Andre De Grasse figured he could break his Canadian record in the 200-metre final in Rio de Janeiro. Then he went out and did it in the semi-final.

So heading into today's 200-metre gold-medal race, the Canadian sprinter finds himself in need of loftier goals. And of course, there is no higher objective in sprinting than beating Jamaican legend Usain Bolt.

Whether or not that is even possible, though, is the question. De Grasse blazed to a Canadian-record 19.80 seconds in the semifinal on Wednesday, beating his old record by 0.08 seconds. Bolt, who let up at the finish, ran a seemingly effortless 19.78.

Cameras caught the two sprinters grinning at each other as they crossed the finish line – an echo of the smile Bolt flashed when he won the 100-metre on Sunday night. But sprinting's newest bromance will become one of its best showdowns in the 200-metre final.

Bolt looks unbeatable right now and De Grasse is running the best races of his life. After taking bronze in the 100-metre, behind Bolt and American Justin Gatlin, De Grasse figures this event is his best shot at beating Bolt.

"I feel like I can keep up with him better in this race," De Grasse said this week.

De Grasse notched the fastest qualifying time in the 200-metre heats on Tuesday, crossing the line in 20.09 seconds. Bolt, who set the world record of 19.19 in 2009, qualified with a time of 20.28, which was pedestrian for him.

The lesson from Bolt's time in the heats, compared to his time in the semifinals, is simple: You never know what he's going to do, or what he's truly capable of, until the medal is on the line. All other times are irrelevant.

That said, Canadian Donovan Bailey, a former Olympic gold medalist in the 100-metre, believes the 200-metre is De Grasse's best race.

"He's actually built for the 200-metres: he's smaller and more compact and skinnier than the other guys," Bailey said. "I expect Andre to get a medal. There's definitely a lot of really good 200-metre guys, but Andre is in a great position … He's fearless, absolutely fearless."

De Grasse will be looking to stick to his race plan better in the 200-metre today. Even though he won bronze on Sunday in the 100-metre, De Grasse and his coach believe he didn't execute the proper strategy in that race – coming out too fast in the first few seconds. Though a 100-metre sprint lasts less than 10 seconds, a lot of thought goes into how much exertion a sprinter makes at the start, in the middle, and towards the end, based on their strengths. Gatlin is known as a powerful starter. Bolt is slower out of the blocks, but dominates the middle and ending. De Grasse's strength is his finish.

"I feel like I could've did a lot better in the 100," De Grasse said. "It was poorly executed. I don't even know how I even ended up getting that bronze medal to be honest, but there's a lot of things I've still got to learn."

Had he executed the 100 -metre better by pacing himself more, De Grasse feels like he could have laid down a time of between 9.8 and 9.9 seconds, rather than the personal-best 9.91 he achieved. But he figures he's got energy left over for the 200-metre that he can now draw upon.

"I'm just going to try to save that energy that I had for the 100 to come towards the 200," De Grasse said.

The competition between Bolt and De Grasse, where the Canadian tried to push the world record holder in the semifinals causing Bolt to laugh as he crossed the finish line, has been a sensation at the track in Rio. It's also been a marketing jackpot for Puma, the shoe company that sponsors both sprinters.

While Bolt has been with Puma for years, De Grasse signed an $11-million (U.S) deal with the shoe company last year, which is believed to be a five-year pact with performance bonuses. At the time it looked like a rich payday for a sprinter who was just emerging. But now it's looking like smart money for Puma.

Bolt, who turns 30 next week, has hinted that this may be his last Olympics. And with Gatlin, 34, also near the end of his career, De Grasse, 21, could be the early gold medal favourite for Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020.

Jim Andrews, senior vice president at sports marketing consultancy IEG, said
De Grasse could be in line for an even bigger payday if he continues
developing.

"If De Grasse does become the heir apparent to Bolt over the next few years, the length of the current deal will allow him to negotiate a new contract reflective of his status heading into the Tokyo Games," Andrews said.

But before all that, De Grasse has a race to run in Rio de Janeiro: 200 metres against the fastest man in the world.

With a file from reporter Susan Krashinsky.

