Andre De Grasse

Andre De Grasse (born November 10, 1994) is a Canadian sprinter.

He later transferred to Mother Teresa Catholic School in Markham, Ont. to continue until grade eight, where he won his first race in 2006.

He also attended Father Michael McGivney Catholic Academy and Milliken Mills High School.

In high school, De Grasse initially played basketball, at one point playing against future NBA player Andrew Wiggins of Vaughan Secondary School.

In his first high school track race, the York Region Championships, De Grasse ran wearing basketball shorts and borrowed spikes; he also ignored the starting blocks and did a standing start.

Despite his clear inexperience, he finished second in the 100m final with 10.91, third overall in the 200m with 22.64, and 7th overall in the Long Jump with 5.88m.

He was spotted by future coach Tony Sharpe who noticed his impressive results compensating for the lack of starting blocks and proper racing attire.

Sharpe invited De Grasse to join Pickering's Speed Academy.

All three events were won by his eventual Olympic teammate Bolade Ajomale of Alexander Mackenzie High School.

Having finished in the top 4 in the 100m and 200m, De Grasse qualified for the Ontario Central Championships, where he finished 4th in the 100m and 10th overall in the 200m.

Finally, having qualified for the Ontario Championships in the 100m, De Grasse placed 5th in the final.

He then began to train under Sharpe at The Speed Academy.

At the 2013 Canada Games, De Grasse won three gold medals in the 100, 200, and 4×100-metre relay.

He attended Coffeyville Community College in 2013 and 2014 before transferring to USC for his junior season in 2015.

A consistent podium finisher, he won a medal in every Olympic and World Championship final he competed in from 2015 until the 2023 World Championships.

Andre De Grasse was born in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, Ontario.

His mother, Beverley De Grasse, was a high school sprinter in Trinidad and Tobago before she moved to Canada at age 26.

His father, Alexander Waithe, moved from Barbados to Canada as a teenager.

De Grasse was raised in Markham, Ontario and attended St. Marguerite Bourgeoys Catholic Elementary School from kindergarten to grade two.

Competing for USC, De Grasse's legal 100 m time of 9.97 won 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 favourite Trayvon Bromell of Baylor University with wind-aided times of 9.75 and 19.58, respectively.

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."

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.

He won the gold medal in the 100m with a time of 10.05.

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."

De Grasse doubled and won gold in the 200m with a new national record of 19.88.

De Grasse became the first Canadian in history to run both a sub-10 in the 100 metres and sub-20 in the 200.

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.

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.

He also has three Olympic bronze medals, placing third in the 100 m at both the 2016 and 2020 Games, and also in the 4×100 m relay in 2016.

At the World Athletics Championships, De Grasse won a gold medal with the Canadian 4×100 relay team in 2022, as well as a bronze medal in the same event in 2015.

He has three individual World medals, winning silver in the 200 m in 2019 in Doha, and two bronzes in the 100 m in 2015 and 2019.

He was also the double Pan American champion and the NCAA champion in the 100 m and 200 m. He is the current Canadian record holder in the 200 m, running a 19.62 in Tokyo and making him the eighth fastest man in history in the 200 m.

De Grasse is the first Canadian sprinter to win three medals in a single Olympics, bettering the two medals in a single Olympics that were won by Canadian sprinters Donovan Bailey and Percy Williams.

A six-time Olympic medalist, De Grasse is the 2020 Olympic champion in the 200 m, and also won the silver in the 200 m in 2016.

He won a second silver in the 4×100 relay in 2020.

His gold medal finish at the 2020 Olympics was the first Canadian Olympic gold in track in 25 years and the first in the 200 m in 93 years.