Olympic champion’s involvement with Kid’s Help Phone special to him
Perspective has come to Andre De Grasse the way it often does for many of us mere mortals.
He’s turning 30 in November. He’s a father of two, a decorated athlete with six Olympic medals, a dad and a business man with a need to give back.
This will be De Grasse’s third Olympic Games and he won’t say this is his last — even if it might be. He’s not ready to make that kind of declaration just yet.
“Mentally and physically I feel really good,” he said on the phone from Italy, not long before posting his best 200-metre time of the season, less than a month before the Paris Olympics. “Physically, there are always aches and pains. That’s sprinting. But I’m feeling good otherwise and I’m excited to run fast and break some records along the way.”
But first, there is some business away from the track to take care of. He has been involved in Kids Help Phone since the middle of the pandemic.
“I’m a dad now and I think about those things,” De Grasse said. “Mental health has become super important for everyone. During the pandemic, there were kids who couldn’t go outside, didn’t know what was going to happen, so when I was approached to be part of that, that was a no-brainer for me.
“You want make sure everyone feels loved and, during (COVID-19), you wanted everyone to feel we’re going to get out of this together.”
This is something De Grasse may be part of long after his sprinting career is over.
And now, officially announced on Monday, comes a deal with the Ontario Lottery Corporation, better known as OLG. When De Grasse was a nobody trying to make it in track and field, like all athletes he needed financial support. It came in some ways from OLG’s Quest for Gold program. A program that also happened to support a young Ontario swimmer at the time by the name of Penny Oleksiak.
Oleksiak owns seven Olympic medals. De Grasse is the owner of six. Both are now involved in the OLG program in an important way.
“They’ve supported me since 2014,” said De Grasse, who burst onto the international scene a year later at the Toronto Pan Am Games. “If I don’t have that (money) behind me, I don’t know where I’d go. It’s been very beneficial to me and other athletes.
“Having them in my corner is an amazing thing and to be part of it now — I’m very happy to do that.”
Some athletes completely disappear from the public this close to the Olympics, putting their training schedule ahead of anything else that may come their way. But De Grasse has never been some athletes. He does what he needs to do, when he needs to do it.
That has kept him unique and on schedule with six Olympic races and six Olympic medals from track and field, the most decorated Canadian man in Summer Olympic history in the individual sport that means the most internationally.
Somehow he has more than gotten by, even though he doesn’t necessarily fit the profile of a sprinter — in size or in high-strung or erratic nature.
De Grasse looks forward to heading to Paris, being part of the Canadian team and getting some time with Team Canada chef de mission, Bruny Surin, a hero of his from years gone by.
When De Grasse began getting noticed in Canada for his sprinting talents, it was clear also that he was not built like so many in his game. He didn’t have Ben Johnson’s chest or arms or Donovan Bailey’s height or length.
“Donovan and Bruny are pretty inspirational to me, seeing what they’ve done in the sport, seeing how they’ve kind of stuck around. That matters to me. I look at guys like Donovan, Bruny, Ben, and they were a lot more explosive than (me). A lot more powerful in the quads. So I’ve been working really hard in the weight room, trying to get stronger, trying to put on weight, trying to start faster. I know I have the speed once I get going, but I want to have everything,” De Grasse said.
“That’s why I put these goals out there. I don’t tell people I’m going to win this or that. I want to break the Canadian record in the 100. (that’s Bailey’s 9.84 time at the Atlanta Olympics of 1996). My goals haven’t changed. I’m just more serious now, with more motivation more of the right attitude. I want to go out there and use my experience, use that to my advantage.”
De Grasse plans to compete in the 100, the 200 and the 4×100 metre relay in Paris, the same three events he competed in the past two Olympics. He has medals of all three colours now from his six races — the gold coming from the 200 at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Picking the race he likes best is like asking him which of his children he likes best: You love them all.
But because he won the 200 gold and hasn’t won in the 100, the 100 is more on his mind right now, even if it seems the greater challenge.
“Of course I want to defend my title in the 200,” De Grasse said. “But the 100 is the fastest man in the world and that’s something I’ve been chasing. I’ve come up with two Olympic bronze medals in the 100. I want to improve on that and try and get silver or even win a gold.”
But all of that comes now, his third Games, with a different perspective. A broader view of the sporting world, of his own world and family.
“Now that I’m a father, I think differently. I have a different kind of perspective. For sure, that’s played a role in why I wanted to be more involved in the kind of things I’m involved with. When I was asked to be an ambassador for Quest For Gold, I thought of those I could help or how I was helped. It’s important to think of that now.”
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