Andre De Grasse

Competing for USC, De Grasse's legal 100 m time of 9.97 to win the Pac-12 championship in May 2015 was the first time he ran under 10 seconds, and he became the first Canadian to do so since Bruny Surin. In the 200m, De Grasse broke the Canadian record with 20.03, and closed on it again with 20.05 in the final. De Grasse nabbed global attention at the NCAA Championships by winning both the 100 and 200 metres ahead of favorite Trayvon Bromell of Baylor University. His wind-aided 100 and 200 metre times of 9.75 and 19.58, respectively, would have ranked him among the top ten all-time.[13][14] After the race, with encouragement from his friends to keep going in the pursuit of titles, he said "So I ask myself...world champion? Olympic champion? Why not me? I've come this far, and I've only scratched the surface. I want to keep it going. Track is fun to me, and as long as it stays this way, I expect to keep getting better."[15]

After winning the national 100m title with a personal best of 9.95, De Grasse's next major event was the 2015 Pan American Games held in his home province of Ontario. There, he won the gold medal in the 100m with a time of 10.05.[16] After the race, De Grasse said of the home crowd that "Aw, it was great. I think they gave me an extra boost of energy, the crowd was amazing, I hear them cheering my name and screaming my name."[17] De Grasse doubled and won gold in the 200m with a new national record of 19.88.[18] De Grasse became the first Canadian in history to run both a sub-10 in the 100 metres and sub-20 in the 200.[19] He appeared to win a third Pan Am Games gold when he ran the second leg of the 4 x 100m relay, in which the Canadian team came first in the race with a Games record of 38.06. However, the team was later disqualified two hours after the race for a lane infringement by Gavin Smellie.[20]

The 2015 World Championships in Athletics took place in Beijing. At the event, De Grasse cruised through his heat in 9.99, then made headlines when he nearly beat Usain Bolt, who stumbled out of the blocks. The two clocked 9.96, with Bolt just thousandths ahead. In the final, De Grasse tied for the bronze medal with Bromell, running a new personal best of 9.92. He became the first Canadian to win a medal in track's marquee event since Bruny Surin raced to silver in 1999.[21] After the final De Grasse said "I didn't know who had won the race, I didn't know you could actually tie with someone for a bronze medal. So I am very happy for Trayvon and proud of myself to come away with a personal best. To race against these guys and make the final, I couldn't end the season any better than that. I can't let [the lane assignment] distract me. At the end of the day, it's the 100m final. This was the biggest race of my life so I wasn't going to think about no lane assignment. I had a lot of confidence after the semi-finals, being that close to Bolt, and that raised my confidence for the final."[21] De Grasse also participated in the 4 × 100m relay where he won a second bronze medal, running a 38.13 together with Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney, and Justyn Warner.

De Grasse turned professional in December 2015, signing with Puma for $11.25 million.[22][23][24][25]

De Grasse got off to a rocky start in the 2016 season, finishing 8th at the Prefontaine Classic. However, he shook off the race rust in June and won the 200m in Birmingham and the 100m in Oslo. He defended his national 100m title in 9.99, his first sub-10 of the season, and qualified for Canada's Olympic team.[26] He also qualified for the 200m, albeit finishing 3rd at the championships behind Rodney and Brown.

De Grasse and Bolt after running the 100 m final at the 2016 Olympics.

De Grasse entered the Rio Olympics carrying Canada's hopes as a medallist. He advanced to the finals of the 100m with ease after running a time of 10.04 in his heat and then equaling his personal best of 9.92 in the semi-finals. He impressed many by staying level with Usain Bolt during their semifinal and even appeared to mimic the world record holder, the two Puma sponsorees crossing the line together with smiles. De Grasse won the bronze medal in the final in 9.91 seconds, a new personal best, behind Bolt and his main rival Justin Gatlin. He became the first male athlete to win a medal for Canada at the 2016 Summer Olympics. De Grasse's medal sparked talk of him being Bolt's heir apparent in the athletics world, a claim which Bolt supported:

He came through again. He's going to be good, he runs just like me, I mean he's really slow at the blocks but when he gets going, he gets going.

— Usain Bolt, on De Grasse being the future of athletics after his retirement[27]

De Grasse said of his relationship with Bolt after that "We were just having some fun. Me (sic) and Usain met back in January, we did a lot of things together. He feels like I'm the next one, and now I'm just trying to live up to it."[27] Former Canadian Olympic Champion Donovan Bailey was seen jumping up and down in the CBC Sports studio, cheering on De Grasse. After, he said, "I'm shaking. This is great for track and field in Canada."[27]

In the 200 m, De Grasse had the fastest time in the heats of 20.09. De Grasse and Bolt were lined up beside each other once again in the semi finals. Bolt led at halfway, when De Grasse suddenly rushed to his shoulder appearing to try to beat him. The two exchanged smiles and crossed the line together, one of the most iconic moments of the games. De Grasse claimed his strategy was to tire Bolt out before the final, which Bolt did not appear to appreciate. De Grasse's time of 19.80 was a new Canadian record, and he became the first Canadian to make it to the finals of the 200m since Atlee Mahorn at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.[28] Despite his tactic, De Grasse finished behind Bolt again, this time with the silver medal in 20.02, the first Canadian to win a medal in the 200m since Percy Williams at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam.

