The results are in, as announced moments ago by Scott Russell (@SportsWkndScott) on CBC SPORTS WEEKEND, Canadian sports fans have chosen Christine Sinclair as Canada’s 2012 Athlete of the Year. More than 136,500 votes were cast by Canadians over the past week at CBCSports.ca to help determine the country’s favourite athlete of the year from a list of six individuals and teams.
Burnaby, BC’s Sinclair is captain of Canada’s national women’s soccer team that won a bronze medal in soccer at London 2012. With the bronze medal victory, the Canadian women’s team became the first national team since 1936 to win a medal at a Summer Olympic Games. Sinclair led the Olympic tournament with six goals - including three against a powerful United States team in the semifinal round, and was Canada’s flag bearer at the closing ceremonies. She also became the national team’s all-time leading scorer with 143 goals in international competition.
One week ago, CBCSports.ca posted a list of six Canadian athletes/teams and asked fans to vote for the one who most deserved to be named Canada’s Athlete of the Year. The list of choices was as follows:
- Patrick Chan, Figure Skating - 2012 World Champion, 2012 Canadian Champion, 2012 Four Continents Champion, three-time 2012 ISU Grand Prix event gold medalist
- Ryder Hesjedal, Cycling - 2012 Giro d’Italia champion, Won Stage 4 time trial winner at Giro event
- Kaillie Humphries, Bobsleigh - 2012 World Champion, won six consecutive World Cup races
- Rosie MacLennan, Trampoline - 2012 Gymnastics Olympic Test Event gold medallist, 2012 Olympic gold medallist
- Christine Sinclair, Soccer - Led Canada to Olympic bronze at the London 2012 Games, led all Olympic women scorers with six goals, scored her 143rd international goal, which ranks third all-time
- Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir, Figure Skating - 2012 World Ice Dance Champions, 2012 Four Continents Champions, 2012 Canadian Champions, two-time 2012 ISU Grand Prix event gold medalists
CBC’s Scott Russell, an unwavering and vocal supporter of Canada’s high-performance amateur athletes, spearheaded the campaign and made the case for each of the six nominees in his Field of Play blog, which was posted at the same time the poll opened.
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