Jerome Blake

Jerome Blake (born August 18, 1995) is a Canadian track and field athlete specializing in the sprint events. As a member of the Canadian 4 × 100 m relay team, he is the 2024 Olympic gold medallist, 2020 Olympic silver medallist and the 2022 World champion. Blake was born in Buff Bay, Jamaica, where he started his young track career as a hurdler in the 400 m. After attending his brother's soccer game, he began testing his speed on track which a coach noticed and convinced him to switch to sprinting. The Blake family moved to Canada in 2013, taking up residence in Kelowna, British Columbia initially, and eventually moving to Burnaby. Because he did not acquire Canadian citizenship until 2018, he was unable to participate in many international junior competitions, though he remarked that had he been born in Canada "I probably would have been playing hockey." Blake competed for British Columbia at the 2017 Canada Summer Games where he won gold in both the 100 m and 200 m. Debuting at the senior level, Blake soon became a regular member of Canada's relay teams, winning a gold medal at the 2018 NACAC Championships. Blake competed at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, finishing sixth in the 200 m and fourth in the 4 × 100 relay. In the buildup to the 2020 Summer Olympics, which was taking place in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Blake competed at the Canadian National Trials. There he placed in second place, and as a result, Blake was named to Canada's Olympic team. He then set a new personal best just before the games, running 10.15 seconds in Stockholm in early July.