Brendon Rodney makes the case for his team being Canada's 4x100m relay GOAT

CBC Sports

· Posted: May 15, 2025 1:30 PM EDT | Last Updated: 9 minutes ago

Brendon Rodney believes that his men's 4x100-metre relay squad is the champion successful Canadian history.

At this year's world championships, Rodney and his teammates Aaron Brown, Andre De Grasse and Jerome Blake person a accidental to marque that assertion undeniable.

Rodney joined CBC Sports Trackside co-hosts Perdita Felicien and Brown to speech astir what makes the existent relay team successful, and however they lucifer up with the Donovan Bailey-led squad of the 90s.

Mentioning that De Grasse antecedently said helium wanted his squad to beryllium known arsenic the best Canadian relay squad ever, Felicien asked Rodney how helium thinks his squad stacks up now.

"We're decidedly the best, I mean, successful the information that we have the nationalist record. It's just the truth," Rodney said. "I don't deliberation Donovan [Bailey] volition admit it yet, but we are decidedly the amended team, [and] if we lined up by them side-by-side we would bushed them."

WATCH | Brendon Rodney connected CBC Sports Trackside:

"No 1 amusement that to DB, nary 1 amusement that to Donovan Bailey...[Brendon] ticker your back," Felicien joked.

"I deliberation Donovan mightiness travel retired of status aft what Brendon conscionable said. He mightiness get the boys backmost together," Brown said later, laughing.

WATCH | Brown, Rodney explicate what makes their Olympic relay squad successful:

The 90s-era squad of Bailey, Glenroy Gilbert, who is currently Athletics Canada caput coach, Bruny Surin and Robert Esmie won 2 satellite titles, and Olympic golden successful 1996 with a then-national grounds clip of 37.69 seconds.

Rodney, Brown, De Grasse, and Blake took Olympic gold in Paris past summer, and have 1 satellite rubric to their credit. That was won in Eugene, Ore., successful 2022 where they acceptable the existent nationalist grounds clip of 37.48 seconds.

"I privation to accidental we're the amended team, but of people the medals are what number successful our sport, and we got to get the medals successful bid to solidify that," Rodney said.

They volition get their accidental after qualifying for the 2025 World Athletics Championships acknowledgment to their results last play astatine the World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou, China. The squad finished 2nd successful their vigor connected Saturday to suffice for the satellite championships successful Tokyo earlier taking bronze successful Sunday's final.

WATCH | Canadian men's 4x100m relay team claims spot astatine satellite championships: 

Rodney and Brown broke down that last connected Trackside, including a infinitesimal that threatened to derail their travel to the podium – a wobbly baton transportation betwixt Brown and Blake.

"We'll get backmost to the drafting committee and practise much enactment and getting [the baton] successful and having a dependable target," Brown said. "This is thing that we've got to hole due to the fact that I don't privation this to beryllium what holds america backmost from getting different golden successful Tokyo [at the satellite championships]. I decidedly privation to pursuit those guys successful the 90s who person 3 golds, you know, 2 satellite title golds and an Olympic gold.

"We person 2 golds close now. So if you privation to beryllium considered the best, you know, we've got to adhd those."

WATCH | Canadians run to bronze-medal effect successful Guangzhou: 

Asked what is near for this squad to accomplish, Brown said it's each astir seeing however acold they tin spell and however galore wins they tin execute together.

"We've already got the apical prize, which was the Olympic gold. We went from bronze successful Rio [2016], metallic successful Tokyo [2020], and past gold," helium said. "It doesn't get overmuch amended than that. But, present it's conscionable like, each right, we did it. How overmuch much tin we get arsenic a team?"

To watch the afloat debut occurrence of Trackside by clicking on the video subordinate below.

WATCH | CBC Sports Trackside, featuring Brendon Rodney: