What happened to the Canadian sprinter who ‘disrespected’ Usain Bolt at Olympics
Back in 2017, Usain Bolt appeared to call out one of his former rivals, saying: “The last guy I said was going to be great disrespected me.” But what happened to the athlete who seemingly annoyed the great Jamaican?
Bolt, 39, remains the fastest man of all time, holding the current 100m and 200m world records with times of 9.58 seconds and 19.19 seconds respectively, both of which he set at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin, Germany.
Since Bolt’s retirement in 2017, no other human has run below the 9.70 mark, with Jamaica’s Yohan Blake and the USA’s Tyson Gay tied as the second-fastest men of all time, having both recorded 100m times of 9.69 seconds during their careers.
A year before the eight-time Olympic gold medallist called time on his career, he appeared at his fourth and final Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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At the time, Bolt was approaching 30, with several up-and-coming sprinters hoping to prevent the Jamaican from achieving the coveted ‘triple triple’.
One of those men was Canada’s Andre De Grasse.
De Grasse appeared to annoy Bolt in the 200m semi-finals when he refused to slow down near the finish line.
Speaking after the race, Bolt said: “He was supposed to slow down.
“I said, ‘What are you doing? It’s a semi-final.’ But I think he wanted to push me.”
In a separate interview, he explained: “He decided that he wanted to run fast, and I saw that he got a national record out of it. So he means business.”
De Grasse set a time of 19.80 seconds, which was a Canadian record at the time. The sprinter has since improved that mark, clocking 19.62 seconds in the 200m final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
As they crossed the finish line in the semi-finals in Rio, Bolt wagged his finger towards the Canadian, smiling during the exchange, suggesting it was all in good spirits.
De Grasse admitted that he wanted to “challenge” Bolt when speaking after the semi-finals.
And so, after the semi-finals, the pair went up against each other in the final with Bolt blazing home in 19.78 seconds.
De Grasse secured silver, running a time of 20.02 seconds, with France’s Christophe Lemaitre in third.
Due to Bolt’s retirement in 2017, this would be the final time De Grasse would face him at a major competition.
What happened next?
De Grasse, now 31, is a seven-time Olympic medallist, making him the joint most successful Canadian Olympian of all time, with the sprinter winning 200 metres gold at the 2020 Tokyo Games, having secured World Championships silver in Doha, Qatar, the year prior.
The 31-year-old also bagged 4x100m gold at the last Olympic Games in Paris in 2024. The Canadian’s came into the final as underdogs but finished ahead of silver and bronze medal winners South Africa and Great Britain, while the favourites, the USA, were disqualified in the heats due to an illegal baton exchange.
Aside from his relay success, De Grasse failed to defend his 200 metres crown, finishing third in the semi-finals, which wasn’t fast enough for a spot in the final.
The Canadian also failed to reach the 100 metre final despite clocking a season’s best of 9.98 seconds in the semi.
In 2025, De Grasse once again anchored the Canadian 4x100m relay team – also made up by Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake and Brendon Rodney - at the World Championships, with the team securing silver behind the USA.
Despite arguably being past the peak of his powers on the track, De Grasse has already made clear of his intention to appear at the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
Speaking to Olympic.com in January of 2026, he explained: “My plan is to compete in one more Olympics at LA 2028.
“I want to be competitive again in the 100m, one of my favourite events, and try to bring home more medals at my final Games, close to home.”
Meanwhile, in another interview with the Times of India, he spoke out on his infamous exchange with Bolt in 2016.
“It wasn’t planned,” he said. “Everyone always asked me, ‘was it planned?’ But it was not planned. My coach was like, ‘hey, we’re in the semifinals. We need to finish top two to make it to the finals. So try to go out hard because you have Usain in your heat, but make sure you save enough energy for the final.
“So I just remember, when I got to 160, 170 metres in the race, usually you look around to see if you can shut it down or not. Like, see if anybody’s gonna pass you or ‘can I save some energy?’ So I just looked to the side, and I saw Usain doing the same thing, and that kind of just happened. We just smiled at each other. But I didn’t know the moment was gonna be, like, that big. I didn’t know it was gonna be that special because I wasn’t even on social media at the time. I was just focusing on the race.
“And yeah, I couldn’t believe the photographers got those cool pictures. But I remember after the race, he was like, ‘What are you doing? What are you doing?’ He thought I was trying to run hard, but I was just, ‘No, I’m just making sure I save some energy for the final because I know I’ll have to race you in the final as well (laughs).’”
Topics: Usain Bolt, Olympics, Athletics
Luke Davies