Clockwise from top left, Brooke Henderson, Connor McDavid, Kaetlyn Osmond and Mikaël Kingsbury will leave Lou Marsh voters spoiled for choice — for starters.
How is it even possible to pick just one Canadian athlete of the year? Wish us luck
Another year, another Lou Marsh vote.
Another vigorous discussion in the offing. Another year of being told we got it all wrong.
What distinguishes this award as Canada’s athlete of the year is both its history — it was first awarded in 1936 — and the fact it encompasses both genders and all types of athletes. There’s no male or female athlete of the year. No amateur (whatever that is anymore) and professional categories. Paralympians have won it. So have kayakers, golfers, hockey players, biathletes and CFL stars.
We throw all the names of Canadians who have done something extra special in one year into a hat, bicker and argue about it, and come up with one name. One person.
Canada’s athlete of the year. Winner of the Lou Marsh Trophy.
Last year it was slugger Joey Votto, who won it for the second time. Votto edged out cross-country skier Alex Harvey, Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby, moguls superstar Mikaël Kingsbury and curler Rachel Homan. Quite a group that was, and as you can see, from a variety of sports.
Now, here we are in late 2018, and on Tuesday a group of more than two dozen media representatives from across the country will assemble to pick the 78th winner of this prestigious award. Wish us luck. Please. We’ve had Canadians pull off athletic feats in 2018 not achieved by any of their fellow citizens for decades, and we
had Olympians last winter represent our country in spectacular fashion, as they almost always do.
So you know how it works: we go into Tuesday’s meeting without a list of specific candidates. We then take nominations, vote once to get a list of five finalists, then vote again to deliver one name.
You’ll undoubtedly have your own passionate opinion. As executive director of the voting committee, but also one with a vote, I’ll try to be as openminded as I can, and often in the past I’ve been convinced to vote for an athlete who wasn’t even on my radar.
So here are five names certain to come up in Tuesday’s discussion (at least if I have anything to do with it): BROOKE HENDERSON: Henderson became the first Canadian in 45 years to win the women’s Canadian Open. Anybody who has watched Canadian male golfers struggle at the Bell Canadian Open and our tennis players try mightily but fail to win the Rogers Cup, you know these events come with a special kind of pressure. Henderson led by a single shot going into the final day and won going away for her seventh victory on the LPGA Tour, at age 20. Only George Knudson, Mike Weir and Sandra Post have more wins. She’s ninth in the world, possibly on a rocket ship to No. 1. MIKAËL KINGSBURY: His name has been coming up in the Lou Marsh discussion for years now, always with the asterisk that he hadn’t won an Olympic gold medal. Well, now he has. The 26-year-old won gold in Pyeongchang, adding the final piece to his incredible career resumé. He is the most accomplished mogul skier of all-time. He holds the records for most moguls World Cup titles and overall freestyle World Cup titles.
If not now for the Lou Marsh, when? CONNOR MCDAVID: McDavid, 21, may have surpassed Crosby as the best hockey player on the planet. Last season, he won the Art Ross Trophy for leading the NHL in scoring for the first time with 108 points. He also won the Ted Lindsay Award as league MVP as voted by members of the NHL Players Association, and some would argue that holds more weight than the Hart Trophy, which is voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association. Taylor Hall of the New Jersey Devils, another Canadian-born star, won the Hart last season. McDavid is in the top 10 in NHL scoring again this year. The Oilers may often disappoint, but McDavid never does. KAETLYN OSMOND: The 23-year-old figure skater from Marystown, N.L., won bronze at the 2018 Winter Olympics, then captured gold at the world championships. She was the first Canadian woman to do so since the great Karen Magnusson in 1973.
So, like Henderson, Osmond ended a long drought for Canadian athletes in her sport. Osmond was fourth after the short program in Milan, then came through in the clutch with her Black Swan routine to join Magnussen, Petra Burke (1965) and Barbara Ann Scott (1947 and 1948) as only the fourth Canadian woman to win a world championship.
She is also a three-time Cana- dian champion, and her best years may still be ahead of her. REBECCA MARINO: OK, this one’s a little outside the box. And yes, I’ve got a soft spot for tennis. But we’re living in the #MeToo era with an increasing focus in athletics on mental health issues, and the 27-year-old Marino has stood up and proven those are obstacles that can be overcome. Five years ago, Marino quit professional tennis after rising to No. 38 in the world. She was lonely on the tour, bullied by vicious anonymous sources on social media and fought depression. She abandoned her tennis dreams.
This year, motivated partially by her father’s illness, she decided to try a comeback. She won her first tournament back in January, a lower level ITF event. She then won her next two tournaments, as well. She returned to the main WTA tour in August at the Rogers Cup, winning her first qualifying match. After beginning the year ranked No. 917, she worked her way up to No. 180 by the end of the season and is now the third-highest ranked Canadian on the WTA tour.
In the bigger picture, how many Canadian athletes really accomplished more in 2018?
We’ve had Canadians pull off athletic feats in 2018 not achieved by any of their fellow citizens for decades