How Canada’s top athlete is decided
A 35-person committee will select winner through two rounds of voting
It all comes down to Wednesday. A 35-person committee representing media outlets across the country will decide this year’s Lou Marsh Award winner, given to the Canadian athlete of the year.
It starts with a general nomination round, where committee members put forth the name and a case for an athlete or athletes they believe worthy of the title. The long list of initial candidates is whittled down to a short list by a vote. Another round of discussion ensues before members vote on a winner.
Between gold medallists and world champions, most valuable players and emerging global icons, it’s anyone’s game.
The strength of the field is such that, in the Star’s summary of potential award contenders over the past week, Corey Conners, 29, of Listowel, Ont., hasn’t even been mentioned. Conners made a run at the Masters and had the most impressive season by a Canadian male golfer since Mike Weir won at Augusta in 2003.
And Canada’s collection of silver and bronze medallists from the Tokyo Olympics likely will be on the outside looking in.
Star readers have shared who they think should win. Gold-medal decathlete Damien Warner beat out gold-medal sprinter Andre De Grasse in the final of a bracket featuring 16 athletes from nine sports.
The Lou Marsh Award has been synonymous with elite athletic achievement in Canada for 85 years. And while the primary focus remains the continued recognition of excellence by Canadian athletes, there have been questions about whether the award should be named after Marsh, a longtime Star employee who worked as a copy boy, sports reporter, columnist and sports editor until his death in 1936. His signature column, entitled “With Pick and Shovel,” was considered the most influential sports column in the country.
But there has been concern about his use of racist language, his role in the career of Indigenous long-distance runner Tom Longboat and his opposition to a proposed Canadian boycott of the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
The Star initiated a comprehensive study of Marsh and his body of work last month, aiming to clearly understand his role with the Star, to put his work within the proper historical context and to ascertain whether it is appropriate and fitting to continue to have his name associated with the award.
The study is headed by Dr. Janice Forsyth, an associate professor of sociology at Western University, and the results should be released next year.