Sprinter Jerome Blake adjusts to life as an Olympic champion

B.C.'s Jerome Blake is bringing home gold. 

Blake, who was born in Kelowna, B.C., and trains in Burnaby, was part of the men's 4x100-metre relay team that won the gold medal at the Paris Olympic Games last week. It was the first time the Canadian men had won the event since 1996.

Blake spoke with CBC's Gloria Macarenko from Paris.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

It was electric here in the CBC newsroom when your team won. When we were watching you win we were all standing up and cheering. Was it obvious to you that your teammate Andre de Grasse was crossing the line first at that moment?

Actually, no, because of where I finished — I finished on the second bend at the 200-metre start. So I went in like 50 more metres and I started looking at the jumbotron, but it looked funny because I couldn't see. I was like, 'Oh man, I hope you're winning right now.'

I'm looking and it looked like we're winning. I was like, 'OK, that looks really good.' And then I heard in the stadium announcers saying 'Canada wins, Canada wins.' 

I was like, 'What?' So I started running and I was like, 'Oh my goodness.'

I put my hand on my head and I just stopped and I lay on the ground. I was like, 'Oh no, I just really did that.' I got up and started running to find the rest of the guys, but it took forever to get out so far away.

There was a protest launched right away as soon as the race finished.

So we're just watching, and then it says 'Canada wins.' And like once we see that we're like, 'OK, we're good.' 

It's like slowly setting in even now. I woke up this morning, I looked at the box, the medals, and I was like, 'Oh man, I'm really an Olympic champion.'

You are the champion for sure. It's widely acknowledged that