Canadian Olympic relay medal upgraded after British athlete caught doping

The Canadian Olympic 4x100m men’s sprinting relay team is officially Olympic silver medallists.

Jerome Blake, Aaron Brown, Andre De Grasse, and Brendon Rodney appeared to finish in third place in last year’s 4×100 Olympic relay final, winning Canada’s second consecutive bronze medal in one of the Games’ marquee events.

But a doping violation by British sprinter Chijindu “CJ” Ujah last August was suspected at the games and confirmed by the Arbitration for Sport in February. With the British team initially finishing second, their medal was eventually disqualified and officially stripped by the International Olympic Committee on Thursday.

“Jerome, Aaron, Andre and Brendon are incredible ambassadors for Canada and the Olympic Movement,” said Canadian Olympic Committee President Tricia Smith. “We are delighted that they will be upgraded to the silver medal they earned in the men’s 4x100m relay at Tokyo 2020. While it’s disappointing that we are still seeing doping cases robbing athletes of their moment at Games, this reinforces the importance of integrity and safeguarding clean sport.”

Canada won 24 medals at the Tokyo 2020 Games, including five in athletics. DeGrasse won three of the medals, including a relay medal, 100m bronze, and the gold medal in the 200m — the first of his Olympic career. Evan Dunfee won a bronze medal in the 50km racewalk, while Mohamed Ahmed won silver in the 5000m race.

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