Canada shocked the world today at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The Canadian men’s 4 x 100m relay team of Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney, and Andre De Grasse had the slowest qualifying time heading into today’s final. They didn’t have a single runner that qualified for the individual sprinting events earlier in the week. And their star, De Grasse, was dealing with a nagging hamstring injury.
But it didn’t matter.
Running in lane 9, Canada won gold, finishing ahead of South Africa (silver) and Great Britain (bronze). The favourites from the United States were disqualified due to some sloppy baton passing.
Someone tried getting Canada disqualified too.
A protest was reportedly launched against Canada, according to the CBC’s Devin Heroux. It’s unclear who launched it, but Heroux has reported that it was declined.
BREAKING
There was a protest launched against Canada in the men’s 4x100m — working on finding out who protested.
I’ve just learned it’s been declined.
Canada remains the Olympic champions.
— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) August 9, 2024
I’m being told that because the protest was declined — the details and decision will not be made public.
So we won’t know who launched the protest against Canada and for what.
— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) August 9, 2024
While details on the decision haven’t been made public, it appears the final baton hand-off between Rodney and De Grasse was in question. Rodney’s left foot stepped out of Canada’s lane, something that used to be a disqualifying offence according to Athletics Canada head coach Glenroy Gilbert, who won gold in this event with the Canadian relay team at Atlanta 1996.
This appears to be why a protest was launched against Canada.
Athletics Canada coach Glenroy Gilbert in CBC interview with @Devin_Heroux:
“You can touch the line, you just can’t have consecutive steps on the inside lane line. It used to be that you couldn’t touch it at all.” pic.twitter.com/9Hcid7L30G
— Rob Williams (@RobTheHockeyGuy) August 9, 2024
“The rules, as we understand it, you can touch the line, you just can’t have consecutive steps on the inside lane line,” Gilbert explained in the CBC television interview. “It used to be that you couldn’t touch it at all… but the rules changed a few years ago.”
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