Who should win the 2024 Northern Star Award?
Summer McIntosh is the clear favourite, but here are several candidates.
With calendar flipping to December, voting for this year’s Northern Star Award — recognizing Canada's top athlete — is rapidly approaching.
As is usually the case in Olympic and Paralympic years, athletes who competed in those events will dominate the list of nominees for the 2024 crown. In fact, with the exception of the 2010 award going to baseball’s Joey Votto, the award in every other Olympic and Paralympic year this century has been won by those athletes.
There is a clear favourite for this year’s award: swimming sensation Summer McIntosh, who made international headlines with her dominant performances at the Olympics in Paris, but here are several candidates for the top Canadian sporting honour.
Summer McIntosh
Let’s get the easy one out of the way first. Summer McIntosh is a lock for the award after the 18-year-old from Toronto rewrote the history books again in 2024.
At the Canadian swimming trials in May, McIntosh won every event she competed in, and broke her own world record in the 400m individual medley. She went into the Paris 2024 Olympics as the gold medal favourite in that event and with sky-high expectations after a rapid rise over the past few years.
In Paris, still 17 at the time, McIntosh more than lived up to the hype, beginning with Canada’s first medal of the Olympics, a silver in the women’s 400m freestyle. She followed that up with three golds — in the 400m individual medley, 200m butterfly and 200m individual medley, setting Olympic records in the latter two events. She became the first Canadian ever to win three gold medals at the same Olympics, and carried the flag in the closing ceremony alongside Ethan Katzberg.
After being a finalist in 2022 and 2023 as well, the Northern Star Award will almost certainly belong to McIntosh for the first time, and you shouldn’t bet against her winning more in the future.
Nicholas Bennett
Staying in the pool, Nicholas Bennett also had an incredible summer, winning three medals at the Paralympics.
The 21-year-old took silver in the men’s 200m freestyle S14 event for the first Paralympic medal of his career, before picking up Canada’s first gold medal of the Games, in the 100m breaststroke SB14. In the 200m individual medley SM14 final he set a Paralympic record and became the first Canadian male swimmer in 20 years to win multiple gold medals in the same Paralympics.
Bennett, like McIntosh, was one of Canada’s flag bearers for his respective closing ceremony, leading the nation into Stade de France alongside Para canoeist Brianna Hennessy.
Cody Fournie
Also winning a pair of gold medals at the Paralympics was Para athlete Cody Fournie.
The 35-year-old switched to wheelchair racing from wheelchair rugby during the pandemic, and made his Paralympic debut in Paris this summer. His week at Stade de France could not have gone much better, as he won both the 100m and 200m events in the T51 classification and set personal bests in the process, as well as a North American record in the 100m.
Fournie was one of six Canadian Paralympians to win multiple medals in Paris, and has already stated that it is a goal of his to compete again in Los Angeles in four years.
Christa Deguchi
Christa Deguchi not only won the first Canadian gold medal at Paris 2024, but she also won the nation’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in the sport of judo.
In Paris, Deguchi defeated Huh Mi-mi of South Korea in the final, after Huh picked up three penalties in sudden death, automatically giving Canada the gold. It was revenge for Deguchi, who lost to Huh in the gold medal match of the 2024 World Judo Championships in May.
In addition to those two medals, Deguchi picked up a silver medal at the Pan American Championships, as well as three golds, a silver and a bronze on the 2024 IJF Grand Slam circuit. She is considered the world’s best judoka in her weight class for a reason, and 2024 finally saw her add that elusive Olympic title to her impressive collection.
Katie Vincent
Canadian history was also made on the water in Paris when Katie Vincent won the nation’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in a women’s canoe or kayak sprint event. She took gold in the C-1 200m competition, beating American Nevin Harrison by one hundredth of a second.
It was Vincent’s second medal in as many days, after she also picked up a bronze medal with Sloan Mackenzie in the women’s C-2 500m canoe sprint. Vincent also won a bronze medal in the latter event at Tokyo 2020, competing with Laurence Vincent Lapointe.
Connor McDavid
The only non-Olympian or Paralympian on this list is NHL superstar Connor McDavid.
McDavid had another standout year with the Edmonton Oilers, picking up 32 goals and 100 assists for 132 points in 76 games — and became just one of five players in NHL history to provide 100 or more assists in a single season. He led the Oilers all the way to the Stanley Cup final for the first time since 2006, where they went down 0-3 to the Florida Panthers in the series before nearly pulling off a miracle come-from-behind cup win, but fell just short in game seven.
After his stellar regular season, McDavid set the NHL record for most assists in one playoff year with 34, adding eight goals as well. His performances resulted in him winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP — just the sixth player in NHL history to win the award while playing for the losing finalist. He has 31 points in 21 games to start the 2024/25 season, and will look to get his hands on the Stanley Cup for the first time in the spring.
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