Jerome Blake

Biography

In his second Olympic appearance, Jerome Blake won gold as a member of the men’s 4x100m relay team at Paris 2024. Having become firmly entrenched as the second leg runner in the preceding years, Blake and his teammates Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney, and Andre De Grasse stood on the Olympic podium for the second straight Games, having won silver in his Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020.

Before becoming Olympic champions, the quartet were world champions, winning 4x100m relay gold at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon. They set a national record time of 37.48 seconds to take the victory in Blake’s world championship debut. Their Olympic winning time was just 0.02 slower. They had qualified for Paris 2024 by winning their heat at the World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas in early May 2024 where they went on to finish second to the United States in the final.

Blake made his international debut for Canada at the 2018 NACAC Championships in Toronto. He was named to the team after winning 200m silver while running a then-personal best 20.38 at the 2018 Canadian Championships. He finished fifth in the 200m at the NACAC Championships and won a gold medal with the 4x100m relay for which he ran the second leg.

In June 2019, Blake set a then-personal best in the 100m, running 10.20 seconds at a meet in Calgary. He won gold in the 200m at the Harry Jerome Track Classic in his hometown of Burnaby and took bronze at the Canadian Championships. Blake was named to the Canadian team for the Lima 2019 Pan American Games, making the final in both the 200m and 4x100m relay.

After finishing second in the 100m at the Canadian Olympic Trials at the end of June 2021, Blake ran a then-personal best 10.15 in Stockholm in early July. Less than two weeks after his Olympic debut, Blake lowered his 100m PB to 10.06 in August 2021. He dropped his PB to 10.00 in May 2022, which followed a PB of 20,04 set in the 200m in April 2022.

Before representing Canada, Blake ran for Team BC at the 2017 Canada Summer Games where he won gold in the 100m and 200m. Blake won five consecutive BC Athletics 100m titles since 2015 and earned a pair of 200m titles in 2016 and 2019

A Little More About Jerome

Getting into the Sport: Had been a 400m hurdler in Jamaica, but switched to sprinting after a coach spotted him testing his speed on a track while he was supervising his younger brother on a soccer field… Has dreamed of competing for Canada since listening to Donovan Bailey talk about Atlanta 1996; since he’s also from Jamaica it makes him want it even more… Outside Interests: Works as an actor in film and TV, also doing some modelling and stand-up comedy… Odds and Ends: Says that if his life was a movie it was be “a combination of Cool Runnings and The Blind Side with a little pinch of Zoolander”…Moved to Canada in 2013 to live with his mother who had been living in Canada for about eight years at that point… Biggest role model is Muhammad Ali because he stood up for what he believes in… Favourite motto: “Through hard work and dedication you can achieve”…