Blake

SEPTEMBER 2023 UPDATE:

Jerome Blake made his Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games where he was a member of the 4x100m relay team that captured a silver medal. He added the title of World Champion to his accolades at the 2022 World Championships when the 4x100m relay team of Andre De Grasse, Aaron Brown, and Brendon Rodney won gold and set a new Canadian record with their time of 37.48.

Growing up in Jamaica, Jerome Blake was a 400-metre hurdler, high jumper and long jumper as a student, with a dream of representing Team Canada at an Olympic Games. After moving to Canada in 2013, he switched to sprinting after his coaches recognized his incredible potential.

In 2017, Jerome competed in an RBC Training Ground event in Kamloops, B.C., and was chosen as one of 30 young athletes to be funded by the program. Blake was granted his Canadian citizenship in 2018 and made his international debut for Canada at the 2018 NACAC Championships in Toronto. He was named to the team after winning 200-metre silver while running a personal best 20.38 seconds at the 2018 Canadian Championships. He finished fifth in the 200 metres at the NACAC Championships and won a gold medal with the 4x100-metre relay, where he ran the second leg.

In June 2019, Blake set a then-personal best in the 100 metres, running 10.20 seconds at a meet in Calgary. He won gold in the 200 metres at the Harry Jerome Track Classic in his hometown of Burnaby and took bronze at the Canadian Championships. Blake was named to the Canadian team for the Lima 2019 Pan American Games, making the final in both the 200 metres and 4x100-metre relay.

After finishing second in the 100 metres at the Canadian Olympic Trials at the end of June 2021, Blake ran a personal best 10.15 seconds in a winning effort in Stockholm on July 4. He then followed that up with another win, this time in 10.15 seconds at a race in Austria five days later.

His season highlight, though, is likely the silver-medal performance he was a part of with the 4x100-metre relay in Gateshead, U.K. The team of Blake, Bismark Boateng, Bolade Ajomale and Andre De Grasse set the second-fastest relay time in the world this year – a sizzling 38.29 seconds.

Before representing Canada, Blake ran for Team BC at the 2017 Canada Summer Games where he won gold in the 100 metres and 200 metres. Blake has won five consecutive BC Athletics 100-metre titles since 2015 and earned a pair of 200-metre titles in 2016 and 2019.