Andre De Grasse

Early Life

Andre De Grasse was born to Beverley De Grasse and Alex Waithe in Scarborough, Ontario. He has three siblings: Julian, Alexandra and Dantee Waithe. His father moved to Canada from Barbados as a teenager, while his mother immigrated to Toronto from Trinidad and Tobago in her mid-20s. (See also Caribbean Canadians.) Both De Grasse’s parents were sprinters in their youth.

De Grasse was raised by his mother in the Toronto suburb of Markham. As a child, De Grasse played soccer, basketball and baseball. Later, as a student at Milliken Mills High School, his focus narrowed to basketball. He excelled at the sport until Milliken Mills cancelled its basketball program in De Grasse’s final year. At the time, De Grasse was struggling in school; his grades were low and he was hanging out with the wrong crowd and using drugs. The loss of the basketball team didn’t help. On a whim, De Grasse, 17, decided to join friends and compete in a regional high school track and field meet.

First Race

During the York Region Track and Field Championships, held at York University in May 2012, De Grasse competed in the senior boys 100 m dash, 200 m dash and long jump. When he took his spot at the starting line for the 100 m dash — his first time trying the sport — De Grasse ignored the starting blocks. Instead he stood upright and sideways, like a baserunner. He wore a T-shirt, baggy basketball shorts and borrowed track spikes.

It took De Grasse 10.91 seconds to get from that awkward stance to the finish line. Though it wasn’t fast enough to win (he placed second), his time was remarkable, considering both his age and lack of experience. It is unusual for men in this age category (senior boys) to run 100 m in under 11 seconds, and De Grasse had done so in his first race, without the aid of starting blocks, coaching or proper training.

The feat caught the attention of Tony Sharpe, who won a bronze medal for Canada in the men’s 4x100 m relay at the 1984 Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles. Sharpe was in the stands that day and invited De Grasse to join his track club, the Speed Academy, in Pickering, Ontario. “I’ve been in this sport 40 years, competed in the Olympics, seen a lot of fast guys,” Sharpe later told the Orange County Register. “In terms of pure talent, I’ve seen nothing like Andre De Grasse.”

College

After graduating from Milliken Mills in 2012, De Grasse attended Coffeyville Community College in Coffeyville, Kansas, from 2012 to 2014. Coffeyville, like many junior colleges, is well known for its athletic program, and is generally considered a track and field powerhouse. Many student athletes begin their careers at junior or community colleges, then transfer to major colleges. At Coffeyville, De Grasse won five National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) titles, including two in the 200 m and one in the 100 m.

From there, De Grasse was pursued by colleges all over the United States. He chose the University of Southern California (USC) and began training with coach Caryl Smith Gilbert in fall 2014. As a member of the USC Trojans, De Grasse turned heads at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships in June 2015. He won the 100 m dash with a time of 9.75 seconds and the 200 m dash in 19.58 seconds. Both times were wind aided (there was a tailwind of more than 2 m per second) and therefore couldn’t be counted as official NCAA records. Still, De Grasse’s times represented two of the fastest in the history of the sport. That year, for example, the fastest legal times were 9.74 seconds in the 100 m, posted by American sprinter Justin Gatlin, and 19.55 seconds in the 200 m, posted by Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.

2015 Pan Am Games

In the summer of 2015, Toronto hosted the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games. De Grasse competed in the 100 m and 200 m races, as well as in the 4x100 m relay. As a hometown athlete hot off his remarkable performance at the NCAA Championships, De Grasse’s presence at the Games was highly anticipated. It had been 19 years since Donovan Bailey’s gold medal performance at the 1996 Olympic Games, and 16 years since Bruny Surin matched Bailey’s time of 9.84 seconds and won silver at the 1999 World Championships.

De Grasse won gold in both the 100 m and 200 m dashes, with times of 10.05 and 19.88 seconds respectively. His time in the 200 m race broke his own Canadian record. For a moment, many thought De Grasse had won a third gold medal after his team finished first in the 4x100 m relay. They were disqualified, however, when it was confirmed that Gavin Smellie had stepped out of his lane during the first leg of the race.

