— CP athletes of the year —
Much has happened in the world since Christine Sinclair made soccer history in January en route to helping the Canadian women book their ticket to the Tokyo Olympics.
The longtime Canada captain added to her remarkable resume by surpassing retired American Abby Wambach’s record of 184 international goals, at the CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Edinburg, Texas.
“For me, a defining moment in Canadian sporting history," said Canada coach John Herdman, who coached Sinclair and the Canadian women prior to taking over the men’s program in January 2018. “To have a kid from Burnaby become the greatest of all time.
“And that's a record that I don't know how long that’s going to take to be beaten by a male or a female. And she’s Canadian.”
Sinclair’s record-breaking year has earned the Canadian soccer icon the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as The Canadian Press female athlete of the year for 2020.
The 37-year-old Sinclair also won the award in 2012 after leading Canada to a memorable bronze medal at the London Olympics. She is the only soccer player to have won the Rosenfeld Award.
Sinclair received 20 of 66 votes cast by sports editors, writers and broadcasters across the country.
“Another great year and a once-in-a-lifetime achievement. Hard to beat,” said Rob Grant, the Toronto Star’s sports team editor.
“When the history of women's sports is written in this country, Christine Sinclair deserves her own chapter,” added Phil King, sports layout editor for the Globe and Mail. “As a role model and an accomplished athlete, her glorious career paved the way for a generation of
accomplished female athletes.”
Sinclair’s scoring account now stands at 186, with 55 assists, in 296 international appearances.
“Olympic qualifying seems three years ago, seems like a different world,” Sinclair told The Canadian Press on Day 12 of her quarantine in coming home for the holidays.
“Obviously the record for scoring, God that seems so long ago, was an important milestone,” she added. “And especially with the way the rest of the year went, it's definitely been one of the highlights. It’s pretty cool to see a Canadian on the top of the record charts, I’m not going to lie.”
Fellow Canadian soccer international Kadeisha Buchanan, who won the Women's Champions League for the fourth time with Lyon, was runner-up with 12 votes. Basketball star Kia Nurse of the WNBA’s New York Liberty was third (nine votes), following by short-track speedskater Kim Boutin (8) and golfer Brooke Henderson (7).
Sinclair moved atop soccer's all-time goalscoring list — for both men and women — on Jan. 29.
“It was such a relief,” she said. “Those people closest to me know how much it had been weighing on me and, like, stressing me out, in a way. So I was glad to get it out of the way in that opening game (at the CONCACAF tournament) and as a team, we could just move on and I could move on and focus on what we were really trying to accomplish, which was getting to Tokyo.”
The high of qualifying for Tokyo was followed by the low of Canada having to pull out of the Games, which were later postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sinclair recalls sitting there, thinking “‘What now?’
“For many months, all of us, our professional seasons were all suspended. No international games. We were doing workouts on our patios as a team. We were following (midfielder) Desiree Scott's Zumba classes.”
Added Sinclair: “It’s been a hard year for everyone. Everyone has their own stories.”
But she sees “little glimmers of hope that things will turn around soon.”
The Canadian women, tied for eighth in the world rankings, have not played since March 10 when they drew Brazil 2-2 at a tournament in France.
The National Women’s Soccer League was the first North American league to return, playing the Challenge Cup in a bubble in Utah. Sinclair spent much of the lockdown, prior to the league’s return, in Florida with Charlie, her Pomeranian dog.
Sinclair captained Portland at the NWSL Challenge Cup in June-July and went on to lead the Thorns to the NWSL Fall Series title.
Despite the challenges of the pandemic and the resulting stop-start season, Sinclair was happy with how she played.
“When the games finally did come around, I was happy with how I performed. It was just hard to get into a rhythm individually and as a team. I think we started to put things together toward the end in Portland, which makes me very excited for next year.”