7. ANDRE DE GRASSE
The 2015 Athletics season was Andre De Grasse’s breakout year, and the Canadian sprinter has not looked back since winning Bronze in Beijing. Notwithstanding his budding career, the 22-year old has already established that he is a championship performer, and has positioned himself as one of the youngsters to take over from the golden generation of sprinters like Usain Bolt, Justin Gatlin and Asafa Powell.
At the Rio Olympics, he became the first ever Canadian to win Olympic medals in all three sprint events. De Grasse beat Yohan Blake to the 100m Bronze medal after setting a Personal Best (PB) of 9.91s. His camaderie with Bolt played out in the semis of the 200m but that didn’t stop De Grasse from breaking the Canadian Record, setting a new time of 19.80s as he followed hot on the heels of the Jamaican.
He went on to clinch Silver in the final, making him the first Canadian to reach the Olympic podium in the 200m in 88 years. Finally, he anchored the 4x100m team to a Bronze medal in another NR 37.64s, joining the exclusive class of Bolt, Elaine Thompson, Tori Bowie and Allyson Felix to have won three medals in the Track event in Rio.
He also ranked 6th in 100m and 4th in the 200m in 2016. It’s no wonder he was named the 2016 IAAF Male Rising Star. De Grasse is looking forward to facing Bolt one last time at the London 2017 World Championships. He said: “If it is going to be his last time, I’ve got to just try to enjoy the moment and have fun and go out there and give it my all against him one last time.
“It’s going to be interesting to see where I’m at, and see where he’s at. I don’t want to rub people the wrong way where I sound cocky and say I’m going to beat Bolt. At the same time, I’m confident I can go out there and compete with him, and beat him.”
Go for it De Grasse!