During the Pan Am Games, many observed what appeared to be De Grasse’s bewilderment with his rapid rise to stardom. He lacked the bravado typical of most of the fastest men in the world, looking around in awe as fans cheered the announcement of his name at the starting line. “A lot of people before this, they didn’t know how to pronounce my name,” De Grasse told the Toronto Star following his 200 m win. “They used to say De Grasseeee. But now I think everybody knows that my name is De Grasse [pronounced de grass].”

2015 World Championships

In August 2015, immediately following the Pan Am Games, De Grasse competed in the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships in Beijing, China. It was the first time the 20-year-old competed in the 100 m dash against the likes of Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world, and Justin Gatlin, who was generally considered the favourite to win. Known for overcoming slow starts with an incredible burst of speed in the final seconds, De Grasse emerged from the back of the pack to record a personal best time of 9.92. This tied for bronze with American Trayvon Bromell, behind Gatlin (9.8 seconds) and Bolt (9.79 seconds).

Professional Sprinter

De Grasse became a professional sprinter in December 2015. He signed a multi-year, $11.25 million sponsorship contract with Puma. He also left USC to work with coach Stuart McMillan at the ALTIS training centre in Phoenix, Arizona.

At only 5-foot-9 and 154 lb, De Grasse is remarkably short and slim for a sprinter. (Lori Ewing of the Canadian Press called him “a greyhound among Mack trucks.”) An imbalance in his hips led to a funky arm swing early in his career; his habit of fully extending his right arm behind him was dubbed the “Andre arm,” though he corrected this as he refined his technique. In the 100 m sprint, he is known for making up for a slow start through the first 50 m with a spectacular late kick that propels him to the front of the pack. He is best suited to the 200 m sprint, where he can take full advantage of his late-breaking speed.

2016 Olympic Summer Games

At the 2016 Olympic Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, De Grasse won three medals. He became the first Canadian sprinter to do so at a single Olympic Games. He won silver in the 200 m with a time of 20.02 seconds, finishing behind Usain Bolt (19.78 seconds). In the 100 m, De Grasse (9.91 seconds) took the bronze behind American Justin Gatlin (9.89 seconds) and Bolt (9.81 seconds). De Grasse, Akeem Haynes, Brendon Rodney and Aaron Brown also took home the bronze medal in the men’s 4x100 m relay with a time of 37.64 seconds.

Following the Games, De Grasse returned to the University of Southern California. He finished his degree in sociology in December 2016.

Running Career 2016–19

Prior to the 2017 world championships, De Grasse was considered a favourite for gold in the 200 m. He was also looking forward to facing Usain Bolt in the 100 m. “I want to beat him before he retires,” he told the CBC. However, a hamstring injury forced De Grasse to withdraw from the championships. The following year, he was named to the Canadian team for the 2018 Commonwealth Games but withdrew to work on his fitness. That July, he suffered another hamstring injury during the national championships and lost his Canadian titles in both the 100 m and 200 m to teammate Aaron Brown.

Following his disappointing 2018 season, De Grasse switched coaches, leaving Stuart McMillan to train with American coach Rana Reider in Florida.

De Grasse returned to form at the 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar. He won silver in the men’s 200 m with a time of 19.95 seconds and bronze in the men’s 100 m with a personal best time of 9.90 seconds.

2020 Olympic Summer Games

At the 2020 Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo — which were postponed one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and were held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 — De Grasse once again won three medals. He took bronze in the men’s 100 m with a person best time of 9.89 seconds and won gold in the 200 m with a time of 19.62 seconds — a new Canadian record.

The 4x100 m relay final offered arguably the best example to date of De Grasse’s explosive, late-breaking speed. With his team lagging in fifth place, De Grasse took the baton for the final 100 m and surged past Jamaica’s Oblique Seville and China’s Wu Zhiqiang to secure a bronze medal for Canada with a combined time of 37.70. It was later upgraded to a silver medal after the silver-medal winning team from Great Britain was disqualified for a doping violation.