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editorial

BY CATHAL KELLY

Canadian sprinter Andre De Grasse set a new personal best in the semifinal of the 200 metres on Wednesday night, easily qualifying for Thursday's final.

What was more remarkable about the race was the manner in which it was finished.

For the third race in his five total here, De Grasse lined up beside his new bosom chum, Usain Bolt.

Bolt cruised the whole way. In the final quarter, he turned slightly to find the Canadian. When he located him, the Jamaican slowed perceptibly. A surging De Grasse caught him up. The two crossed the finish line almost in tandem, smiling broadly at each other. They did everything but clasp hands.

"I had to push him a little bit and see what he had left in the tank," De Grasse said cheekily afterward.

As they left the track, they low-fived and grinned broadly, as if they'd just shared an inside joke. Out of nowhere, this is becoming the friendliest rivalry in the history of sprinting.

It tends to overshadow the fact that De Grasse, 21, continues to show he is firmly among the very best in the world at his job.

Everyone expected him to do well in Rio. A 100-metre podium finish matched his performance at last year's world championship. But the Canadian didn't run the 200 m at that event, making this distance a bit of a wild card. He's thus far proven himself more than equal to it.

What nobody expected was how he'd be embraced here in Brazil by the best sprinter of all time.

As professionals, Bolt and De Grasse are stablemates under the Puma banner. But they had not previously been linked as friends. De Grasse has said how, upon first seeing Bolt at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, he was too afraid to speak to him. They are eight years and many worlds of experience apart.

Nevertheless, Bolt has seemed to delight in putting both his metaphoric and literal arm around the young Canadian. Again and again, they are caught embracing after races. Thus far, the iconic photograph of these Games shows Bolt looking delightedly back at De Grasse as he pips him at the finish line in a 100 m heat.

"He's just like me," Bolt said afterward. Throughout the postrace on Sunday, De Grasse had to work hard not to be seen squirming with pleasure every time Bolt's praise was brought up.

This is in stark contrast to the way Bolt tends to treat his (very few) rivals. Permanent second-bester, American Justin Gatlin, has unadvisedly (and entirely unsuccessfully) tried to goad Bolt at times.

"I think they have not learned over the years that the more you talk, the more I will want to beat you," Bolt warned before arriving here. He said the 34-year-old Gatlin would "feel my full wrath." And, thus far, he has.

Poor Gatlin. To be nearly the very best that ever was at something, and to lose all that forever once Bolt appeared on the scene.

In that sense, De Grasse has the luck of timing. Bolt has broadly hinted this will be his last Olympics, and especially if he repeats his triple-gold performances from Beijing and London. Losing one of the 200 m or the 4x100 m relay might change his mind.

Though he's said it here several times, it's not clear if De Grasse actually believes he can beat Bolt. Based on how things are playing out and with the future in mind, he may eventually be just as well off if he doesn't. That way, he'd get the title and a permanent pal.

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100M recap

BY GRANT ROBERTSON

Usain Bolt made Olympic history in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday night, winning his third consecutive gold medal in the men's 100-metre race. The sprinter from Jamaica crossed the finish line in a time of 9.81 seconds.

American Justin Gatlin, who came into the event dogged by previous doping suspensions and questions about whether he should be allowed to compete, took silver in a time of 9.89 seconds.

And 21-year-old Canadian Andre De Grasse, making his Olympic debut, claimed the bronze medal in a personal-best 9.91 seconds, serving notice that he could be the early favourite for gold in 2020.

Here is a brief recounting of the historic night, in the athletes' own words:

9:07 pm (local time): Bolt and De Grasse face off in the second of three semifinal heats. Bolt lays down a lightning quick 9.86-second race – fast for a semifinal – which catches De Grasse off guard.

De Grasse: "He just kicked it into the next gear, and I tried to go with him a little bit, and I was like, 'Wait, this is the semifinal. Why am I even trying to chase him right now?' So I just said, 'Let me just try to save it for the final.'"

De Grasse qualifies for the final in second place, with a time of 9.92 seconds. It is his best time of the season. Gatlin is third-fastest, with a semifinal time of 9.94. The 100-metre final is scheduled to start 1 hour, 18 minutes later, which is a shorter break than the runners are used to at meets.

