Red Raven Alumnus Andre DeGrasse Wins Gold in Tokyo Olympics

Photo credit to Reuters/Lucy Nicholson

Tokyo, Japan - Coffeyville Community College Red Raven Track and Field alumnus Andre DeGrasse proved at the just-completed Tokyo Olympics that the color gold suits him just as much as the red in Red Ravens.

Running for his home country of Canada, DeGrasse earned the Gold Medal by winning the 200m in a Canadian national record time of 19.62 seconds.  With the Gold, DeGrasse becomes just the third Canadian to win an Olympic 200m title and the first since Percy Williams in 1928.  DeGrasse also earned a bronze medal in the 100m with a time of 9.89 seconds as well as anchoring the Canadian 4x100m relay team to a bronze medal.

Video of DeGrasse's Golden 200m race: https://youtu.be/TtVDsO2CaLY

All in all the 2014 Coffeyville Community College graduate has earned a total of six Olympic medals. Including the three medals he just earned at Tokyo, DeGrasse likewise ran at the 2016 Rio Olympics earning a silver in the 200m and a bronze in the 100m. In both of those events in Rio DeGrasse lost to legendary Jamaican runner Usain Bolt.  Just like the Tokyo Olympics, DeGrasse also anchored the Canadian 4x100m to a bronze medal at the Rio Olympics.  DeGrasse's medal count after the last two Summer Olympics reads an impressive one gold, one silver, and four bronze.

While a student at Coffeyville Community College in 2013 and 2014, DeGrasse was a 5-time NJCAA National Champion, winning NJCAA titles in the 2013 indoor 60m and outdoor 100m as well as the 2014 indoor 60m and 200m titles and the outdoor 200m title. 

Degrasse then moved to the University of Southern California (USC) in 2015 and won NCAA titles in the 100 and 200 while being named the NCAA Track Athlete of the Year in 2015.  In the summer of 2015, DeGrasse turned professional after signing the largest initial track and field contract ever at the time with Puma.

Picture of DeGrasse winning the 2013 NJCAA outdoor 100m title over Garden City's Tyreek Hill.