2023 True North Awards: Honouring some of Canada's top sports figures
Choosing the top Canadian athletes, coach, moment, and more for 2023
Once again, Canadian sports fans were treated to a year of incredible highs in the sporting world. Whether it was on the ice, snow, grass, court, or in the water, Canadian athletes continued to raise the bar both domestically and internationally.
The 2023 True North Awards aim to honour some of these great performances, as well as highlight some honourable mentions. It was difficult to decide the winners, as always, and comments are always appreciated with your thoughts on who you think should have won in their respective categories, or perhaps even new categories you want to see in the future.
Without further ado, here are the recipients of the 2023 True North Awards.
Newcomer of the Year
Fay De Fazio Ebert, Skateboarding
At just 13 years old, skateboarder Fay De Fazio Ebert was Canada’s youngest athlete at the Pan Am Games in Santiago in October, her first multi-sport games environment. She was also one of the most successful, returning home with a gold medal in the women's park competition.
Ebert scored 84.66 points with her second run, over two points higher than Brazil’s Raicca Ventura, who took silver with a score of 82.54. American Bryce Wettstein, who finished sixth in the sport’s Olympic debut in Tokyo two years ago, finished third with a score of 79.95.
Now 14, Ebert’s next goal is to compete at the Olympic Games next summer. If she takes part in Paris, she would be the youngest athlete to represent Canada at the Olympics since Barbara Hounsell swam for Canada at the 1964 games in Tokyo.
Honourable mentions: Marina Stakusic (tennis), Fernando Lu (Para swimming)
Comeback of the Year
Sydney Pickrem, Swimming
Sydney Pickrem was one of Canada’s stars of the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, winning a pair of gold medals in the pool. She won the 200m medley and 200m breaststroke events in Santiago, also swimming in the heats of the 4x200 m freestyle relay event in which Canada won bronze.
A few days before those games began, she also struck gold in the 200m individual medley at a World Cup meet in Athens.
Pickrem has been open about her struggles with mental health over the past couple of seasons, saying in an interview with the Canadian Press in October that "crippling anxiety and depression” kept her out of July's world championships in Japan.
“Someone asked me 'is that all behind you?' and I'm like depression and anxiety will never be behind me,” she said. “It's going to be something I always have for the rest of my life, but I embrace it and I want to tackle it and be the best me I can be.”
She bounced back for that standout swim meet in Santiago, and will now turn her attention to the rest of the season, and the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. Born in Florida to parents from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Pickrem is a two-time Olympian already with Canada, winning bronze as part of the 4x100m medley team in Tokyo.
Honourable mentions: Milos Raonic (tennis), Jim Montgomery (ice hockey)
Moment of the Year
Nick Taylor wins Canadian Open
There were so many incredible moments involving Canadian athletes in 2023, so this might have been the most difficult award to decide.
The final nod went to Nick Taylor’s 72-foot putt to win the 2023 Canadian Open, for both the shot itself and the significance of the moment. In a fourth sudden death playoff in the final round at the Oakdale Golf & Country Club in Toronto, with the title on the line, Taylor sunk his long-range shot to defeat Englishman Tommy Fleetwood — becoming the first Canadian to win their home PGA Tour event since 1954.
Taylor’s victory will be honoured at the 2024 Canadian Open, with a commemorative logo featuring a silhouette of the now-iconic shot and celebration.
Honourable mentions: Tristan Borges scoring from a corner kick to win the North Star Cup, and the Grey Cup-winning drive by the Montreal Alouettes
Team of the Year
Canadian men’s national basketball team
There has always been high expectations on the Canadian men’s basketball team, but for years they have failed to meet them. That changed in 2023, with a magical run at the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
Canada, led by several NBA stars including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, finished third at the tournament to qualify for the Olympics for the first time since 2000.
A dramatic victory over Spain saw Canada reach the quarter-finals of the competition, where they then downed Luka Dončić and Slovenia to reach the semifinals and a chance to play for a World Cup medal for the first time ever. A defeat to Bogdan Bogdanović and Serbia meant that gold or silver was out of the question, and after an upset in the other semifinal, they would taken on a United States team that lost to eventual champions Germany.
In the bronze medal match, Canada beat the Americans 127-118 in overtime, to win their first World Cup medal. Dillon Brooks was the star of that match, scoring 39 points in an inspired performance, later named Best Defensive Player of the tournament, while Gilgeous-Alexander was named to the All-Star Team.
SGA was named Canada’s top athlete of 2023 by a panel of media members on December 11, becoming just the second basketball player to win the Northern Star Award after Steve Nash in 2005.
Honourable mentions: Billie Jean King Cup team, Montreal Alouettes
Male Rising Star
Ethan Katzberg, Athletics
With a silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, hammer thrower Ethan Katzberg was on the radars of Canadian sports fans coming into this year, but 2023 is when he announced himself as a top athlete on the international stage.
Katzberg, a 21-year-old from Nanaimo, British Columbia, won his first Canadian national title earlier this year, before a monstrous performance at the World Championships in Budapest. Katzberg set the national record to qualify for the final, before raising it again to 81.25m, claiming an unexpected gold medal — beating the Olympic and world champions among others.
Katzberg followed that up with a gold medal at the Santiago 2023 Pan Am Games, and will be considered a strong medal contender in the leadup to next summer’s Olympic Games.
Honourable mentions: Connor Bedard (ice hockey), Félix Dolci (gymnastics)
Female Rising Star
Alexandria Loutitt, Ski Jumping
There may not be a Canadian athlete that has had as big an impact on their sport in 2023 as rising ski jumping star Alexandria Loutitt.
