Andre De Grasse's mother Beverley De Grasse speaks with her son's coach, Tony Sharpe, after hosting reporters at her home in Pickering, Ont., on Aug. 4. 'Andre puts out his best when it counts,' she says.Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
On Wednesday afternoon, after her son Andre made like a human booster rocket to win gold in the men’s 200-metre final at the Tokyo Olympics, Beverley De Grasse explained to reporters who had set up camp in her backyard that some critics hadn’t fully grasped his strategy of holding back before rising to the occasion.
“He doesn’t really run fast throughout the season,” she explained during a news conference in Pickering, Ont. “So, a lot of people counted him out [and weren’t sure] whether he was going to medal or not. I think it was only after they saw him race in the semi-finals, then they started thinking, Yeah, he could really win.” But, she added, “that’s Andre, you know. Andre puts out his best when it counts.”
Andre De Grasse restores a bit of dignity for Canada’s men at Tokyo Olympics
After Wednesday night’s triumph, no one will count out De Grasse any more. With five medals, he is already the most decorated Olympic sprinter in Canadian history, though both Percy Williams, who placed first in the 100-metre and 200-metre sprints at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, and Donovan Bailey, who placed first in the men’s 100-metre and 4x100-metre relay at Atlanta in 1996, each have one more gold medal than De Grasse. (For the moment.)
What more could he still achieve?
De Grasse is only 26 years old, and will be only 29 at the next Summer Games, scheduled for Paris in 2024.
“I think Andre has another decade of sprinting in his body,” said Tony Sharpe, the former Olympic bronze-medal sprinter who is credited with discovering De Grasse at a high-school track meet in 2012. Because De Grasse turned professional after only one season running for the University of Southern California in the NCAA competitions, “he didn’t run a four-year college season,” Sharpe said, speaking to reporters at the news conference after Beverley De Grasse’s remarks. “That can put a lot of mileage on a sprinter. So, he’s got fairly fresh legs for a guy that’s winning Olympic gold already. I can anticipate that he should be around for another two or three Olympic cycles.”
Mr. Sharpe told reporters Andre De Grasse has 'fairly fresh legs for a guy that’s winning Olympic gold already.'Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
Beverley De Grasse predicted he would next focus on winning the 100-metre sprint, in which he won bronze at Tokyo. “That’s his favourite, that’s what he really wants,” she said. “So I’m pretty sure he will get that before the end of his career.”
Stuart McMillan, the Phoenix-based coach who oversaw De Grasse’s training from the time he left USC until the end of the 2018 season, suggested that achievement would be the least he could expect.
“There’s no question that a gold medal in the 100 in the Olympics is a part of his future,” McMillan said in an interview on Wednesday. The next Summer Games, “is only three years away. In three years, Andre is 29, the prime of his career. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he won the 100 and the 200 in Paris in three years. And he’ll win at [the world championships.] I mean, he’s just that type of guy. You keep Andre healthy and he’s going to medal, he will deliver. And now that he’s won one – you know, the first one is always the hardest to win. I have every confidence that it’s going to continue.”
As De Grasse was ascending over the past six years, many observers called him the heir apparent of Usain Bolt. That comparison seems a stretch: Bolt won double gold (men’s 100-m, 200-m) in the 2008 Games, followed by triple gold (in the men’s 100-m, 200-m, and 4x100-m relay) in the 2012 and 2016 Summer Games, and he was 29 years old in his final Olympics.
Still, McMillan believes De Grasse shares an essential quality with Bolt, which separates great runners from true champions.
“It’s that quote about being calm when everyone around you is in chaos. Andre has that ability. He has the ability to rise to the occasion when the stress is the highest. The best, going back even to Donovan [Bailey] in 1996 are able to do that. Those who aren’t, are the ones who sort of fold and fade away. Bolt was the greatest example of that: Every major competition, he always stepped up and delivered. And Andre has that ability.”
Andre De Grasse has won his first Olympic gold medal by a fraction of a second in the 200m. See moments from his sprint captured by photographers around the running track at the Tokyo Olympics
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