Scarborough-born sprinter Andre De Grasse is pictured at Toronto Track and Field Centre at York University on June 24, 2024. Mr. De Grasse is in Paris for his third Olympic Games.Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail
Andre De Grasse helped carry Team Canada’s flag into Paris at the Opening Ceremony last week. It’s finally time for the star sprinter to take the track.
The six-time Olympic medalist provided must-see TV for Canadians at the last two Olympics, making the podium in all six events he raced. At age 21, Mr. De Grasse captured the imagination of Canadians by winning three medals in Rio and smiled jovially with sprint legend Usain Bolt as they crossed the finish line. At 24, he earned three more medals in Tokyo, including gold in the 200-metre race.
Now 29 and heading to the start line in his third Olympics in Paris, he still has the same boyish laugh. He still looks youthful, but he’s hardly a kid anymore. He’s now a father, a businessman who backs young Canadian companies, an author, and a part-owner of a women’s soccer team, AFC Toronto. He helps raise money for Kids Help Phone. He’s got a huge list of partnerships, from Puma to Invisalign, Gatorade and Oakley (remember those flashy sunglasses he wore to race in Tokyo?). And he’s now had the experience of being chosen by the Canadian Olympic Committee to lead the delegation into a Summer Games. While his life has changed a lot since he first became a Canadian household name in 2016, his Olympic goal hasn’t.
With six Olympic medals, Mr. De Grasse is already Canada’s most decorated male Summer Olympian. Only swimmer Penny Oleksiak has more medals, with seven. Mr. De Grasse is tied for second on the country’s overall list with Clara Hughes, Charles Hamelin and Cindy Klassen.
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In Paris, Mr. De Grasse could set new national marks. He could pull into first on the list of most Olympic medals for a Canadian. He could also eclipse the record for the country’s fastest man.
Mr. De Grasse has shown a knack for rising to his best at the Games. This week, inside a packed Stade de France, racing in the 100-metre, 200-metre, and the men’s 4x100-metre relay, Mr. De Grasse aspires to deliver again.
“I want to win some more medals. It’s always been the same goal, same objective, even when I went to Rio as a young kid,” Mr. De Grasse told The Globe and Mail in June. “Normally, I know when I get there, and I put on that singlet, and I got Canada on my back, and my family and friends are rooting for me, that always gives me that confidence that I need to be my best.”
Canada's Maude Charron and Andre De Grasse gesture in Paris, France, during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 26, 2024.Kirsty Wigglesworth/The Associated Press
There were some down times since the previous Summer Games. He dealt with a toe injury in 2022 that hindered his campaign, and then he sputtered to find his rhythm again. He didn’t qualify in the 100-metre event for the 2023 world championships, failing to advance out of the semi-finals at the Canadian trials.
“I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ and I had a little bit of self doubt, like, ‘Am I getting old? Am I getting washed up?’” Mr. De Grasse said. “I think every athlete feels like that at some point, like, ‘Why is this not clicking?’”
There were signs of improvement late that season when Mr. De Grasse surged to victory in the 200-metre at the Diamond League final in September with a season-best time of 19.76 seconds.
“I’m feeling good, and I’m as healthy as I’ve been the last couple of years, so that’s always a confidence-booster for me,” said Mr. De Grasse, who trains in Jacksonville, Fla.
In the 100-metres, his best time this season was at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland in June, placing third as he equalled the Olympic 100-metre qualifying standard of 10 seconds. He was relieved to do it at his final European stop before heading back to Canada for the Olympic trials.
“It was kind of a relief,” Mr. De Grasse said. “I was like, ‘Okay, I’m coming back, I’m back healthy now, my times are coming down.’ That was a good indicator.”
He held off the competition at trials in Montreal to win his first national title in that event since 2017, doing so in 10.20. Mr. De Grasse will have to be much faster to make the podium in the 100-metre in Paris and reach his dream of eclipsing the Canadian record of 9.84, held by Donovan Bailey and Bruny Surin. The world-leading times in the 100-metre this year include 9.77 seconds by Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson and 9.81 by American superstar Noah Lyles – two sprinters stealing much of the spotlight globally.
As for the 200-metre, where Mr. De Grasse is the reigning Olympic champ, the Canadian clocked his season’s best earlier this month in Hungary at the Gyulai István Memorial, dipping under the 20-second barrier for the first time this season as he won in 19.98. Many of his rivals have run the 200 faster this year, though. Mr. Lyles and fellow American Kenny Bednarek have the quickest two times this season of 19.53 and 19.59, respectively. Those two men earned bronze and silver behind Mr. De Grasse in Tokyo, when he won in 19.62 seconds. Mr. De Grasse chose not to run the 200 at the Canadian trials.
Andre De Grasse, from L-R, Aaron Brown and Jerome Blake compete in the 100m finals at the Canadian Track and Field Olympic trials in Montreal, Friday, June 28, 2024.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
Mr. De Grasse has big goals in the men’s 4x100-metre relay, too. He and Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake and Brendon Rodney have a silver medal together from Tokyo, gold from the 2022 world championships and recently took silver behind the United States at the world athletic relays.
One of his former rivals says you can always expect Mr. De Grasse to rise up when the lights are brightest.
“He has that hunger this year, after not having the best season last year,” retired American sprinter Justin Gatlin said on his podcast Ready Set Go. “Andre De Grasse is a gamer … he’s been a gamer since college … he knows how to win, he knows how to make sure those moments count and he executes them.”
Mr. De Grasse balances family life with his track and business lives. He and his partner, Nia Ali, are both standouts in athletics. They welcomed a daughter in 2018 and a son in 2021, and Mr. De Grasse is also stepfather to Ms. Ali’s older son. Ms. Ali, an American, earned the 2016 Olympic silver medal in the 100-metre hurdles, as well as a world championship title in 2019, but she narrowly missed out on a spot on the U.S. Olympic team for Paris by finishing fourth at the U.S. Olympic trials.
Scarborough-born sprinter Andre De Grasse says hi to his godson Mezziah Jeremiah after training at Toronto Track and Field Centre at York University on June 24, 2024.Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail
Paris marks a return for fans, friends and family at the Games. In Tokyo, during a pandemic-times Olympics with lots of restrictions, the stadium was empty except for coaches and support staff, so Mr. De Grasse celebrated in a quiet venue.
The man who won the 100-metres in Tokyo, Italy’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs, has been one of Mr. De Grasse’s training partners in Florida this year. They train the 100 together.
“It’s good. We push each other,” Mr. De Grasse said. “Of course, we joke around, ‘Who’s going to come out?’ That’s the plan, for both of us to get on the podium. Then we know it’s been successful.”
Mr. De Grasse first races in Paris on Saturday. With the heats, semis and finals for his three events, he will be running nearly every day if things go as he hopes.
“Now, I’ve got to go out there and show the world, right?”
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