Seven-year-old Blaze the Great runs like a Bolt
He already has a nickname: Blaze the Great. He has been called “the next Usain Bolt,” and it may not be hyperbole. He has a growing Instagram following that just topped 300,000 and viral videos all over the place. He has football skills, too, and has drawn the attention of Lebron James and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, among others. Oh, and he’s seven years old. It was Rudolph Ingram Jr.’s return to the track on the weekend that drew the latest round of attention. The Tampa, Fla., youngster, who said he began training when he was four, left the competition in his wake, winning the 100-metre dash in 13.48 seconds. He appears to be picking up where he left off last summer, when he won the 100 and finished second in the 200 in his age group at the AAU championships.
“I can give him all the tools to be great, but his drive and work ethic and competitive mentality, it sets the bar so much higher,” his father, Ralph Sr., told Tampa’s ABC affiliate. “He does not like to feel like a loser. He wants to win.”
His goal, he said, is “to get to the NFL.”
He has headlines, too. “This 7-year-old running phenom is already faster than you” (SB Nation). “‘Blaze The Great,’ age 7, looks like he has super speed on the track” (USA Today).
James couldn’t help but pass judgment on one of his videos: “Sheesh!!” James wrote. “Man he shifty as hell and the fact he was switching the ball to his other hand on the right side away from the defender is even more impressive.”