The Syl Apps Athlete of the Year Award, began in 1998 and is awarded by the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame to Ontario's Athlete of the Year. It is named in for Syl Apps, an Olympic and Commonwealth Games pole vaulter and Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1940s.
The award is made based on voting by Ontario-based sports writers, broadcasters and personalities who have covered sports in Ontario for at least 10 years, as well as members of the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame Board of Directors and the Hall's Advisory Board. The award is for outstanding and memorable contributions to Ontario sports during the previous calendar year. Athletes may be eligible for the award if they are Ontario-born or Ontario-based. [1]
In 2015, the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame started to poll the public of Ontario to vote online for the next Syl Apps Athlete of the Year award recipient. In its first year, Brooke Henderson was selected by the voters of Ontario as the athlete that best deserved the honour. She received an overwhelming majority of the votes, beating out professional and amateur athletes including Kyle Lowry, Milos Raonic, and Russell Martin. [2]
In 2016, the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame recognized Brad Sinopoli, a Canadian football wide receiver who was playing for the Ottawa Redblacks of the Canadian Football League, as the Syl Apps Athlete of the Year. The online public vote to determine the award recipient concluded on March 31, 2016 with Sinopoli edging out other top professional competitors such as Andre De Grasse, Brooke Henderson and Kadeisha Buchanan to win. He received nearly 30% of total votes cast. [3]
Year | Winner | Sport | Win # |
---|---|---|---|
1997 | Roger Clemens | Baseball | 2 |
1998 | Roger Clemens | Baseball | 2 |
1999 | Mike Weir | Golf | 3 |
2000 | Mike Weir | Golf | 3 |
2001 | Vince Carter | Basketball | 1 |
2002 | Steve Yzerman | Hockey | 1 |
2003 | Mike Weir | Golf | 3 |
2004 | Adam Van Koeverden | Rowing | 3 |
2005 | Damon Allen | Canadian football | 3 |
2006 | None | - | - |
2007 | None | - | - |
2008 | Eric Lamaze | Equestrian | 1 |
2009 | Daniel Nestor | Tennis | 2 |
2010 | Joey Votto | Baseball | 1 |
2011 | Patrick Chan | Figure skating | 3 |
2012 | Rosie MacLennan | Trampoline gymnastics | 1 |
2013 | Milos Raonic | Tennis | 2 |
2014 | Milos Raonic | Tennis | 2 |
2015 | Brooke Henderson * | Golf | 1 |
2016 | Brad Sinopoli * | Canadian football | 1 |
2017 | Penny Oleksiak | Swimming | 1 |
2018 | Joey Votto | Baseball | 1 |
2019 | Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir | Figure skating | 1 |
2020 | Bianca Andreescu | Tennis | 1 |
2021 | Damian Warner | Track and field | 1 |
2022 | Summer McIntosh | Swimming | 1 |
The Ottawa Renegades were a Canadian Football League franchise based in Ottawa, Ontario founded in 2002, six years after the storied Ottawa Rough Riders folded. After four seasons, the Renegades franchise was suspended indefinitely by the league due to financial instability, and its players were absorbed by the other teams in a dispersal draft.
Charles Joseph Sylvanus Apps, was a Canadian professional ice hockey player for the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1936 to 1948, an Olympic pole vaulter and a Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament in Ontario. In 2017 Apps was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.
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Gillian Mary Apps is a women's ice hockey player. Apps was a member of the Canadian National Hockey Team that won back to back Gold Medals in three consecutive Olympic Games.
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