Canada celebrates landmark evening of track and field
De Grasse, Warner add to athletics medal haul
Canada doesn’t get a lot of practice at celebrating nights like this at an Olympic track and field venue.
We’re a nation that is still running that Greg Joy silver medal high jump footage from the Montreal Olympics 40 years ago, the one in which Canada didn’t win a gold medal of any kind.
We’ve had our moments, like the Donovan Bailey/4x100 relay team double-gold in Atlanta, but not many of them.
So Thursday night at Estadio Olimpico, when decathlete Damian Warner was in the middle of his post-bronze medal conversation with reporters and had to stop mid-stream to watch another Canadian, Andre De Grasse, dog Usain Bolt’s footsteps to the finish line of the 200-metre sprint, was one for the memory banks.
Two track medals in the space of a half-hour. Crazy.
A gold from high jumper Derek Drouin two nights ago, a silver from De Grasse and a bronze from Warner Thursday — three more on the male side of the ledger, if you’re keeping score at home — makes it 18 medals (four of them gold) at the Rio Olympics for Canada, which had the same total, but only one gold in London four years ago.
The Bolt-De Grasse showdown had all the buzz and it ended as scripted: history’s greatest sprinter striding to a sizable victory, albeit in a slowish 19.78 seconds to De Grasse’s 20.02, the Canadian a further one-tenth of a second ahead of France’s Christophe Lemaitre.
But when Warner nailed his final attempt at the javelin to solidify third place, then comfortably outran the only man, Germany’s Kai Kazmirek, who could catch him for bronze in the gruelling 1,500-metre finale, it earned the first decathlon medal by a Canadian since Dave Steen’s bronze 28 years ago at the Seoul Olympics.
That was before the 26-yearold Warner was born in London, Ont., but though Canada is a vast expanse, track and field can sometimes be an oddly small community.
“In 2010, once I started training for the decathlon, I went to Windsor,” Warner said in the moments after De Grasse’s silvermedal run. “And I was throwing javelin and this guy comes from the fire department across the street and he’s telling me to try all these things and ... it’s working.
“And when he left, I was like, ‘Who was that guy?’ And my coach says, ‘That’s Dave Steen. He won the bronze medal at the Olympics.’”
That was Steen’s post-career job. He’s a 56-year-old firefighter.
“He’s been an amazing motivator; a couple of times now he’s messaged me to say ‘Good luck.’ He’s just a great guy.” Warner seems like one, too. “It feels awesome,” he said after finishing third to world recordholder Ashton Eaton of the U.S. and Kevin Mayer of France, but with the fifth-highest points total (8,666) ever recorded at an Olympic Games.
Bolt may or may not be as nice as he seems — a three-Olympic superstar may have a slightly inflated ego — but he still bestrides his sport like the 6-foot-5 colossus he is. It was his eighth gold medal and, barring a drop of the baton, it will probably be 9-for-9 Friday night when the Jamaicans run the 4x100-metre relay.
“I am trying to be one of the greatest. Be among (Muhammad) Ali and Pele. I hope after these Games I will be in that bracket.
“I ran hard around the turn. On the straight, my body didn’t respond. I’m getting old.”
He looked, if not exactly old, definitely relieved.
There was no big grin, no finger pointed at his quasi “little buddy” De Grasse this time. It was all business for both of them and De Grasse looked gutted after losing, though the entire free world suspected Bolt wasn’t going to let him win.
“I’m really happy with two medals, but my race today could have been better,” said De Grasse. “I came off the bend and tried to go, but maybe I used up too much energy in the semifinal yesterday.
“I didn’t think I had, but maybe I did. There was nothing there.”
Whatever anyone thinks of the Bolt-De Grasse bromance in the heats and semifinal, the upshot is undeniable.
The young Canadian’s Q-rating has shot up exponentially from having been right on Bolt’s shoulder and nipping at his heels through both the 100 and 200. To be standing inside the glow of Bolt’s considerable charisma is apt to be an enriching experience on all levels for De Grasse.
And he’s serious stuff now, this 21-year-old from Markham, Ont., who Thursday became the first Canadian to win medals in both the 100 and 200 at the same Olympics since Percy Williams in 1928. That’s pretty good company and it’s only the tip of the iceberg for De Grasse, who might not even hit his full potential until the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
Bolt will be gone by then ... won’t he?
“I want to say so. I think this is the last one,” Bolt said post-race.
I am trying to be one of the greatest. Be among (Muhammad) Ali and Pele. I hope after these Games I will be in that bracket.