TORONTO (Reuters) – Damian Warner, who won decathlon gold at this year’s Tokyo Olympics, was voted Canada’s athlete of the year on Wednesday.
Warner reached the pinnacle of his sport in Tokyo where he led the men’s decathlon from start to finish with an Olympic record score of 9,018 points and went on to carry Canada’s flag at the closing ceremony.
The pool of finalists for the award, which is voted on by a panel of journalists from across Canada, was considered to be one of the strongest in the award’s 85-year history.
Warner was among 24 athletes nominated by the committee and advanced to the final round along with soccer players Alphonso Davies and Stephanie Labbe, sprinter Andre De Grasse, swimmer Maggie Mac Neil, MLB’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the NHL’s Connor McDavid.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Ed Osmond)
