Don't count out Andre De Grasse — and other lessons from this track and field season
Here are 4 Canadian takeaways as the Paris Olympics approach
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The global track and field season effectively ended with this past weekend's Diamond League Final in Eugene, Oregon. While some notable events are coming up in the fall, such as the Pan Am Games in Chile, the top athletes from all around the world won't assemble like this again until next year.
So, what did we learn in 2023? Here are four Canadian takeaways as we head toward next summer's Olympic Games in Paris:
1. Never count out Andre De Grasse.
Slowed by assorted injuries, Canada's biggest track star struggled in his individual events after winning Olympic 200-metre gold in Tokyo two years ago. At last year's world championships in Eugene, he failed to get past the semifinals in the 100m and withdrew from the 200 to save his legs for the 4x100 relay. That decision paid off when De Grasse ran a blistering anchor leg to give Canada a surprising gold, but it ended his streak of seven straight medals in solo events at either the world championships or Olympics.
At last month's worlds in Budapest, De Grasse placed sixth in the 200m and didn't compete in the 100 at all after failing to qualify. This time, there was no relay to fall back on after De Grasse sat out the qualifying round and his Canadian teammates failed to advance.
Coming out of the worlds, a lot of Canadian sports fans were asking "is De Grasse done?" And, with his 29th birthday coming up in November, there just wasn't much evidence to deny it.
Then, suddenly, vintage Andre resurfaced at the end of the Diamond League season. After breaking 20 seconds in the 200m for the first time in two years at the regular-season finale in Brussels, De Grasse shocked everyone at the Final in Eugene by unleashing his signature finishing kick for a decisive victory in 19.76.
WATCH | De Grasse wins 200m at Diamond League Final:
Not to spoil the fun. but it's worth noting that back-to-back-to-back world champion Noah Lyles skipped the 200m race in Eugene, along with Budapest bronze medallist Letsile Tebogo. And other top contenders who De Grasse beat in the Final, like Erriyon Knighton and Kenny Bednarek, may not have been at their sharpest after peaking for the worlds.
But the clock doesn't lie, and De Grasse right now is objectively faster than he's been since the Tokyo Olympics. Given his ability to rise to the occasion for the biggest races, don't rule out another Olympic medal(s) for him in Paris.
2. Canada could own the Olympic decathlon.
Remember those "Dan and Dave" ads that played incessantly on U.S. TV networks in the lead-up to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics? Reebok led us to believe that Americans Dan O'Brien and Dave Johnson would battle it out for the decathlon gold, only for the campaign to backfire when O'Brien failed to qualify for the Games. It's one of the most embarrassing flops in advertising history, even if Johnson ended up taking bronze in Barcelona and O'Brien bounced back to win gold four years later in Atlanta.
In Canada, for better or worse, we don't really hype up our athletes like that. But if we did, we could have our own version of Dan and Dave in Damian Warner and Pierce LePage — with one key difference: these guys might actually deliver.
Warner, 33, is the greatest decathlete Canada has ever produced. He won the country's first-ever Olympic decathlon gold two years ago in Tokyo and also owns a bronze from the 2016 Games along with four world-championship medals.
Warner was poised to capture his first world title last year in Oregon, only to be knocked out by a hamstring injury while leading at the halfway point. That opened a door for the younger LePage, who after placing fifth in Tokyo in his Olympic debut took silver for his first major-championship medal.
The friendly rivalry between the Canadians really took shape this year. In May, the 27-year-old LePage upset Warner at the Hypo Meeting in Austria, snapping Warner's streak of six consecutive victories at the prestigious event. Then, at last month's worlds in Budapest, LePage beat Warner to the punch by becoming Canada's first-ever decathlon world champion while Warner took silver.
There's a good chance for another 1-2 finish by the Canadians at the Paris Olympics. But let's maybe learn from the Americans' mistake and keep it quiet, eh?
3. Marco Arop is part of one of the best rivalries in track.
When Arop set out to become the top 800m runner in the world, the Canadian may have imagined he'd have to get past Kenya's Emmanuel Korir, who came into this year as the reigning Olympic, world and Diamond League champion. Arop achieved his goal by winning gold at the world championships last month, but it was a different Kenyan named Emmanuel who proved to be his toughest competitor.
With a banged-up Korir unable to advance past the opening round in Budapest, Arop ran a tactically brilliant final to defeat 19-year-old silver medallist Emmanuel Wanyonyi, the 2021 under-20 world champion. But when they squared off again a week later at a Diamond League meet in China, Wanyonyi outduelled the 24-year-old Arop in a mad dash to the finish and clocked what was then the fastest time in the world this year.
WATCH | Arop adds Canadian mark to world and national titles:
That set up a dramatic conclusion to the trilogy at the Diamond League Final in Eugene, where both men bettered Wanyonyi's world-leading time and Arop broke the Canadian record. But Arop lost again as the Kenyan teenager overtook him on the final stretch in another thrilling finish.
Korir, 28, might rejoin the fray next year if he regains his health. And another contender could emerge — like Algeria's Djamel Sedjati, who took silver at last year's worlds and placed third in Sunday's Diamond League Final with the third-fastest time of the year. But right now, the race for the men's 800m gold in Paris looks like Arop vs. Wanyoni, which is becoming one of track's most exciting rivalries.
4. Apparently we're a throwing country now.
Once dominated by Soviet Bloc behemoths who may or may not have been enhanced by certain chemicals, the shot put and hammer throw events have diversified since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Each of the last five Olympic men's hammer throw gold medallists came from a different country, and same for the last three Olympic women's shot put champions.
However, no Canadian has reached an Olympic hammer throw podium in well over a century, while Dylan Armstrong's bronze in 2008 remains the country's only Olympic shot put medal. So it was quite the surprise when Canada's Ethan Katzberg and Camryn Rogers swept the hammer throw gold medals at last month's world championships and Sarah Mitton took silver in the women's shot put.
Katzberg, 21, and Rogers, 24, are the first two Canadians to win hammer throw world titles, while Mitton, 27, is the first Canadian woman to win a shot put medal of any kind at worlds. Mitton followed that up by placing second at the Diamond League Final, which does not include hammer throw events. Given their age and upward trajectories, these three athletes might make more Canadian throwing history at next summer's Olympics.
For more analysis of the top Canadian performances at the Diamond League Final, watch this segment from CBC Sports' Athletics North. Check out more videos on the show's YouTube playlist.
WATCH | Mitton throws 19.94m for 2nd at Diamond League Final:
