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Third time’s the charm?
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Andre De Grasse dished on his desire to lead the “new generation” of sprinters, his admiration for mentor Usain Bolt and playing basketball with fellow GTA product Andrew Wiggins in an interview with the Daily Mail.
The 29-year-old from Markham heads into his third Olympic Games, which kicks off Wednesday in Paris, as the defending men’s 200-metre champion, part of a three-medal haul at the 2020 Tokyo Games. He also added silver in the men’s 4X100-metre relay and bronze in the 100-metre dash.
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The six-time Olympic medallist said it’s his goal to emulate Bolt by making an impression on the sport, he told the Mail.
“I just want to keep going out there, leave a mark in this sport and create a legacy that people will look up to and be inspired by,” he said.
“So yeah, I got to keep going until the wheels fall off, as they say.”
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Bolt certainly left his mark on the sport and the Olympics in general by winning eight gold medals for Jamaica at the 2008 Beijing, 2012 London and 2016 Rio Games, usually with a big smile on his face.
“One of the things that kind of just stood out to me with him was to see how much fun he had out there,” De Grasse said of Bolt, via the Mail. “How much he just kind of smiled and enjoyed the crowd.”
De Grasse, who finished second in the 200 metres and third in the 100 alongside Bolt at the Rio Games, said the legend told him, according to the Mail, to “stay focused. Remember your goals and what you want to accomplish. Avoid all distractions. Keep going.”
Unfortunately, De Grasse won’t be seeing fellow GTA athlete Andrew Wiggins in Paris after the former NBA all-star was denied a chance to play for Team Canada when the Golden State Warriors raised concerns about his health.
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De Grasse told the Mail that he knew Wiggins was destined for big things.
“He was amazing in high school, dunking out at the gym, of course,” De Grasse said of Wiggins, who won an NBA title with the Warriors in 2021-22. “We thought he was going to be the next big thing for sure, especially coming out of Canada, where you don’t see as many basketball players.
“But now, we’re starting to see it more and more with this new generation. We have some great players coming up.”
De Grasse told the Mail he is “pumped up” to be competing again in the 100 and 200 metres, as well as the 4X100 relay, in Paris. He also has his eyes on the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, where he attended college at the University of Southern California.
“I think for me, I never liked to put a time limit or expiration on how many Olympics I can do … I think my goal and objective is to make it to at least 2028 L.A. because I feel like that would be a full-circle moment for me,” he told the Mail.
“That’s where I kind of started my career.”
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