The 19-year-old from Calgary, Alberta was part of the mixed team that won Canada’s first-ever ski jumping medal with a bronze at Beijing 2022, and in 2023 has become one of the leading athletes in the sport.
Loutitt won gold in the women’s large hill event at the 2023 World Championships in March — Canada’s first medal of any kind for men or women at the event. In January she became the first Canadian woman to win a gold medal in a World Cup event, and in February she became the first Canadian woman to win a world junior title, doing so in the normal hill event in Whistler, B.C. Toward the end of the 2022-23 season, she picked up a silver medal at a World Cup event in March, and has started the 2023-24 season well too. Through four events this season, Loutitt has reached the podium three times, with two silvers and a bronze to open the season.
All of that success is even more impressive considering there are no permament ski jumping facilities in Canada, and she along with the other Canadian national team members train in Slovenia.
Loutitt was firmly in contention for True North’s Female Athlete of the Year award as well, and likely would have won if not for another superstar teenager (more on that shortly). Watch out for Loutitt over the coming years in the lead up to Milano Cortina 2026.
Honourable mentions: Olivia Smith (soccer), Sophie Jaques (ice hockey)
Coach of the Year
Jim Montgomery, Ice Hockey
In his first season behind the bench with the Boston Bruins, Montreal, Quebec’s Jim Montgomery was the leader of the greatest regular season in NHL history.
Boston’s 65–12–5 record and 135 points eclipsed the previous records for both. The record for wins was 62 by the 1995–96 Detroit Red Wings and 2018–19 Tampa Bay Lightning, and the record for points was previously 132, by the 1976–77 Montreal Canadiens.
Despite winning the Presidents’ Trophy as the best regular season team, the Bruins failed to meet expectations in the playoffs, bounced in the first round by the eventual Stanley Cup finalist Florida Panthers in seven games.
After the season, Montgomery won the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year. It was his first season as an NHL head coach again after the Dallas Stars fired him during the 2019-20 season while Montgomery was dealing with alcohol abuse — later checking himself into rehab following his dismissal before being given another opportunity with the Bruins.
The Bruins are off to a strong start this season as well, with a 19-7-6 record through 32 games. Interestingly, it was the man Montgomery replaced in Boston — Ottawa, Ontario’s Bruce Cassidy — who went on to win the 2023 Stanley Cup, doing so with the Vegas Golden Knights.
Honourable mentions: Rob Thomson (Philadelphia Phillies manager), Heidi El Tabakh (Billie Jean King Cup captain)
Male Athlete of the Year
Connor McDavid, Ice Hockey
Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid continues to be the near-unanimous pick for the best hockey player on the planet, but this year he somehow reached even greater heights.
Across 82 games in the 2022-23 season, McDavid scored 64 goals and added 89 assists for a total of 153 points, the most scored by a player in a single season since Mario Lemieux’s 161 points in 1995-96. By scoring the most points in the regular season, McDavid was awarded the Art Ross Trophy for the third time in a row, and fifth time in his career, but he wasn’t done there.
McDavid also took home the Rocket Richard Trophy for scoring the most goals in the regular season, the Ted Lindsay Award for being voted the most outstanding player by the NHL Players' Association, and the Hart Memorial Trophy for being voted the most valuable player by the members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association. It was the first time he won the Rocket Richard Trophy, but his fourth time winning the Ted Lindsay Award, and the third time being named league MVP.
McDavid also added eight goals and twelve assists in 12 playoff games as the Oilers were eliminated in the second round. Thus far in the 2023-24 regular season, McDavid has scored 12 goals and added 32 assists for 44 points in 29 games.
If he hasn’t already established it already by age 26, it seems a near-certainty that Connor McDavid is destined for the Hall of Fame, and a spot among the greatest players to step foot in the NHL. The scary thought for opponents should be that he is only now hitting his prime years.
Now let’s get NHLers back in the Olympics to see him in a Canada jersey again.
Honourable mentions: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (basketball), Ethan Katzberg (athletics), Pierce LePage (athletics)
Female Athlete of the Year
Summer McIntosh, Swimming
This could be the first of many awards like this for 17-year-old swimmer Summer McIntosh, who has exploded onto the scene in the past couple of years.
McIntosh, from Toronto, Ontario, set five female Canadian and junior world records at the Canadian National Trials earlier this year, one for each event she competed in, in addition to two world records, in what can be described as one of the best meets by any swimmer ever.
She set the world records in the 400m freestyle with a time of 3:56.08, and the 400m individual medley in a time of 4:25.87 — becoming the first swimmer ever to hold both 400m world records at the same time. The 400 free record has since been beaten by Australian star, and reigning Olympic champion, Ariarne Titmus with a time of 3:55.38 — setting up a potential legendary race between the two and American legend Katie Ledecky in Paris next year.
McIntosh also stood out at the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan in July, winning golds in the 200m butterfly and 400m individual medley, and added bronze medals in the 200m freestyle and 4x100m medley relay.
Paris 2024 could be the summer of Summer, and if she has the Olympics she is capable of, McIntosh would undoubtedly be in the conversation for the Northern Star Award.
RELATED LISTENING: True North Podcast Episode #6 - Byron MacDonald on Canada's 'golden generation' of swimmers /// True North Podcast Episode #7 - Devin Heroux on 2023 Canadian swimming trials and all things curling
Honourable mentions: Maggie Mac Neil (swimming), Gabriela Dabrowski (tennis), Alexandria Loutitt (ski jumping)
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