Olympic champion Jerome Blake on sprinting after medals while walking fashion runways and living as an actor
Olympics.com spoke exclusively to the multi-talented Canadian sprinter who was part of the team that won the 4x100m relay Olympic Gold at the Paris Olympics. Blake not only runs fast, but is also a successful comedian, actor, and model, who has taken centre stage at New York Fashion Week.
Athletics
Jerome Blake wasn’t always the fastest kid.
Yet, the Jamaica-born Canadian, like many boys growing up in the land of sprinters, was all about track athletics.
His first major championship race was at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, held in 2021, when he was 26.
And yet, somehow, he now owns four global sprint medals.
At Paris 2024, Blake and his Canadian teammates were already world champions, but entered the final of the Olympic men's 4x100m relay as underdogs.
Canada triumphed, winning their country’s only track title at the Games, the sprinters overcoming some tough physical and emotional moments in the lead-up to the Games.
It was a stunning achievement for Blake, who despite his love for the sport always considered himself an odd fit.
“Coming from a country where sprinting is like everything, its tradition, sprinting is religion, it was one of those things where I was more or less scared to throw myself out there to be a sprinter,” he says in a recent interview with Olympics.com.
“Before I moved to Canada, I wasn't the fastest nor the best at track and field. So, to achieve something this significant, this is such a big feat for me… it's a very, very big thing.”
“For me, it's always, ‘OK, we have to do track now, this is what's important’. And then the minute I finish, it's time to model and do acting.”
Jerome Blake of Canada celebrates after winning the 4x100m relay gold.
Jerome Blake on life stories that make him stand out on track
At 190cm [6-foot-3] Blake is tall. He doesn’t quite stand out among his track rivals, but his height makes him unique both on the catwalk and in his acting roles.
His story, however, sets him apart from other sprinters. There is a bit of Cool Runnings, the funny and inspiring movie about a group of Jamaican sprinters who failed to qualify for the Olympics and went on to become their nation’s first-ever bobsleigh team at the Winter Olympics.
He also compares himself to the underprivileged boy in the movie Blind Side, who became a star American football player and first-round NFL draft pick. There are so many ways to tell the story of the Olympic champion who might never have had the chance to earn that title.
The 29-year-old Blake was born in Buff Bay, a quiet, small coastal town just outside Jamaica’s capital Kingston, where the mountains meet the sea. As a teenager, “he did it all” switching from long and high jump field events to the sprints and hurdles on track.
“I tried everything,” he recalled in the chat with Olympics.com, “the only thing I didn’t do was the 1500m”.
“And the only race I can remember myself winning or getting close to winning was at the Eastern championships in Jamaica and I got pretty close…I was like fifth,” he said with a laugh. “It wasn't very good at all, but I just loved the sport so much.”
Jerome Blake, the Olympic champion who nearly didn’t sprint: "I thought 'I can do anything but sprint'"
He relocated to Canada to join his mother, who had moved to North America six years earlier in search of work. Finally, they could all live together as family again, well, almost.
“My dad's British and lives in the UK. And so, it was just me, my mum, my little brother and my older brother. I moved there, no friends, and I was lucky enough to find a place to call home, at the Okanagan Athletics Club.”
In 2013, coaches at his local club in Kelowna, a city in the south of Canada’s British Columbia, recognized his potential.
“When I moved to Canada and I met coach Pat [Sima-Ledding] at the Okanagan Athletics Club, she told me that, ‘You can be a sprinter. You have such long legs’. I was like, ‘I don't know about all that… I can do anything but sprint',” he thought.
“So that's my Blind Side story. Pat, in a sense, has done so much for me. She believed in me before I even believed in myself. In 2016, there was the Olympics in Rio, and she said, ‘Don't worry about it, in 2020, you'll be at the Olympics...’ I didn't believe her!”
Part of his self-doubt came from the fact that he had not raced competitively until he was 23, when he was granted Canadian citizenship.
