by Alfonz Juck
Andre De Grasse, photo by TeamCanada.ca
Andre De Grasse came on the scene in 2015, with his 100m bronze and his 4x100m bronze for Canada in Beijing. Rio 2016 was insane! First, Andre De Grasse took the 100m bronze in Rio in a PB of 9.91. Andre became first Canadian to medal in 100m since 1996 and the iconic Donavan Bailey. Then, he channeled Percy Williams, the last Canadian to medal at 200m in the Olympics, way back in 1928, when De Grasse took the silver medal in the 200m in Rio. In the semi finals, Andre De Grasse ran a Canadian NR of 19.80. His team in the 4x100m took the bronze in Rio, in NR of 37.64, breaking the NR of the 1996 gold medal winning Canadian team with Bruny Surin and Donavan Bailey.
The world was in front of Andre De Grasse.
In 2017, Andre ran 9.69 for the 100m, at the Stockholm Diamond League, and looked poised to take Usain Bolt on in London. De Grasse injured his hamstring and had to pull out of both the 100m and 200m in London.
In 2018, De Grasse was put on the Team Canada team for the Commonwealth Games, but, again injuries prevailed.
2019 opened slow, but Andre De Grasse built to Doha, and took the 100m in the bronze, behind Christian Coleman and Justin Gatlin. It was his first WC medal since 2015! His silver medal at 200m, behind Noah Lyles, was first Canadian medal since Atlee Mahorn, way back in 1991.
And now 2020 beacons..who knew about how COVID-19 would affect the world?
OTTAWA (CAN): Treble Olympic medallist Andre de Grasse has said he is “at peace” with the decision to postpone the Olympics, informs CTV News. “I’m at peace with the Olympics being postponed until 2021. The last few weeks have been difficult. At first I convinced myself that COVID-19 was going to go away in time for the Games to be held this summer. But when we lost access to our training facilities a week ago I started to have some real doubts. It was a bold but impressive move for the COC and CPC to lead the charge in pushing for the Games to be postponed. We’re all fighting for something much more important than medals at the moment,” he said.
Speak it into existenceðŸ™ðŸ¼ pic.twitter.com/Q6tNiv7WzU
— Andre De Grasse (@De6rasse) June 18, 2017
