Dear reader,
Andre De Grasse is the fastest man in Canada, but he’d like to be faster. In 2021, the six-time Olympic medallist set the national record in the 200-metre sprint, running the course in a blistering 19.62 seconds. Now he’s in Paris, where he’s eyeing the podium and hoping to make history once more by breaking the Canadian 100-metre record.
To do so, he’ll need to beat the time set by track legends Donovan Bailey and Bruny Surin in the ’90s: 9.84 seconds. That’s only 0.05 seconds faster than De Grasse’s personal best—an interval so short you’d miss it if you blinked. But, for the world’s most elite sprinters, every fraction of a second is crucial.
De Grasse is coming off a difficult run in 2023—he left the World Championships empty-handed for the first time—yet he remains one of Canada’s best hopes for Olympic glory. In anticipation of the men’s 100-metre final this Sunday, we’re revisiting Malcolm Johnston’s 2018 profile of the sprinter, which explores the unflappable calm that helps him move so damn fast.
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