De Grasse hopes to add to medal haul in third Olympics in Paris

Time has flown for Andre De Grasse.

The 29-year-old from Markham, Ont., is entering his third Olympics in what has been a storied career. De Grasse has won six medals across two Games, making him the most decorated Canadian male Summer Olympian ever.

Now he looks to use that experience on the big stage to help add to his medal haul.

"Third Olympics, can't believe how time has flown," De Grasse said. "It's crazy, being a young kid (at the) 2016 Rio Olympics, moving on to a pandemic Olympics not knowing what to expect. Now here I am, almost 30 (years old), getting ready for Paris being the veteran.

"But I'm feeling pretty good about it. I want to draw on my experiences throughout the last couple of Olympics, use that to my advantage and just go from there."

De Grasse had a trying two years in a pandemic-shortened quadrennial after the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to 2021, where he won three medals including gold in the men's 200 metres.

He dealt with a toe injury in 2022 that stymied his campaign and then had difficulty finding his rhythm again until the tail end of the 2023 season following the world championships.

In 2024, however, he's had a clean bill of health, saying he's "feeling the best I've ever been in a long time." That alone, he feels, makes him a challenge for opposing sprinters.

"My confidence is always on 10," De Grasse said. "If I'm healthy, it's going to be hard to beat me. Of course the last couple of years I was injured, so that self-doubt always creeps in … but now I'm pretty healthy, I'm feeling like my old self again."

De Grasse ran his fastest 100 time since he won bronze at the Tokyo Games, clocking 10 seconds on June 18 to meet the Olympic standard. In his most recent 200 performance last Tuesday, he ran 19.98 seconds, having long already reached the standard in that event.

"He ran really conservative," his coach at Tumbleweed Track Club, Rana Reider, said of the 200 race. "If you add one per cent, adrenalin for the Olympic Games, you're at 19.7.

"His top-end speed is better than it was in Tokyo. So we just have to have the start and be able to run the rounds and I think he'll be in the mix."

However, with other top-end sprinters having better times and performances over the past couple of years, De Grasse has been left out of most medal contention conversations.

For De Grasse, being the underdog is something he is familiar with and enjoys.

"You never really try to listen to the noise but obviously you hear it a bit, you hear the critics," he said with a smile. "That gives me motivation to say no one's looking out for me, … I like both, being (the underdog and) the champ … people are thinking that I might not be able to defend that title or make it out of the rounds."

"I just want to go out there and bring my best performance when it matters and peak at the right time," De Grasse added. "I think when I get there, my adrenalin's going to get going, I'm going to get back in that flow, that rhythm.

"The speed's always there, my coach always says, you just have to find it again. And I'm starting to find it again — I'm starting to find that rhythm, that pace and I'm feeling pretty good about this season, I'm feeling that I can make something happen."

De Grasse has long been known as one of the better big-time performers in the sport.

His personal bests in both the 100 and 200 came at the Tokyo Olympics. Considering his good health, Reider expects that De Grasse will be his usual self under the brightest lights.

"The big performers understand the big stage, that's what they live for," Reider said. "They understand early races are not what you're judged on, you're judged on first, making your team and second, what happens at the championships.

"And so for him, it's all about the championships now. That's his motivation."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 16, 2024.