Nicolas Macrozonaris ( gr, Νικόλαος Μακροζωνάρης, born August 22, 1980) is a Canadian Olympic

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

athlete who has won the 100 metre national title four times and once in the 200 metre.

Career

He was inspired to run track and field after watching

Donovan Bailey Donovan Bailey (born December 16, 1967) is a retired Jamaican-Canadian sprinter. He once held the world record for the 100 metres. He recorded a time of 9.84 seconds to win the gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games. He was the first Canadian ...

win the

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. After watching that race, it motivated him to take the sport seriously. A few years later, as a junior, he tied

Ben Johnson Ben, Benjamin or Benny Johnson may refer to: In sports Association football * Ben Johnson (footballer, born 2000), English footballer * Ben Johnson (soccer) (born 1977), American soccer player Other codes of football *Ben Johnson (Australian foot ...

's Canadian national record in the 50 metre sprint, running a time of 5.83. The following year, after 4 years of intensive training, he qualified for the 2000 Sydney Olympics' 100 meter event at the age of 19. At the Olympics, he ran a time of 10.45 to finish 42nd overall out of 95, being eliminated in the heats. His culminating moment as a sprinter came in 2003 when he ran a time of 10.03 and beat the then world record holder, American

Tim Montgomery Timothy Montgomery (born January 28, 1975) is an American former track sprinter who specialized in the 100-meter dash. In 2005, he was stripped of his records—including a now-void men's 100-meter world record of 9.78 seconds set in 2002—a ...

in Mexico City. As of 2019, his time of 10.03 is still ranked the sixth fastest Canadian 100m time, behind Bruny Surin and Donovan Bailey who both share the national record with a 9.84 clocking, along with Andre De Grasse (9.90), Aaron Brown (9.96) and Gavin Smellie (10.01). In 2004, he qualified for the 2004 Summer Olympics in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

and finished 28th out of 80 in the 100 meter event, thus improving his position from his previous Olympic Games in Sydney where he finished 42nd. Nicolas has represented Canada in many international competitions and has qualified for six

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

, three Francophone Games, two

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

, two

Commonwealth games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

, one

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

, and one

Pan American Championship A Pan American Championship is a top level international sports competition between athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs in the Americas. Typically these championships are recurring, the most ...

. In 2017, he ran for the Action Laval party in the 2017 Laval municipal election, but finished third in the Sainte-Dorothée District.

Statistics

Personal bests

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Macrozonaris, Nicolas 1980 births Living people Canadian male sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic track and field athletes of Canada Athletes (track and field) at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games competitors for Canada World Athletics Championships athletes for Canada Canadian people of Greek descent Sportspeople from Laval, Quebec Anglophone Quebec people Canadian sportsperson-politicians