Bolt: "Going into the [final] race I felt confident. My legs felt a little bit tired from the fact that it was so close, back-to-back races, but I was just thinking about execution. I was like, 'You know what, as long as I execute right and I don't panic and just run through the line, then I'll be fine.'"

10:20 pm: The final eight sprinters are introduced over the stadium loudspeaker, and walk out to mixed reactions from the crowd. Bolt is greeted with a thundering roar from the roughly 46,000 people in attendance. De Grasse, who is not as well known, draws a less raucous cheer. Meanwhile, Gatlin – seen as a villain for his past doping suspensions – is greeted with a chorus of boos that fills the stadium.

Gatlin: "People were booing, they don't even know me. But when we [the sprinters] are back in the warm-up area, I give love to De Grasse, I give love to Yohan [Blake], I give love to Usain, and we all have respect for each other. So I just would like to see everyone have respect in the audience as well."

Bolt: "I was pretty shocked. I didn't expect [the booing] but, I really don't know what to say because it's the first I've ever seen this happen."

10:23 pm: As the runners warm up in their starting blocks, Bolt is toying with De Grasse, smiling at him and making jokes. The two sprinters, who are both sponsored by Puma, have met before, and De Grasse knows Bolt likes to stay loose by not taking things too seriously.

De Grasse: "We joked a lot in the call room [and] when we got on the track we were still joking around. It kind of felt like it was a fun [race]. I wasn't thinking about it too seriously when you've got a guy like him."

"He always motivates me to try to come out there and try to beat him, but as you see, he's just a different beast, he's a different animal."

10:25 pm: The sprinters are called to take their marks. The stadium falls silent. The drone of a helicopter overhead is the only sound that can be heard. When the starter's gun goes off, De Grasse's reaction time – which is the time it takes for a sprinter to respond to the gun by beginning his motion out of the blocks – is clocked at 0.141 seconds. That is faster than Bolt, who is known as a slower starter (.155), and Gatlin (.152).

Despite his quick reaction, though, De Grasse's first 20 metres are slower than the other two sprinters. Gatlin jumps out to an early lead, while Bolt is feeling the impact of the short break between the semifinals and gold-medal final.

Bolt: "My legs kind of felt dead off the start, but I knew once I got running I'd be fine…. I knew Justin Gatlin is always going to get his signature start, so I have to stay cool."

De Grasse: "I probably did a couple of things wrong in the beginning of the race that cost me in the end."

Bolt trails Gatlin for the first half of the race. But at the midway point, roughly 4.9 seconds in, Bolt realizes the American is fading.

Bolt: "I got to 50 metres, then I was like, alright, I could tell that I was going to catch him. Probably I knew [I was going to win] from 50 metres out."

At 70 metres, De Grasse is trying to catch Bolt, but the Canadian can sense the Jamaican sprinting legend is accelerating as the race progresses.

De Grasse: "I saw Bolt go at about 70, 80 [metres] and I tried to go with him but he just had that extra gear. So I knew I was in contention for a silver medal and I just tried to lean at the line."

Gatlin: "I just had tunnel vision going through the whole race. When I crossed the finish line, I didn't even know if I was going to be on the podium or not."

At the finish line, a stunned De Grasse drops to his knees. He knows he's won a medal, he's just not sure which one.

De Grasse: "I was waiting for the time to pop up on the board, I felt like I had silver in me. And I was like okay, Gatlin got silver, okay, I must have got bronze. I was just waiting – I got a personal best – and it just hit me. I was so happy."

The bronze medal makes De Grasse the first man to medal for Canada at the Rio Olympics.

De Grasse: "I actually didn't even know that, I was just so focused on my race, I wasn't even paying attention to that. It feels pretty good. Canada hasn't had a sprinter [medal] in 20 years since Donovan Bailey and I'm just happy to be in that same conversation. And one day hopefully… I can be a gold medalist like him."

Gatlin, 34, is relieved to have claimed the silver.

Gatlin: "I'm just happy to be on the podium, man. I'm the oldest guy in the field, so for me to run and finish the race and to be able to be on the podium is an honour. Going against guys like Usain, and then guys like De Grasse who are up and coming, I'm jockeying for position, I'm happy to be here."