De Grasse ran the anchor for the finals of the 4 x 100 m relay. Initially in 6th place, De Grasse made an incredible close on Japan and the United States by about 4 metres, though he narrowly missed the bronze medal by 0.02 seconds. Despite this, the Canadians set a new national record of 37.64 seconds, breaking the record set in 1996 in Atlanta. However, the American team that placed third was disqualified for a zone violation (handing over the baton outside of the designated zone) at the first baton change, so the Canadians were awarded the bronze medal.[29]

As in 2016, De Grasse had a rocky start to his season, but quickly picked up again. He took Diamond League wins over the 100m in Oslo and Stockholm, and 200m wins in Rome and Rabat. His time in Stockholm of 9.69w (+4.0 m/s) was over the 2.0 m/s wind limit, but the 4th fastest in history regardless. With Bolt choosing to forego the 200m, De Grasse was considered a strong favorite for the world title in London. His main goal was to beat Bolt in the 100m before his retirement after the championships.[30][31] After winning both the 100m and 200m national titles, De Grasse was in contention to make the same double in London and defeat the world record holder. However, just days before the world championships, De Grasse strained his hamstring and was forced to pull out of both events, effectively ending his goal of beating Bolt before his retirement.[32] A few weeks earlier, the two were set to face off in Monaco, but De Grasse was reportedly pulled out the race. His coach claimed it was Bolt's doing, likely involving contract clauses with Bolt's team, who were unwilling to see De Grasse potentially defeat him before the championships. A few days later, Bolt also said in an interview that "The last guy I said was going to be great disrespected me", a comment interpreted to be about De Grasse and his unexpected move in the semifinals of the 200 in Rio. Despite the apparent tensions, Bolt admitted he would have liked to race De Grasse in London.

On January 10, 2018, De Grasse was named to Canada's 2018 Commonwealth Games team.[33][34][35] However, he had withdrawn before the games began due to his hamstring injury.[36]

In the Diamond League, De Grasse finished 6th in the 200m in Doha and 8th in the 100m in Shanghai, clearly affected by his injuries. He was unable to defend his national title in the 100m, settling for third in 10.20. During the 200m heats, he pulled up with a hamstring injury; the crowd cheered De Grasse on as he walked to the finish line, and he ended his season. Following his injuries, De Grasse left ALTIS and coach Stu McMillan in Arizona, moving to Jacksonville to train under Rana Reider.[37]

Despite initial struggles in the early season, De Grasse appeared to be making a slow return to international competition. He finished second to Aaron Brown in the 200m at the Diamond League in Shanghai. A month later, he won his first Diamond League victory in two years at the Rabat 200m event, beating the reigning World champion Ramil Guliyev.[38] Ultimately, he would finish on the podium in five of seven 100m events and all six 200m in the leadup to the World Championships.[37] The next week, he beat Christian Coleman at the Ostrava Golden Spike in the 200m with 19.91. In July, he broke 10 seconds for the first time in 3 years at the Diamond League in London.

At the national championships, De Grasse nearly beat Brown in the 100m, the two clocking 10.03 and being separated by thousandths. He was named to the Canadian team for the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha in both of his disciplines. Across the season, De Grasse remained consistent at multiple Diamond League races, clocking several sub-20 second races across the 200m. He ended his pre-championship season with a 100m win at the ISTAF Berlin in 9.97.

At the championships, De Grasse made his contention official by winning his semifinal in the 100m, beating defending champion Justin Gatlin and #2 all-time Yohan Blake. He won bronze in the final with 9.90, a new personal best once again.[39] Competing next in the 200m, he won the silver medal behind Noah Lyles in 19.95, shy of his season's best of 19.87. De Grasse commented that he tired slightly toward the end of the race, but that "I'm not disappointed. I didn't think I'd be here a year ago." This was the first World Championship medal for a Canadian in the 200m since Atlee Mahorn in 1991.[40] He anchored the Canadian 4 × 100 team once again, but came short of qualifying for the final despite setting a season's best of 37.91 and finishing 8th overall.

• Diamond League
  • Oslo: 2016, 2017
  • Stockholm: 2017

• Diamond League
  • Birmingham: 2016
  • Rome: 2017
  • Rabat: 2017, 2019