The 2023 track and field season for Andre De Grasse has not been all gold and glitter. The reigning 200m Olympic champion was mostly recovering from previous injuries throughout this season. In fact, for the first time in his track and field career, De Grasse could not secure a podium finish at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, a feat which he has achieved in every Olympics and world championship appearance.

In order to better prepare for the 200m event in Budapest, de Grasse had even skipped the 4x100m relay heat for Canada. However, his latest performance at the 2023 Eugene Diamond League has shown that the Canadian track star is slowly getting back to his previous form.

Andre De Grasse ends the 2023 season with absolute finesse

Andre de Grasse finished 6th in the 200m event in Budapest with a time of 20.14 seconds. Even in the 2023 Diamond League this year, the Canadian had zero wins in five appearances. But all that changed at the 2023 Prefontaine Classic in Eugene when the reigning Olympic champion was crowned the 2023 200m Diamond League champion.

The Canadian track star ran a season-best of 19.76 seconds as he beat the likes of USA duo Kenny Bednarek and Erriyon Knighton, who recorded 19.95 seconds and 19.97 seconds respectively to take the second and third place. Soon after his race ended, the reigning 200m Olympic champion reflected on his difficult 2023 season.

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Reigning 200m Olympic champion looks back at his season

Soon after his comeback win of the season, De Grasse stated that ahead of next year’s Paris Olympics, he wanted to assess where he stood before the start of next season.

According to a CBC report, de Grasse said, “For me, it’s really just staying healthy. I know what I’m capable of if I’m healthy.” He further revealed that his main goals for the future are to maintain his fitness and that will help him immensely in further maintaining and improving his overall speed, which he claims is slowly coming back.

As for the future, with less than a year to go for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Andre De Grasse has found his momentum at the right time as he will be looking forward to clinch another gold medal next year. His journey will be hard as he will be defending his Olympic title against the likes of the American sprinting icon Noah Lyles and U.S. track prodigy Erriyon Knighton.

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