After the race Bolt heaps praise on De Grasse.

Bolt: "For me, De Grasse is showing he's ready. He's done it back-to-back from last year [where he won bronze at the world championships]. So we know that the future of the sport is in good hands."

And Gatlin praises Bolt.

Gatlin: "I'm competitor, he's a competitor. We both want to win. And at the end of the day, may the best man win. Today, Usain has been the best man. And so my hat's off to him."

Bolt, who set the 100-metre world record in 2009 in a time of 9.58 seconds, knows the race is far from his best.

Bolt: "It wasn't the perfect race. It wasn't. But the fact that I won, which is why we are all here – to win – the fact that I got the win, I'm happy with that."

De Grasse and Bolt joke around after the race. Bolt tells him he has a bright future.

De Grasse: "It's a confidence booster for me. I'm so young and these guys have been racing for so long, I still have a lot to learn in the sport."

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explainer

BY RACHEL BRADY

Some experts in the biomechanics of sport have been watching Canada's rising track star, Andre De Grasse, with fascination, dreaming of what it would be like to get the speedy phenom into their labs to find out how the first-time Olympian with the unconventional style runs so fast.

The 5-foot-9, 154-pound sprinter is shorter and less muscular than most of his opponents. He doesn't start races out of the blocks particularly well, and as he flies down the track, his right arm swings backward in a quirky sort of way. To boot, the 21-year-old took up sprinting less than four years ago. Yet Mr. De Grasse, who ran the 100-metre dash in 9.91 seconds to capture an Olympic bronze medal on Sunday, is defying many conventional beliefs about how a world-class sprinter should look and move.

The Andre arm

The youngster from Markham, Ont., repeatedly pumps his outstretched right arm behind him when hitting his top speed during a race; meanwhile his left arm is bent and pumping in a more typical way.

The asymmetry is in sharp contrast to most of his opponents, who typically pump bent arms at both sides. Mr. De Grasse told a reporter from the International Association of Athletics Federations website last year that he attributes that extended right arm swing to an imbalance in his hips caused by a minor basketball injury in his childhood.

The experts say it's no surprise that Mr. De Grasse is being left to run the way he's most comfortable.

"In most cases, an increased right arm swing compensates for something in the motion of the left leg or hip," said Reed Ferber, assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of Calgary and director of its Running Injury Clinic. "If you limit that arm swing, whatever is going on in the left leg is no longer being compensated and you could limit the performance of that leg, which could slow him down or pose the risk of injury.

"You should never just force him to start tucking that arm in. You would have to figure out the source of the injury or weakness and solve that, and maybe then that extended arm swing would go away. There's definitely an asymmetry there, but it's clearly not hurting his performance."

The outstretched arm is so noticeable that #AndreArm was trending in Canada on Sunday night, and now @degrassearm has its own parody Twitter account. It seems to be rivalling the "Ed Wing" of Toronto's Blue Jays slugger Edwin Encarnacion as Canada's most popular sports arm.

Does the arm swing affect his performance?

Naturally, some wonder if Mr. De Grasse would run even faster if he pumped both arms symmetrically. Indeed, a debate has raged for decades among coaches, sprinters and biomechanics experts over the importance of arm swing to faster sprinting.

One expert with experience testing world-class sprinters in a locomotor performance lab says arms have little effect on what is most important to elite sprinting – ground-reaction forces.

"His arm swing is not at all consequential to performance," said Peter Weyand, professor of applied physiology and biomechanics at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. "The arms are light pendulums that allow runners to stay balanced as they execute strides. Differences in the arm's motion and how it's angled at the elbow really doesn't matter to the sprinter's velocity and the interaction between the feet and the ground. Some of the old guard still think arm motion really matters, but most today realize it's not that consequential. The old guard might have tried to bend a sprinter's elbow into place, but they wouldn't have been able to offer much scientific data about why they were doing it."

It's force, not size

Mr. De Grasse was the smallest of the eight men who ran in Sunday's 100-metre final in Rio, although only slightly smaller than American Trayvon Bromell and South African Akani Simbine. But compared with silver medalist Justin Gatlin (6 foot 1, 180 pounds) and three-time Olympic champ Usain Bolt (6 foot 5, 207 pounds), the size difference was dramatic.

