There were moments from the Paris 2024 Olympics that Canadians will never forget. For track and field fans, the moment was when the men’s 4x100m relay team—Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney, Jerome Blake and Andre De Grasse—stormed to Olympic gold from Lane 9 on a rainy August night at the Stade de France. Their victory marked Canada’s first gold in the men’s relay event in 28 years, and on Saturday, the quartet was named 2024 Team of the Year by the Canadian Press.
The Canadian Press Team of the Year Award is given annually to the nation’s best-performing team. This marks only the second time the award has been presented to a team in the sport of athletics. Notable past recipients include the Toronto Raptors (who won the NBA Championship in 2019) and the Canadian men’s hockey team, who won gold on home soil at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The last time the award was given in athletics was in 1996, when Donovan Bailey, Bruny Surin, Glenroy Gilbert and Robert Esmie won gold in the men’s 4x100m relay in Atlanta.
The recipient of the award is determined by votes from Canadian Press sports editors and writers, and this year, the men’s 4x100m relay team earned 70 per cent of all votes–a testament to their memorable performance.
The gold medal in Paris was particularly vindicating for De Grasse and Brown, neither of whom was feeling 100 per cent during the Games; neither athlete qualified for the finals in their individual events, the 100m and 200m.
“I never stopped believing,” Brown told Canadian Running. “These guys can do incredible things when we get together and put our minds to it. Never count us out, no matter what lane … We can be in Lane 2, we can be in Lane 9, we could be in the stands—we all believed we could make magic together… anywhere.”
For De Grasse, the relay gold tied him with swimmer Penny Oleksiak as Canada’s most decorated Olympian, with seven total medals. The victory also completed an Olympic medal set for Brown, Rodney and De Grasse, who have been together since winning bronze at the Rio 2016 Games. “Bronze in Rio, silver in Tokyo—this gold was the icing on the cake.” De Grasse said.
Looking ahead, Brown, Blake, Rodney and De Grasse have their sights set on the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. This time, they don’t expect to be seen as underdogs.
