PARIS – Andre De Grasse would not go quietly into the night, but he sure ran quickly when it mattered most.
And now, the most decorated sprinter in Canadian Olympic history and the most decorated relay team has a collection of medals to call their own.
They are almost their own Olympic sprinting franchise, with three relay medals, one gold, one silver, one bronze.
“All three colours,” said De Grasse, who now owns seven Olympic medals, tying him with Penny Oleksiak for the most ever by a Canadian Summer Olympic athlete.
“That’s amazing,” said De Grasse and teammate Aaron Brown said almost the same thing. And it was amazing and unexpected and running out of Lane 9, where champions are rarely found, Canada won coming really out of nowhere.
Which is where De Grasse and Brown found themselves in their races prior to the relay. Neither De Grasse nor Brown qualified for a final in either the 100 or 200 metres, their specialties. Brown was feeling ill, De Grasse was injured. The likelihood of this relay team ending up on the podium, let alone winning the race, was completely unexpected.
And then the 4x100m team stunned the sprinting world and Team Canada here at the Olympics, running to an undisputed gold, with DeGrasse running an anchor leg of 8.89 to push the Canadians to first place. Jerome Blake moved them to fourth with a 8.98 time before the baton was passed to Brendan Rodney who moved Team Canada into third.
Then it was time for De Grasse “to be Andre De Grasse,” said the sprinter who had won six Olympic medals in his first six Olympic races, and then looked all but finished in not qualifying for the finals in the 100 or 200, where he was the defending champion.
“These guys just motivated me,” said De Grasse. “I was just trying to be Andre De Grasse man. Just go out there and leave it all out there. That’s half the battle. I had a two hour warmup just to get the hamstring ready.”
And ready he was, with a little help from their American friends, who crashed into themselves on an early passing of the baton and never finished the race.
For De Grasse, Brown and Rodney this is three Olympic relay medals together, and the most dominant performance of the three. For Blake it was his second medal. The medal was unexpected after Brown and De Grasse has began the Olympics so poorly.
“But we owed it to ourselves to do this,” said Brown. “We’re a team. We’ve been together a long time. We know what to do and we did it.
“Maybe you can’t beat chemistry. No matter what you go through you’ve got to stick together. We’re not just a group of guys. We actually like each other off the track. When we’re down we pick each other up. And that’s what we had to do here.”
De Grasse, Brown and Rodney are all Toronto area runners. Blake is from just outside Vancouver. The four have been running together and against each other for years and this might have been the last time for De Grasse at age 29 racing at the Olympics.
That’s how it looked coming into the race, And when he immediately ran to his mother and his children after the race – the celebration wasn’t just for him, for his teammates, for his family – it was for a country that adores sprinting success.
“It’s Canada,” said South African sprinter Shaun Maswanganyi, who was part of the silver medal team. “You never have to explain Canada in this race. They always put it together. Other countries make mistakes. They don’t make mistakes. I’m not surprised by them at all.”
Neither it seems were the gold-medal winners.
“It’s amazing,” said De Grasse. “We got bronze in Rio. We got silver in Tokyo. And you team up with these guys, and we talked without this moment. We didn’t have gold. Now we have all three.
“When I woke up this morning I wasn’t feeling that great. “I just tried to go for a walk and get some fresh air. Get some treatment. For one last run. And leave it all out there.”
One last run. Those were his words. This team is remarkable on its own – but the Olympic consistency and heart of De Grasse, at the toughest times, is almost beyond compare.
Donovan Bailey won two gold medals and nothing after that in the Games. Bruny Surin, for all his international success, only won one medal in a relay race. Ben Johnson won two before disqualification took one of those away.
This is seven for De Grasse. Three Olympics and medals in all three. Seven medals in the world’s deepest sport. Three for Brown. Three for Rodney. Two for Blake.
“Never count us out,” said Brown. “No matter what lane we’re in. Could be in 2, could be in 9. Put us in lane 9, we We just represent ourselves.
On the track while celebrating, the four Canadians were joined by the women’s 4 x 100m team that finished seventh in their race just a few minutes earlier. “It was great being out there with them, seeing them win,” said Sade McCreath. “It’s a huge inspiration for us. We got to see what’s it’s like to win gold.”
And for the men themselves to experience being on the top step on the podium – a place De Grasse has been at the Olympics – but the others have not.
“It’s very special to end the Games the way I wanted to,” said De Grasse. “Leaving with something, with a gold medal. It’s incredible. No. 7 was special. It’s going to add to my collection and it shows my grit and determination.
“I can show this to my kids. This one was probably the hardest one to win.
“It wasn’t a great (Olympics) for me. It wasn’t smooth sailing like the last two Olympic Games. But this I’ll remember this the most. This and the 200 metres (from Tokyo).”
The two gold medals. One more than Oleksiak has. Same number as Bailey and Percy Williams. De Grasse – the greatest Canadian Olympic sprinter in history. Not ready or willing to say goodbye when a few days ago it looked like he’d have no choice.
“I know the future is still bright for me,” said De Grasse, who turns 30 in November. “This will keep me up and get me going for the next Games.”
Canada won gold in a Canadian record time of 37.50, beating the 1996 mark of Bailey, Surin, Robert Esmie and Glenroy Gilbert who won gold in 37.67. South Africa won silver and Great Britain was third. Team USA, racing without Noah Lyles, did not finish the race.