Sprinters come in various shapes and sizes, from the supertall Mr. Bolt to fellow Jamaican and two-time Olympic gold medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce (5 foot 3, 125 pounds). Mr. Weyand says there's no ideal weight or height for sprinting fast, but that the world's best have something in common – they apply greater ground force, a rapid punch to the ground, when their feet contact the track.

"What makes elite sprinters elite is how forcefully their feet hit the ground in relation to what they weigh," Mr. Weyand said. "Bolt gets a longer step with every stride cycle because he's so tall. In order to do what Andre does at his height, he has to have great leg mechanics to be able to attack the track. The motion of the leg through the setup phase – as it's repositioning and then as it first contacts the ground – that's the time you differentiate speed from one athlete to the next. Elite sprinters attack the ground well and get a bigger force, which makes them go fast. Based on how he races, Andre must be very good at doing that."

Slow start, big finish

For someone who achieves such fast times, Mr. De Grasse isn't very fast out of the blocks. He fell behind Mr. Gatlin and Mr. Bolt in the first 20 metres on Sunday.

"The shorter, less massive guys tend to be a bit better out of the blocks, but he's not – it's the weakest part of his race, and where he can still get better," Mr. Weyand said. "The curious thing about Andre and the strength of his racing is his top-end speed. He's so strong in the latter part of the race."

Some experts who watched Sunday's race believed that the Canadian sprinter benefits from his smaller, leaner frame down the stretch of races, maintaining his top speed longer than the others.

"De Grasse isn't carrying the kind of muscle mass that Gatlin does, for instance, so perhaps it's limiting how he can accelerate out of the blocks. But it seemed down the stretch of the race that De Grasse was able to maintain his velocity for a longer period of time," said David Frost, assistant professor in the faculty of kinesiology and physical education at the University of Toronto. "It would be interesting to explore whether De Grasse resists becoming as fatigued down the stretch as the other sprinters. Can he maintain the top speed he achieves for longer than the others? Does he contract and relax his muscles quicker than everyone else?"

Other unique arms in sprinting

Two-time Zambian Olympic sprinter Gerald Phiri has an outstretched right arm movement nearly identical to that of Mr. De Grasse.

Many say even Jesse Owens – widely regarded as the greatest track athlete of his time, and among the top Olympians ever – had unorthodox arm movement as he blazed down the track to win gold at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Both of Mr. Owens's arms appeared to remain locked at a 90-degree angle throughout his races, rather than varying angles up and down throughout his race, as is more commonly seen.

"I coach a lot of kids, including my own son, and you often see young kids sprinting with one arm swinging and the other curled," said Robert Esmie, a sprinter who ran the lead leg at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics on Canada's gold-medal-winning 4x100-metre men's relay team. "It's part of De Grasse's natural makeup and you shouldn't change it – I think changing his mechanics could make him slower at this point. Let him be as natural as possible. But I don't recommend kids start running around trying to force themselves to run with that Andre arm if that's not their natural way."

Much to learn from De Grasse

Whether it's identifying the root cause of the arm swing or measuring his stride rate, the strength of his muscles or the rate of force with which his feet hit the ground, researchers are intrigued about what this unique athlete could tell them about the science of fast movement.

Sports science, after all, might also help Mr. De Grasse get even faster as he prepares for the 2020 Olympics, where he's projected to lead the next crop of world-class sprinters.

"Within weeks of Bolt coming onto the scene, researchers were writing papers about what this big, tall, fast athlete could do, because he shattered what people believed about the sport, and I suspect the same thing could happen with an interest in De Grasse," Mr. Frost said. "De Grasse has opened our eyes and minds about what we originally thought was possible in sprinting. It would be fascinating to study him."

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marketing

BY SUSAN KRASHINSKY

When Canadian sprinter Andre De Grasse signed a sponsorship with Puma AG last December, he had not yet stepped on to the biggest stage in his sport, the Olympic track. But he was already breaking records: The multiyear, $11.25-million (U.S.) deal was the largest opening contract in the history of track and field, with bonuses that could push that amount much higher.

