Brandon McBride’s impressive combination of speed and power led him to represent Canada at two Olympic Games but years before, it simply led him home.

McBride once credited his success on the track to the many times he raced home from a friend’s house in order to make curfew.

Whatever the training methods, they allowed him to become one of Canada’s best 800-metre runners and gained him entry into the Windsor-Essex County Sports Hall of Fame in the athlete’s category for 2026.

McBride represented Canada at the 2016 Olympics in Rio where he reached the semi-finals and again at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo.

He wore a Team Canada jersey on track’s biggest stages at the Commonwealth Games, the Pan American Games and the IAAF World Championships (three times).

McBride won four individual Canadian national titles and in 2018 he established the Canadian record in the 800 metres with his time of 1:43.20 at a Diamond League meet in Monaco. That same year, he won the gold medal at the North American Central American and Caribbean Championships (NACAC).

While attending Mississippi State on a track scholarship, McBride won two NCAA Division 1 titles in the 800 metres and was named an All-American nine times.

As a youth, he won three gold medals at the Canada Games in the 400 metres, 800 metres and the 4x400-metre relay.

A standout for the Herman Green Griffins, McBride’s name still appears multiple times in the Windsor Essex County Secondary Schools Athletic Association record book.