He’s enjoyed the victory of an Olympic gold medal and suffered from injury, but Andre De Grasse’s biggest thrill is becoming a dad for the first time.
The 23-year-old Scarborough-born world-class sprinter says becoming a father is a totally new experience which helped him to settle down.
De Grasse’s girlfriend Nia Ali gave birth to a cute little girl last June in Philadelphia. The couple have named the child Yuri.
“Being a father is exciting for me,” De Grasse said proudly. “I’ve learned a lot in these past couple of years.”
Ali, a sprinter with the U.S. track and field team, met De Grasse while they were both attending the University of Southern California. She is also a top athlete and took home a silver medal in the 100-metre hurdles at the 2016 Olympics.
“It’s been a little bit no sleep (with the baby),” De Grasse chuckled. “I get a chance to get away a little bit. I’m in the hotel and get a little sleep.”
The athlete, who was raised in Markham, has track and field in his blood. His mother, Beverley De Grasse, was a high school sprinter in Trinidad and Tobago before she moved to Canada at age 26. His father, Alexander Waithe, moved from Barbados to Canada as a teenager.
De Grasse didn’t start racing seriously until he reached Grade 11. Then he wore basketball shorts and Converse shoes and did not use starting blocks. He managed to secure second position in his first 100 metre race with a time of 10.9 seconds.
Soon after he was spotted by future coach Tony Sharpe who noticed his potential and placed him on a training regimen to make him faster.
Last week several hundred people, along with Mayor Frank Scarpitti, gathered along Enterprise Boulevard in Markham to watch as new street signs were unveiled honouring De Grasse.
The famous athlete said he never imagined in his wildest dreams being honoured with having a street named after him in the place he grew up.
A proud De Grasse, holding Yuri, and his family and friends were at the unveiling ceremony. A park in that city will also be named after him in the near future.
Last June, he and Aaron Brown led Canada’s relay team to an easy win at the Harry Jerome International Track Classic in Burnaby, B.C., which is one of De Grasse’s favourite tourney.
De Grasse also took home two gold medals during the breathtaking Pan Am Games held in Toronto in 2015.
The runner is coming back from a Grade 2 hamstring strain which forced him to miss last year’s world track and field championships. He also sat out this year’s Commonwealth Games. He plans to be back in action for the 2019 world championships in Doha and the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
The sprinter often returns to his hometown and was here last summer to launch the Andre De Grasse Family Foundation at York University, with a mandate to help promising young athletes. The runner and Coach Sharpe will be giving athletic clinics during the off-season.
“It’s pretty awesome to be able to do this for the kids,” he told reporters. “Moving forward, that’s going to be my legacy. I want people to remember me for something off the track.”
His success at the Olympics led to his winning the Lionel Conacher Award as the Canadian Press’ Male Athlete of the Year in 2016 and in April 2017 he was a recipient of a Harry Jerome Award, which is named after his hero.
Jerome, who was also one of Canada’s fastest men, who competed for Canada in the 1960, 1964, and 1968 Summer Olympics, winning 100 metre bronze in 1964. He also won the gold in the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games and the 1967 Pan American Games.
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