It was an unprecedented amount of money for unproven potential on the track. At the time, Mr. De Grasse was still far from a household name – even if he was already gaining buzz as the most promising Canadian runner in a generation. But Puma's investment now looks very smart.

The race to be the world's fastest man is hands down the highest-profile event in the Summer Olympics. On Sunday evening, three men earned their place on the podium, and two were Puma athletes: Usain Bolt, the world's greatest sprinter and the gold medalist, and Mr. De Grasse, who won bronze. (Justin Gatlin, the silver medalist who has served two doping suspensions in his career and was booed in the stadium, is a Nike athlete.) Mr. Bolt, who has exhibited a fraternal rapport with Mr. De Grasse on the track, has praised his Canadian competitor. "He runs just like me," Mr. Bolt said after the race.

For Puma, that means even though the company is not an official Olympic sponsor, two of the biggest stars of the Games – the current face of sprinting and, arguably, its future – are tied to its brand.

"For me, it was different, because I was already the number one sprinter in the world and everything was already in place before I got there," said Donovan Bailey, recalling his world-record-setting performance competing for Canada at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. "If someone comes to the Games and they do well … and also they're young, their marketability is very high. Andre right now is in a great situation. He's 21 years old. He's got at least 10 years to be a professional track athlete. So he's definitely a great investment."

Sponsors are already buzzing about the athlete, said Brian Levine, managing director of Toronto-based Envision Sports & Entertainment Inc., who works with Mr. De Grasse in Canada. (His U.S. agent, Paul Doyle of Atlanta-based Doyle Management, negotiated the Puma deal.) He would not specify who has approached the management team so far. Mr. De Grasse's stock could rise further if he manages to win a medal in the 200-metre final on Thursday.

"We hope he will be the face of sprinting heading into Tokyo. … [Puma] invested in potential," Mr. Levine said. "All events are not created equally. … A bronze in the 100-metres is worth a gold in a less mainstream sport."

As the Games approached, other sponsors jumped on board as well. Procter & Gamble Co.'s Gillette signed him in June. That was not early enough to include Mr. De Grasse in the brand's "Perfect isn't Pretty" Games ad, but the brand promotes its connection with him on social media and will hold an event to celebrate him at the P&G "Family Home" in Rio on Sunday.

"If you had to pick a headline event, the world's fastest man is probably it," said Kurt Iverson, communications leader for Gillette North America. "… With all the things happening for two weeks, it's great to be part of such an iconic moment."

Because athletes are now expected to be accessible to their fans on social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, the nature of sponsorship has changed drastically in the past decade. Mr. De Grasse excels at this, using his online megaphone to thank BMW for loaning him a car; to promote P&G's "Thank you, mom" campaign by posting a photo with his mother, Beverley; and even to share a behind-the-scenes photo from a commercial shoot with Pizza Pizza Ltd. in Markham, Ont.

Medal performance is not the sole draw for marketers. Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. sports retail brand Sport Chek, for example, says it looks for whether the athlete's complete story is compelling. For example, Sport Chek athlete Kaillie Humphries is a gold medalist in bobsled, but the brand was also thrilled when she came in last in a recent race: In January, she was part of the first all-female team to compete in the four-person bobsled at a World Cup event.

"We're signing athletes because they're a source of inspiration at the end of the day. You can be a source of inspiration even if you finish in fourth place," said Frederick Lecoq, Sport Chek chief marketing officer. "Sponsorship used to be, I'm going to put a sign in an arena or I'm going to sign an athlete to appear in my ad. That's the old days. Today you're looking for people to tell stories. … The fact that athletes are very active on social media is critical. You're able to reach their followers and connect emotionally with people who follow them. That's interesting. Not just putting them on a billboard."

That said, Mr. De Grasse is in consideration for Sport Chek – and probably plenty of other brands, Canadian and global, Mr. Lecoq said. The sprinter's presence, and his performance under pressure, gives him a lot of traction with potential sponsors.

"He deserves the greatest support there is," Mr. Bailey said. "He's fearless, he gets out there. And he's having fun, which is what I love."

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