Canadians sprint to Olympic gold in 4x100m relay

The Canadian men’s 4x100m relay team brought home our first track medal of the Paris Olympics on Friday evening at the Stade de France. The quartet of Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse moved the baton around the oval flawlessly, finishing in a season’s best 37.50 seconds, fending off Team South Africa, anchored by Akani Simbine, who took silver in a new national record of 37.57 seconds. Great Britain won bronze in 37.61 seconds. 

It was a sweet vindication for De Grasse and Brown especially, both have not been 100 per cent in Paris. Shockingly, De Grasse failed to qualify for the finals of either the 100m or the 200m; he later revealed he had a slight hamstring injury, but you’d never know it after Friday’s relay final. It was also a special moment for Rodney and Brown, neither of whom qualified for the final in the 200m. 

De Grasse took the baton in third position, and passed two competitors to cross the line first.

“To team up with these guys, to be at the Games like this and to come home with a gold medal … we all talked about this moment,” De Grasse told Canadian Running after the race. “It’s an incredible feeling, and an incredible way for me to end the Games.”

“I never stopped believing,” Brown said. These guys can do incredible things when we get together and put our minds to it, and it showed today. Never count us out, no matter what lane … We can be in lane 2, we can be in lane 9, we could be in the stands–we can make magic together anywhere.”

Brown is referring to their lane assignment–they got lane 9, considered the least favourable placement since it’s the furthest forward on the track, meaning they can’t see who is coming up alongside them. But they did not let that deter them; in fact, Rodney felt it was the best position possible: “Lane 9 was the perfect lane for us,” he said post-race. “We didn’t have to worry about anybody, we just had to run our race.”

It was a night of disappointment for Team USA, who won gold at last year’s world championships. Their lead-off runner, Christian Coleman, was unable to transfer the baton cleanly to Kenny Bednarek, who took off early, and the team ended up being disqualified for passing the baton outside the exchange zone. With 100m gold medallist and 200m bronze medallist Noah Lyles dropping out due to a Covid diagnosis, fans speculated on how good Team USA would be without him, but this was a disaster for Team USA. (Lyles also will not compete in the men’s 4x400m relay final, scheduled for Saturday evening.) Lyles was replaced by Kyree King, but Fred Kerley anchored the team on Friday.

This makes a complete set of medals for Brown, Rodney and De Grasse, who have been together since winning bronze at Rio in 2016. “Bronze in Rio, silver in Tokyo–this is the icing on the cake–we have our gold,” De Grasse said. 

Brown attributed the group’s success to its cohesiveness: “Chemistry is everything in the relay. As much as people want to talk about who’s the fastest, we have chemistry. We like each other off the track; we lift each other up. I did not want to get out of bed, I did not have a good Games individually and was sick, but the other guys  lifted me up–they told me we were going to get it done in the relay.” 

Referring to dismissive comments by Lyles in May about the Canadian team, Blake added, “I got one thing to say, for Noah Lyles: Canada who?!”

Team USA women cruise to gold

The American women, on the other hand, anchored by Sha’Carri Richardson, took the women’s 4x100m relay gold medal with ease, crossing the line in 41.78 seconds; Great Britain won silver, in 41.85, with Germany following for bronze in 41.97.

Canada’s foursome, consisting of Sade McCreath, Jacqueline Madogo, Marie-Éloïse Leclair, and Audrey Leduc, crossed the line in seventh place (42.69), but were upgraded to sixth after the Swiss team was disqualified for passing the baton outside the exchange zone. The Canadian squad set a Canadian record of 42.50 in the heats.

Athletics events at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games are taking place from Aug. 1-11. Today’s coverage is brought to you by Canadian Running and New Balance Canada. Follow us on Twitter on Instagram for all things Team Canada and up-to-date exclusive news and content.