Usually mirrored on as “the best yr ever,” 2016 was the period of the iPhone 7, heavy Instagram filters, Drake’s hit Hotline Bling, the launch of TikTok and, most significantly, when the revolutionary “super-shoe” first emerged. It’s been a decade since that iconic yr, and a viral 2026-is-the-new-2016 development is taking on social media. Let’s revisit the Canadian moments that made that yr of athletics unforgettable.
Bolt vs. De Grasse
Beginning off with the Rio 2016 Olympics, the place we noticed the unique Heated Rivalry duo (operating version): Jamaican dash legend Usain Bolt and Canada’s subsequent world star, Andre De Grasse. The pair of sprinters confronted off as rivals within the 200m, however they shared a enjoyable second in semi-final, grinning and laughing as De Grasse caught as much as Bolt on the line. The second went viral, and lives on.
Within the ultimate, Bolt went on to take gold, whereas De Grasse took silver.
Derek Drouin grabs Olympic gold
Not operating, however nonetheless Canadian-history-defining: in Rio, Derek Drouin delivered a sequence of flawless jumps, clearing 2.38m to seize excessive leap gold. The efficiency marked Canada’s lone athletics title of the 2016 Video games, and made Drouin the nation’s first Olympic champion in a discipline occasion since Los Angeles 1932, the place Duncan McNaughton additionally received the excessive leap title.
Having received bronze at London 2012 (which was later upgraded to silver), Drouin was the primary Canadian to repeat on the Olympic podium since 1936.
Eric Gillis locations tenth within the Olympic marathon
Three-time Olympian Eric Gillis had a historic run on the Olympic marathon in Rio, ending tenth in two hours, 12 minutes and 29 seconds. The efficiency marked the very best Canadian males’s end at an Olympic Video games for the reason that Montreal Video games in 1976, the place former nationwide file holder and world marathon icon Jerome Drayton completed sixth.
Melissa Bishop takes 4th in Rio 800m
Additionally at Rio 2016, her second Olympic Video games, Canadian 800m file holder Melissa Bishop (now Melissa Bishop-Nriagu) threw down an unimaginable 1:57.02 run to complete fourth–lacking the rostrum by simply 0.13 seconds. The end result matches Canada’s best-ever end in an Olympic 800m; 88 years earlier, Jenny Thompson completed fourth on the 1928 Video games in Amsterdam.
Bishop-Nriagu’s time of 1:57.02 shaved .41 seconds off her nationwide mark; in 2017, she lowered the file even additional, clocking 1:57.01.
Corey Bellemore units the beer mile world file
On the second annual Beer Mile World Basic in London in summer season 2016, Canada’s Corey Bellemore first cemented himself as a world icon when he broke the primary beer mile world file for the primary time. He ran 4:34 to win the world title by greater than 13 seconds, additionally slicing almost 13 seconds off the world file of 4:47.17 (held by fellow Canadian Lewis Kent).
Extra impressively, the efficiency got here simply three days after Bellemore had taken to a monitor on his personal and clocked a 4:39, unofficially breaking the world file.
The game has since grown in recognition, and Bellemore has steadily chipped away at his file; as of 2025, Bellemore’s file, set on the eleventh version of the Beer Mile World Basic, stands at 4:27.1.