Toronto's Star has put together a full list of athletes being considered for this year's award. Obviously, there are a lot of Olympians, but the success of our tennis players will make it a tough decision.
My vote is for Bilodeau, defending his gold medal (and becoming the first freestyle skier to do so) was to me the biggest sporting achievement of the year. After him I would look to Ranoic or Bouchard for their stellar tennis seasons
I'd lean toward Kaillie Humphries, as I think she's got the best resume out of anyone on the list. She's been nearly unbeatable in her sport since the last Olympics.
What the tennis players have done is really remarkable and important for the sport in Canada, but for solo athletes, there needs to be a minimum level of winning a major event.
Plays rugby for Canada. Was named the IRB Women Player of the Year in 2014. The first Canadian to win the award.
Was also put up for Try of the Year by the IRB (she lost out, but her try is filled with amazing world class skill). She is also the only women to appear on the list of 5 tries.
She was a key member of a women's team that finished second in the Women's Rugby World Cup in 2014.
While not well known by the general public, this individual is a world class athlete.
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Captain James P. DeCOSTE, CD, 18 Sep 1993
Corporal Jean-Marc H. BECHARD, 6 Aug 1993
Last edited by undercoverbrother; 12-01-2014 at 11:37 AM.
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Doughty should win, hard to top a Cup and a Gold Medal while being a force on both teams. Genie's probably going to win, even as it's an odd choice seeing as she effectively won nothing (a lower level WTA tournament is all). Milos actually won more than she did and had arguably the most consistent season in tennis outside Djokovic and Federer, he just didn't make a Slam final. I'd probably give it to Milos ahead of Genie.
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"Think I'm gonna be the scapegoat for the whole damn machine? Sheeee......."
It is a tough choice this year. I find that hockey guys often get screwed in this award because there are a lot of d-bags on the panel that rule them out from the start to prove that hockey isn't king and/or because they think amateur athletes deserve more recognition than they get (hello Scott Russell).
The biggest thing any Canadian athlete could ever win in my view is Men's Olympic Gold. I think it means more to the courntry than any single Golf, Tennis, or other sporting event, World Cup of Soccer included. The Canadians men team won that event so to me that means a lot.
The tough part comes in that no single hockey guy was clearly more outstanding than others. Doughty was great at the Olympics and won a Cup, Price was best player at the Olympics and should have been MVP, Crosby was captain of the Olympic team, very good in the Olympics and the best player in the NHL. I went with Crosby, although after writing this maybe should have gone with Doughty.
I have a hard time with Bouchard and Milos because they both had years that were great for Canadians but not really great in terms of Tennis overall. Both are at best the 8th-10th best players in their sports and there were likely at least 4 individuals (maybe more) more in their sports that had better years than them.
Should the best Canadian athlete be a 2nd tier player in their own sport? Neither of them even won anything of significance either to try and at least pin that on them.
For the amateurs I didn't see any that did anything overly impressive to knock out the achievement of the Hockey team. They had good not great years and they need great to win the award for me.
Now likely that I am guilty of being biased for Hockey in a similar vein that I complained other are biased against it. I love a lot of other sports, been involved in many (including Rugby so have a good context of Magali Harvey performance that UCB nominated), but hockey is my favorite sport for sure.
I have a hard time with Bouchard and Milos because they both had years that were great for Canadians but not really great in terms of Tennis overall. Both are at best the 8th-10th best players in their sports and there were likely at least 4 individuals (maybe more) more in their sports that had better years than them.
Should the best Canadian athlete be a 2nd tier player in their own sport? Neither of them even won anything of significance either to try and at least pin that on them.
You don't think being a top 10 tennis player is an enormous accomplishment (Canadian or otherwise), given the popularity of tennis around the world? 2nd tier?
Just going back over past winners, it's been a very long time since there's been a Lou Marsh winner who has not won a championship, major event, or been recognized as the top athlete within their own sport or league. You'd have to go back to 1979, when Sandra Post won, largely on the achievement of being 2nd on the LPGA money list (she had not won a major since nearly 10 years earlier, but had compiled a highly respected LPGA career). Which I think is roughly equatable with Eugenie Bouchard's achievements this year (minus Post's career achievements including a major and a bunch of lesser tournament victories).
We never honoured Daniel Nestor with the Lou Marsh Award, despite the fact that he's been one of the best doubles tennis players in the world for a decade, has won multiple majors, an Olympic gold, the third most doubles titles in the open era, was once ranked as the #1 overall doubles player, and is still ranked #4 overall at the ripe age of 42. One of only 19 players in history to hold a career golden slam. So the argument that just because it's tennis and we should therefor value Bouchard's achievements more than other sports doesn't hold for me, when we've never gotten that excited about Nestor's achievements.
Bouchard is an exceptional athlete and competitor. She is going to win majors in her career, I have little doubt about that. And when she does, I'll be totally in favour of her winning the Lou Marsh. If she fails to win a major but racks up a load of lesser tournament victories, I'll be in favour of her winning the Lou Marsh. If she rises up to the top of the world rankings, that's worth a Lou Marsh too. But seriously, you've got to win more than the Nurnberger Versicherungscup to be the best athlete in the country. Is she the biggest story in Canadian sports? Sure, I wouldn't disagree with that. But the best athlete? I just don't see it. Not yet.
I voted for Genie, but I wouldn't be upset if it went to a non-tennis player. Raonic and Bouchard's best is yet to come. They will be even more deserving of this award in future years.
The winner was supposed to be announced today, but out of respect for the funeral of Mr. Beliveau, it will be announced tomorrow at around 9:45 Calgary time.
The winner was supposed to be announced today, but out of respect for the funeral of Mr. Beliveau, it will be announced tomorrow at around 9:45 Calgary time.
I'm not even a CFL fan, nor do I live out west, but I have heard of Jon Cornish and the type of year he had. That says something for an NFL only fan to know of a CFL player. He gets my vote.
2014 Lou Marsh award: Who is your pick?
