‘Healthy,’ ‘competitive’ De Grasse eyes place among best at ultimate championship

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De Grasse has quietly climbed from No. 23 in the 200-metre world rankings at season’s end in 2025, to ninth. He owns the seventh-fastest time in the world this season at 19.84 seconds — his fastest since a 19.76 in September 2023.

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“I’m a competitive guy and I’m going to go up there and give it my all,” he said. “I felt pretty good about this year. I can’t complain. … I would say it’s definitely been a good year. I mean, it’s been a great year. No matter what happens (Sunday) … it’s gonna be good, I can’t complain.

“Just maintaining and hopefully next year, we get back in the mix and we’re back in finals and we’re competing for medals.”

His ventures have included trying different spikes — now being a free agent on the shoe market — and even having Oakley make him uniforms for a couple of events.

Another project has been “On Track with Andre De Grasse,” a kids show set to premiere on CBC Gem on Sept. 26. The idea of that show is that he travels back in time to advise his 10-year-old self. That’s on top of the biopic he began working on in 2025.

“I’m just excited to be a part of something like this. It’s a huge different avenue, outlet, for me to be something differen,” said De Grasse. “I just want to encourage and keep it going. Maybe this could be the future for me, trying to be an actor.”

As for now, although he’ll be competing in the 200, his eyes are still set toward the 100. Nine of the 13 individual races he’s competed in this season were in the 100, with the aim of building his speed back up.

But he also has goals in mind for the near future.

“Just trying to get back my speed, trying to get back that rhythm again, because definitely when it comes back to the (2027) world championships and the L.A. Olympics, I want to be contending (in) that 100 metres,” he said. ” … My goal is to still break that Canadian record of 9.84 (seconds) by Donovan (Bailey) and Bruny (Surin).

“That’s something I want try to accomplish before the end of my career. So, if I do run faster in the 200, that’s great, but my goals and my main focus going into the next couple of years is to get faster, just get faster in the 100 metres. I want be able to contend again.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2026.

Abdulhamid Ibrahim, The Canadian Press