprint record this weekend, clocking in an astounding time of 13.48 seconds. The incredible feat was caught on camera, and has since been shared to Instagram where - at the time of writing - it's been viewed more than half a million times.
"Proud To Say My Son Maybe The Fastest 7 Year Old In The World," the boy's father, Rudolph Ingram Sr., wrote on Instagram. "To The Top Love All Those Hours Of Training Payed Off."
Bolt holds the current world record for the men's 100m dash of 9.58 seconds - almost a full four seconds faster than little Blaze's sprint. Given that the Jamaican sprinter trained for decades in order to reach his peak, however, Ingram has plenty of time to set some records of his own.
What's more, if Ingram had been around for the 1896 Olympics, he would have only been 1.3 seconds behind the winner of the men's 100m dash, and only 0.48 seconds slower than the winner of the women's race. In some ways, then, he is already competing at an Olympic standard.
As well as being a super talented sprinter, the seven-year-old is also a keen American football player, a fitness model, and an academic whizz kid.
A recent Instagram post showing his February report card for school shows that the speedy little guy managed to score A grades for Science, Introduction to Computers, Music and Physical Education, plus B grades for Language Arts, Social Studies and Art. This is incredibly impressive, especially considering that Ingram spends a significant amount of his free time in training for football and athletics.
"I work hard at practice to set the bar high for my teammates. I want to show them we need to give it all we've got. If they don't know how to do something, I show them how to do it," Ingram said in an interview back in 2017. "I always tell them 'You practice how you play.'"
Ingram also has a younger brother, dubbed 'Mr. Wrong Way' thanks to a viral video that showed him storming the field during a football game last year - unfortunately, he happened to be speeding along in the wrong direction, and almost scored for the opposing team.
Ingram Sr. has said that his younger son, who is just four years old, is not as adept as Blaze, but definitely has the potential to be if he keeps working as he is.
Both kids have a way to go before they have a shot at smashing any real records, but it's definitely worth watching this space if you want to see some legends in the making.
