Teen freak Matthew Boling is a name you need to remember. Photo / Twitter
Teen freak Matthew Boling is a name you need to remember. Photo / Twitter
You don't earn nicknames like "White Lightning" and "The Boogie Man" for nothing.
High school athlete Matthew Boling may be the rarest of over-hyped raw talents that actually justifies the extraordinary attention he is beginning to receive from around the world after he ran the fastest 100m dash ever recorded by a high school athlete on the weekend.
The 18-year-old, completing his final year of high school at Strake Jesuit College in Houston, Texas, is simply a freak — and now the whole world knows it.
On Saturday Boling ran his 100m final in a time of 9.98 seconds — and it was later recorded as a 9.97 run — the fastest time run by an American under the age of 20 across all conditions.
Boling's 100m run is the fastest in any condition in high school history, but the record won't stand because it was recorded with a tail wind assist of +4.2.
The run would have almost certainly still beat the 10.22 time run by Edward Nketia, who won the men's 100m final at the Australian Track and Field Championships in Sydney earlier in April.
His record for the fastest ever 100m run by a high school athlete in any conditions still very much stands. So does the fact that he is the first American teenager to beat the 10-second mark since Trayvon Bromell finished in 9.99 (assisted by a tailwind) in 2013.
It might not have even been his best performance of the meet.
He also led his Strake 4x100m relay team to another win where his ability to chase down an extraordinary lead in his anchor leg left commentators stunned as his team finished with a time of 40.72 seconds.
He may still be in high school, but that isn't going to stop you from watching him at next year's Olympics in Tokyo, according to some eager commentators, who believe he can earn a spot on the American track team.
After all, Boling only technically began competing in the 100m again this year.
The freak had previously focused on running the 200m and 400m, while also breaking age group state records in the high jump and long jump.
The weekend's Texas State Regional Track Championships at Challenger Stadium were the first time Boling has focused on competing in the 100m since he was in primary school.
It makes his 9.98 mark, just the start of his promising future.
He is far from a finished product.
A specimen of seemingly limitless potential and power.
Now the fun begins.
Now he says he is going to start paying attention to the 100m and 200m sprints.
"It definitely felt good," Boling said, according to The Houston Chronicle.
"My block start was pretty good and right out of the gate I knew it was going to be fast, so I decided to turn it up a little bit and ran my best. I was really happy with the time."
That doesn't mean he is about to give up on the 400m, long jump or high jump.
After all, he also won the long jump at the regional meeting with a jump of more than 26 feet.
Boling is no overnight success story.
Even before his heroics at the regional meet, US Athletics had its eye on the Texas product, naming him in the The All-USA Pre-season Boys Track and Field Team for the 2018-19 season.
The kid is the real deal — and it's not hard to see why so many athletics commentators were left salivating at his performance on Saturday.
You'd be a very brave person to think you won't be hearing more about Broling in the lead up to next year's Olympics.
Just insane what Houston's Strake Jesuit star Matthew Boling has been doing this offseason on the track.
He has the US No. 1 time in the 100m, 200m, long jump and is Top 8 in both the 4x100m relay and 400m. We are going to be hearing his name for a long time.
It's been a while since I've seen a kid bring the #TexasRelays fans to their feet the way that Matthew Boling of Houston Strake Jesuit has this weekend. The lightning-quick Georgia signee has had fans getting to their feet whenever he's touched a baton or starting block. #HookEm
