Much-loved B次元官网网址 sprinter Jerome Blake describes being part of the Canadian Press 2024 Team of the Year 鈥渁s a really cool thing.鈥
The Canadian menB次元官网网址 4x100 relay team was voted Team of the Year by CP, Saturday in a poll of the nationB次元官网网址 sports editors and broadcasters.
The relay squad of Aaron Brown, Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre DeGrasse received 37 of a possible 53 first-place votes.
Team Rachel Homan finished second with seven votes after winning both the Canadian and world curling championships. The Edmonton Oilers, who lost in the Stanley Cup final in a seventh game after once trailing the series 3-0, and Olympic silver medal beach volleyball duo of Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson tied for third place at three votes.
鈥淏eing named team of the year, itB次元官网网址 cool. ItB次元官网网址 something (the award) thatB次元官网网址 been around since the 1970s and being part of such an elite group is really a good thing,鈥 said Blake, in a phone interview with The B次元官网网址 Courier, Sunday.
鈥淭rack-and-and-field hadn鈥檛 won this award since 1996 when the 4x100 team in Atlanta (Olympics) did it, so itB次元官网网址 something historical.鈥
Blake ran the second leg which struck gold in Tokyo, winning the hearts of a nation.
The various CP awards are staggered over the holidays and not all announced on the same day. Late last week, Nanaimo hammer thrower Ethan Katzberg won CPB次元官网网址 Male Athlete of the Year. Swimmer Penny Oleksiak, although not a track athlete, was also an Olympian in 2024 and recognized as CP's Female Athlete of the Year.
The added exposure for track-and-field is nice, Blake said.
鈥淎 lot of people watch track-and-field and swimming in the Olympics and this has been a good opportunity for us to put ourselves out there.鈥
The team was told in advance that they had won the award, but were sworn to secrecy.
Born in Jamaica and raised in the Okanagan, Blake attended Rutland Senior Secondary School. In this teen years he trained with the Okanagan Athletic Club in various track-and-field events but eventually specialized in sprinting. He also played football, including a season with the Okanagan Sun.
2024 was his second Olympic Games, having also won a silver medal in Tokyo the last time around. He enjoyed competing in Paris and the festive mood.
鈥淭his time is was kind of a real experience. At my first Olympics, it was COVID and things weren鈥檛 normal. They didn鈥檛 allow fans and family and friends couldn鈥檛 watch (live). It was nice this time to be around the people you need to be around鈥 family and friends especially.鈥
After a short trip home to Jamaica for Christmas, where he caught up with family from there and the UK, heB次元官网网址 now back in the Okanagan and resumed his training. He took his gold medal with him to Jamaica to show his family.
Looking ahead, Brown, Blake, Rodney and De Grasse all aspire to continue sprinting for another four years and compete in the 2028 Games, but they acknowledge that a lot can change in that time.
When asked what was the most exciting post-Olympic event, Blake named two.
鈥淭he Canucks game and seeing the appreciation I got from the crowd and also throwing the first pitch at a Blue Jays game were both very special moments.鈥
The sports journalists who voted for the award look back at the 4x100 relay moment with fondness.
鈥淭his relay team wasn't even expected to reach the podium,鈥 said CBC Sports senior producer Tony Care. 鈥淭his gold medal was the biggest moment of the Paris Olympics.鈥
Not only did none of the sprinters reach individual finals, they also barely squeaked into the relay final with the slowest qualifying time.
De Grasse, Rodney and Brown won bronze at the Rio 2016 Games before Blake joined to claim silver 鈥 upgraded from bronze 鈥 at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. They followed up with world championship gold in Eugene, Ore., in 2022.
At the relay final in Paris, Blake was the youngest of the bunch at 28. De Grasse was 29, while Rodney and Brown were 32 鈥 hardly young guns in a sport typically dominated by youth.
鈥擶ith files by Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press