“I never really grew up with the experience of running at junior championships. I never got all that,” shared the 2018 North American, Central American, and Caribbean relay Champion.
“My first opportunity to run in the world or international competition was at the Olympic Games in 2021. I got tossed right into it, and it was trying to figure out, how do I navigate this world?”
Jerome Blake reacts after the 200m at the Diamond League in Paris.
The race of his life
The silver medal from Tokyo in the men's 4x100m relay, was the prelude to the ‘cool’ part of his life story, which climaxed with the race of his life in Paris.
Teaming up with Aaron Brown, Andre De Grasse, and Brendon Rodney, Blake raced the second leg, considered the longest and one of the hardest, demanding great speed endurance. Canada dethroned the defending champions Italy, finishing ahead of second place South Africa, and Great Britain, who took bronze.
“Not everyone can say there are Olympic gold medallists. For me, it's such a cool thing. And the fact that we pulled out the win… Everyone likes to see an underdog story in a sense."- Jerome Blake to Olympics.com
“When we got back home in Canada, everyone now knows who you are. I am walking down the street and everyone's like yelling your name sometimes, it's kind of funny…”
Blake is quite open on why he felt he wasn’t in the absolute best shape for Paris. His path to Olympic stardom, just like his sprinting life, had its ups and downs.
Weeks before he helped Canada to the 2024 World Relays silver in May, he sustained an injury and couldn’t put pressure on his foot.
“One word that would best describe my season, turbulent,” he said with a hearty laugh, his personality coming out. He has a knack for finding laughter, even in difficult situations, which has helped him find gigs as a stand-up comedian.
“The week before World Relays, I hurt my big toe really bad. I had bursitis, and it caused a fracture, my sesamoid bone under my big toe. I couldn't put pressure on my foot, so I was running outside my foot for the entire season. It got to the point where everyone started thinking, ‘I don't think you're going to make this one!’ But everyone pitched in, and we were able to pull a season together. I just trusted in that system.”
Jerome Blake, the actor and model inspired by Donovan Bailey’s journey
Reframing his mindset has also helped the sprinter thrive off the track. He never imagined himself to be a model or an actor, though.
“From when I was young, I have always been the kind of person who tends to make situations and make them very funny. So, growing up in Canada, Vancouver, considered Hollywood north of the world, I was introduced to a film and TV agent and she said, ‘you could really be a model and an actor as well’.
“I started doing street photography and learning how to really pose and all this kind of stuff. Doing stuff for some of the biggest brands in the world and walking at the New York Fashion Week,” Blake said of securing a spot in one of the fashion industry’s most important events.
He is a busy man, juggling multiple different roles and high-level sport. How does he make them all work?
“It's pretty long days sometimes because there are different things I'm working on. I start from 9 a.m. till 4:30 p.m. every day,” the runner with a personal best of 10.00 over the 100m dash told Olympics.com.
“Training is a priority, so the minute training starts, everything else becomes second nature. If it's something that's going to pull me away from training for too long, I won't do it."
He is a natural performer on stage, but is still working on his plan A - track running, as there is still so much he wants to achieve. In 2022, the Canadian showed his potential, stunning Americans Erriyon Knighton and Noah Lyles, and Jamaican Yohan Blake to claim the men's 100m title at the USATF Bermuda Games.
“In four years, we have accomplished a lot, but still so much more to go. Now, the goal is to become more established when it comes to my events the 100 or the 200m in a sense become a world beater again. Go out there and perform, have good races, consistently run fast and make a bigger name for myself.”
An ambition inspired by another 4x100m relay Olympic champion Donovan Bailey, one of Canada's most iconic sports figures.
“So, he was born in Jamaica and started training as a professional when he was pretty old as well. What he did for the sport in Canada and all the things he's achieved, world champion, Olympic champion, world record holder...” he said, unleashing his signature laugh to wrap up the chat, "I look up to him a lot and a lot of people say we run the same way..."