
Osvaldo Jeanty was born in 1983 in a small city in Haiti called Bel Riviere. At the age of six, speaking only Creole, he immigrated with his family to Canada where he grew up in the east end of Ottawa, and where French quickly became his second language. As a child, with his friends, he played a variety of sports from baseball, to volleyball, soccer and football – giving birth to an unquenchable passion for sports and competition. At the age of 12, Osvaldo began playing basketball in a neighborhood park and never looked back. His zeal for the game stemmed from a desire to be better than his older brother Rinaldo, and his childhood best friend. The fact that they were older, bigger and stronger motivated and fueled him to be the best. He believed that if he could beat them, he could beat anyone. This passion to be the best has enabled him to achieve not only true excellence in sport, but fuels a disciplined approach to leadership, work ethic and an unwavering commitment to elevating personal performance that he maintains today. For him basketball has become more than just a sport; it’s a way of life.
The decision to attend Carleton University (2002 to 2007) was easy for Osvaldo – it would reunite him with, Dave Smart, from his U-19 provincial team days who Osvaldo believed a brilliant coach. Under Smart, Osvaldo, a point guard, would be named to the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) All Rookie Team in his freshman year, while simultaneously helping the Carleton Ravens to win their first ever National Championship. In 2004, he would win the BLG (Borden Ladner Gervais) award, which is given to the Canadian university male athlete of the year (the recipient of this award receives a scholarship to pursue post-graduate studies). He would be the first Carleton Raven student-athlete to win this award in its twenty-one year history. The Ravens would go on to win five consecutive national titles where Osvaldo would be named the Final Eight championship game’s most value player three out of five years (2004 to 2006). Other notable accolades received by Jeanty include: CIS Final Eight tournament most valuable player (2003), twice named Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) basketball player of the year (2006 and 2007), along with being selected to the CIS All-star team during the 2005–06 season. As well, Osvaldo was also named the CIS `final 10` tournament MVP thus earning him every MVP award he could have received that season. He has also been twice named first team all Canadian (2006 and 2007), second team all Canadian (2005)
Osvaldo played six years of professional basketball. During his inaugural year while playing for a German team called the Nordlingen Giants, he led the team to a championship at the ProA level, an achievement that enable the Nordlingen club up to play first league Germany the following year.
In subsequent years, he would continue to play in this elite German league playing in Giessen, Bayreuth and Weissenfels. During his professional career he also played in Romania, Morocco and in Canada’s own National Basketball league for the London Lightning (London, Ontario).