Olympic track champion Donovan Bailey to publish memoir in summer 2023

Olympic gold medallist and recent Order of Canada recipient Donovan Bailey will publish his memoir in summer 2023.

The champion Canadian sprinter, once known as "the world's fastest man" for his gold medals at the World Championships and the Summer Olympics in the mid-1990s — including winning the 100-metre competition in a record-breaking time of 9.84 seconds at the 1996 Games — is writing the as yet untitled book along with Sportsnet.ca senior writer David Singh.

It will be published by Random House Canada.

Though recognized as a legendary athlete and a leader in Canada's Jamaican community, Bailey also faced criticism during his rise in Canada's track-and-field scene for his focus and confidence. He was steadfast in fighting stereotypes and speaking out against inequities even when doing so attracted controversy.

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Bailey, who moved to Canada from Jamaica in 1981, began sprinting competitively nearly a decade later. After earning an economics degree, he competed in his first major international competition at the 1995 World Championships, where he won gold medals in the 100-metre event and the 4x100 relay.

He went on to win gold in the same events at the 1996 Olympics, and defeated American sprinter Michael Johnson in an unofficial 150-metre race in a sold-out event the following year at Toronto's SkyDome — securing his reputation for over a decade as the world's fastest man.

Even before distinguishing himself in athletics, Bailey was being coached in success by his father, a real estate investor. Bailey, who bought and owned 11 properties at the age of 21, continued to apply that outlook to his life in sports and beyond. In the memoir, he'll share moving stories from