Andre De Grasse

Biography

Andre De Grasse is a seven-time Olympic medallist, tying him as Canada’s all-time most decorated Olympian with swimmer Penny Oleksiak. De Grasse won his historic seventh medal in his third Olympic appearance, where he had been given the honour of being Team Canada’s co-Opening Ceremony flag bearer.

At Paris 2024 he anchored the men’s 4x100m relay team — which also included Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, and Brendon Rodney — to the gold medal. Their time of 37.50 was just 0.02 slower than the national record they had set in becoming world champions in 2022. At Paris 2024, he was a semifinalist in the 100m and 200m, missing the Olympic podium in those events for the first time as he was bothered by a hamstring injury.

De Grasse had won six Olympic medals in his first two Olympic Games, reaching the podium in every event in which he competed.

De Grasse made history at Rio 2016 when he became the first Canadian athlete to win Olympic medals in all three sprint events. First came a bronze in the 100m in a then-personal best time of 9.91 seconds, making him Canada’s first Olympic medallist in the event since Donovan Bailey at Atlanta 1996. That was followed by a silver medal in the 200m, making him the first Canadian to reach the Olympic podium in that event since Percy Williams at Amsterdam 1928. De Grasse had set a then-national record of 19.80 seconds when he challenged Jamaican star Usain Bolt in the semifinals. He closed his Olympic debut by anchoring the 4x100m relay to bronze in what was a national record time of 37.64 seconds, breaking the 20-year-old mark held by the gold medal squad from Atlanta 1996. De Grasse was named Canada’s Male Athlete of the Year, winning the Lionel Conacher Award.

At Tokyo 2020, De Grasse won gold in the 200m while lowering the national record to 19.62 seconds in the final. It was Canada’s first Olympic gold in any track event since 1996. Just the day before, he had dropped the national record to 19.73 seconds to be the fastest man in the 200m semifinals. The victory followed De Grasse repeating as the Olympic bronze medallist in the 100m as he lowered his personal best time to 9.89 seconds in the final. He then ran the anchor leg of the 4x100m relay in both the first round and the final as Canada won the silver medal. 

A year later, De Grasse stood atop the podium at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon after winning gold in the 4x100m relay with teammates Brown, Blake, and Rodney. They also broke the national record with their time of 37.48. That was the fifth world championship medal of De Grasse’s career. Remarkably, the victory came less than a month after De Grasse had contracted COVID-19. With his preparation time for the worlds limited, he withdrew from the 200m to be at his best for the relay after being unable to qualify for the 100m final.

De Grasse’s first two world championship medals were won in his breakout season in 2015. He was a double bronze medallistat his first World Athletics Championships in Beijing. He tied for third in the 100m with a then-personal best 9.92 seconds to become Canada’s first medallist in the event since 1999 and he stood on the podium with the 4x100m relay. Earlier in the summer, De Grasse was a double gold medallist at the Pan Am Games in Toronto, sweeping the 100m and 200m events and breaking the national record in the latter. He appeared to have won a third gold medal in the 4x100m relay, but a lane violation led to the team’s disqualification. In December 2015, De Grasse turned pro, choosing to forego his final year of college eligibility for a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract.

De Grasse’s success continued into the 2017 season, which included four Diamond League victories (two each in 100m and 200m). But a hamstring tear just days before the 2017 World Athletics Championships forced him to withdraw from the competition. He would compete sparingly in 2018, spending the first part of the year recovering from mononucleosis and then ending his season in early July after another hamstring injury.

The 2019 season saw De Grasse return to form. At the World Athletics Championships in Qatar, he won bronze in the 100m (lowering his personal best at the time to 9.90 seconds) and silver in the 200m, the only man to stand on the podium in both sprint events.    

At the 2023 World Athletics Championships, De Grasse finished sixth in the 200m. But he finished off the season on a high note, winning the 200m at the Diamond League Final in Eugene in 19.76 seconds, his best time in the event since winning Olympic gold two years earlier.

In 2024, De Grasse helped qualify Canada in the 4x100m relay for Paris 2024 as he, Brown, Blake, and Rodney won their heat at the World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas. They went on to win silver behind the United States in the final.  

De Grasse first made headlines across Canada and the United States when he won the 100m and 200m in a span of 45 minutes at the NCAA Championships in June 2015. He had blistering fast times in both, running 9.75 seconds in the 100m and 19.58 seconds in the 200m, although they were wind-aided and didn’t count towards any official rankings or records. The wins capped a great first season racing for the USC Trojans, after transferring as a junior from Coffeyville Community College. On May 17 he had become the first Canadian since Bruny Surin in 1999 to run a sub-10-second 100m, winning the Pac-12 Championship in 9.97 seconds. That same weekend, he broke the Canadian 200m record for the first time, running 20.03 seconds. De Grasse had finished second in the 100m and fourth in the 200m at the 2014 Canadian Championships. He was a double medallist at the 2013 Pan American Junior Championships, capturing 100m silver and 200m bronze after being crowned Canadian junior champion in both distances.

A Little More About Andre

Getting into the Sport: Started running track seriously at age 17 after coach Tony Sharpe saw his potential to be great in the sport at a high school meet where he raced in borrowed spikes and baggy basketball shorts… Stuck with it as he saw positive results and earned a scholarship… Outside Interests: Earned a degree in Sociology at the University of Southern California… Launched the Andre De Grasse Family Foundation in 2018 to empower youth through sport and education… Odds and Ends: Role model is coach Tony Sharpe who helped him earn a university scholarship and turned around his life in a positive way… Favourite motto: “Never let your successes go to your head. Never let your failures go to your heart”…