Running Career, 2021–24

During the 2021 Diamond League, Andre De Grasse won gold in the men’s 100 m at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, with a wind-aided time of 9.74. He also won silver in the men’s 100 m and 200 m at the Diamond League Finals in Zurich. He ran both events on the same night and tied his personal best in the 100 m with a time of 9.89. He later called 2021 “my greatest season ever.”

De Grasse’s 2022 season was hampered by injury and illness. A foot injury dogged him early in the year, though he recovered enough to win gold in the men’s 100 m at the Oslo Diamond League even in June. But shortly afterward, he caught COVID-19 for a second time and was forced to withdraw from the Canadian championships due to extreme fatigue and difficulty breathing. He told CBC News that walking up a flight of stairs left him winded. “I was panicking a little bit,” he said.

At the 2022 World Athletic Championships in Eugene, Oregon, De Grasse competed in the 100m. But for the first time in his career, he failed to win a medal in an individual World event. He ran a time of 10.21 in the semi-finals and did not advance. He also withdrew from the men’s 200 m but, surprisingly, chose to compete in the men’s 4x100 m relay. It proved to be a sage decision, as De Grasse, in the anchor position, pulled away from Marvin Bracy to upset Team USA and win the gold medal for Canada with a time of 37.48.

De Grasse was slated to compete at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham but withdrew “to properly recover and prepare for the rest of the season,” as noted by Athletics Canada.

De Grasse began the 2023 season by switching coaches. He moved to Orlando, Florida, to train under John Coghlan. But De Grasse clearly had not made a full recovery from his 2022 aliments. At the Canadian championships in July 2023, he failed to advance to the finals of the men’s 100 m and therefore did not qualify for the World Championships. He did qualify for the men’s 200 m with a come-from-behind victory at the Canadian championships, posting a season’s best time of 20.01. But at the World Championships, De Grasse finished sixth with a time of 20.14. However, De Grasse finished the season on a triumphant note, stunning the field at the 2023 Diamond League final with a gold medal in the men’s 200 m with a time of 19.76. He was Canada’s first Diamond League champion since shot putter Dylan Armstrong in 2011.

Personal Life and Charitable Activity

De Grasse and his partner, American hurdler Nia Ali, welcomed daughter Yuri in 2018. The pair met while they were both track athletes at USC. Ali won silver in the 100 m hurdles at the 2016 Olympic Summer Games.

Also in 2018, De Grasse launched the Andre De Grasse Family Foundation, which his mother, Beverly, helps administer. The charity aims to empower youth through sport and education. The foundation’s first initiative was the Andre De Grasse Future Champions Fund, which it established in conjunction with the Athletics Canada Foundation. The Fund provides scholarships to high school athletes who are not yet part of a track and field club.

Honours and Awards

• Lionel Conacher Award, Canadian Press (2016)
• Rising Star Award, International Association of Athletics Federations (2016)
• Harry Jerome Award, Black Business and Professional Association (2017)

Notable Medal Wins in International Competition

Olympic Summer Games
Rio 2016	200 m	silver
Rio 2016	100 m	bronze
Rio 2016	4x100 m relay	bronze
Tokyo 2020	200 m	gold
Tokyo 2020	100 m	bronze
Tokyo 2020	4x100 m relay	silver
World Athletic Championships
Beijing 2015	100 m	bronze
Beijing 2015	4x100 m relay	bronze
Doha 2019	100 m	bronze
Doha 2019	200 m	silver
Oregon, 2022	4x100 m relay	gold
World Relays
Nassau 2017	4x200 m relay	gold
Pan American Games
Toronto 2015	100 m	gold
Toronto 2015	200 m	gold
Pan American Junior Championships
Medellin 2013	100 m	silver
Medellin 2013	200 m	bronze