Do we like Andre De Grasse?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A clean record of words and a real record of giving back, held back by his decision to work again with a coach facing abuse lawsuits.
Andre De Grasse is the Scarborough-born sprinter who grew up in Markham and became Canada's most decorated modern Olympian. He won 200m gold at the Tokyo Games and is a six-time Olympic medallist. He credits his youth coach, Tony Sharpe, and says punishments from his parents “made me into the man I am today”.
The stain on the record is his coach, not him. In August 2024 the Canadian Olympic Committee pulled the accreditation of Rana Reider, who had coached him, after what it called “new information”. According to The Times, three women had filed lawsuits in a Florida court accusing Reider of sexual harassment and abuse. Those claims are allegations; the report I read carried no response from Reider and no statement from De Grasse.
On the harm test, nothing turned up. No anti-LGBTQ+ or anti-woman campaigning, no conspiracy rabbit holes, no dodgy company beyond the coaching saga. That is a thin result rather than a glowing one: he is an athlete who mostly talks about running and kids, so there is little on the record either way. The Reider call is why the good-person test gets an asterisk, because it is a judgement call that many fans found hard to swallow.
The good stuff is real. He launched the Andre De Grasse Family Foundation in 2018, saying he wanted to “pay it forward and give back”. It started with scholarships for Ontario high school athletes. At the 2022 luncheon he pledged to “continue to inspire and empower the next generation”.
He was named a Member of the Order of Canada at the end of 2025, with the citation crediting his sprint medals and his philanthropy and work empowering young people. In 2026 he opened his season with a 200m win at the Botswana Golden Grand Prix. He has said he is focused on representing Canada in relays. Nothing new has surfaced lately that changes the picture.