Best of 2021: Andre de Grasse keeps perfect Olympic podium intact
Our Best of 2021 series recaps the incredible performances by Canadian athletes over the past year. Check out the full list here.
Two Olympic appearances and not a single podium missed.
Andre De Grasse continued his run of success on the track at Tokyo 2020 and became Canada’s most decorated male Olympian in the process as he went three-for-three in Tokyo, just as he did at Rio 2016.
Here’s a recap of de Grasse’s record-setting Olympic performances from this summer:
Andre De Grasse won gold in the 200m sprint and set a national record time of 19.62 seconds in the process. The gold was Canada’s first in the 200m since Amsterdam 1928 and the first gold medal of De Grasse’s Olympic career.
READ: De Grasse wins Canada’s first 200m Olympic gold medal in 93 years
READ: Golden in the Olympic 200m, De Grasse ‘shocked the world’
Just a few days earlier, De Grasse ran a personal best time of 9.89 seconds to claim bronze in the 100m for a second straight Olympics. He became the first Canadian to win multiple Olympic medals in the 100m.
READ: De Grasse wins second straight Olympic 100m bronze at Tokyo 2020
READ: De Grasse ‘grateful’ after 100m bronze medal at Tokyo 2020
READ: Tokyo 2020 about growth and redemption for Team Canada athletics
Towards the end of the Games, Canada won its second straight Olympic medal in the men’s 4x100m relay, taking bronze in 37.70 seconds. The team included Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney, and was anchored by De Grasse.
READ: Team Canada wins men’s 4x100m relay bronze at Tokyo 2020
READ: Canada 4x100m relay win Tokyo bronze, vow to be faster in 2024
De Grasse’s perfect track record at the Olympics has helped Canada reemerge as an athletics powerhouse. He made sure to mention Canada’s male sprinters are hungry for more at Paris 2024.
“We’ll be back and I feel like we’ll be an even better team,” De Grasse added. “I feel like we can bite the national record. We have three other fast guys here.”
