Mumbai: A video montage displays one of the many famous moments to have been played out in the history of the Olympic Games. Andre De Grasse is off the blocks quickly, but is soon overtaken by the great Usain Bolt. But in a late surge, the young Canadian tries to catch up with the reigning World and Olympic champion. The race – the semi-final of the men’s 200m event at the 2016 Rio Olympics – ends with the duo sharing a smile as they cross the finish line.
“I had to laugh in that moment,” De Grasse said on the video. “I knew I could beat him one day.”
De Grasse, the daring 21-year-old who challenged Bolt was considered – even by the Jamaican – to be the eight-time Olympic gold-medallist’s heir apparent. Injuries prevented him from reaching those heights. Yet De Grasse, the event ambassador at the Mumbai Marathon this Sunday, is still a seven-time Olympic medallist, including gold medals in the 200m (Tokyo 2020) and 4x100m relay (Paris 2024).
That endearing memory from nearly a decade ago precedes him wherever he goes. And he explained that the confidence came through a familiarity he achieved with Bolt.
“I had raced him a year prior at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing,” De Grasse, 31, said on Thursday. “I remember being this young kid. I felt really good about myself, I felt like I belonged.
“I know a lot of people were all nervous because they were scared to race him the first time. But I had the opportunity to race him at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in the relay, so I had already done that. And during that (200m semi-final), I looked around and I didn’t see anybody near us. It was just me and him. I never thought that would happen.”
Much was expected of the man from Ontario. But in 2017, the first in a series of hamstring injuries struck and he was forced to sit out of most of the next two seasons.
By 2019 though, he started to claw his way back onto the circuit and became the first 200m Olympic champion in the post-Bolt era. Not a bad journey for someone who considered athletics as a third-choice sport.
“I was actually playing football before I got into high school,” he said. “And then I got into basketball when I was 13 and I just loved playing the game. I was a big fan of (American NBA star) Vince Carter and that inspired me to play. Until about 16, because I just didn’t have the extra growth spurt (he stands at 5-foot-11). That’s when I switched to track and field.”
The move to athletics too came as a result of some friendly banter. The story goes that De Grasse was joking around with a friend about being a faster runner, only for him to be invited to an upcoming track meet.
“I went there, and I had never seen anything like it,” he recalled. “People were doing all these drills, and I had no idea what I was doing – I was just there to race my friends. I ended up borrowing a pair of spikes, I didn’t use any starting blocks and I was wearing basketball shorts. And I ended up winning the race at about 10.92 seconds.”
That run caught the attention of Tony Sharpe, an athletics coach who had won bronze in the relay event at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
Coincidentally, while he does a little sight-seeing in Mumbai, De Grasse’s eyes are set on Los Angeles, for the 2028 Olympics.
But he recognises that he now races in a different era of sprinting, where there are a lot more high-profile opponents he has to face rather than just worry about that one Jamaican who stands at 6-foot-5.
“We’re all around 5-foot-11, maybe a couple of taller guys, but anybody can win,” he added. “I know back then the fans would just say ‘Bolt’s going to win everything.’ Now the track is different, the spikes are different. More people are consistent in running sub-10 (100m) and sub-20 (200m) than before.”
But the man once considered Bolt’s heir apparent cannot be left out of the conversation. De Grasse has, after all, proven his place in the highest echelons of the sport.
