Tennis player Eugenie Bouchard is the repeat winner of the Bobbie Rosenfeld award, Canadian Press’s female athlete of the year.
Bouchard, a 20-year-old from Montreal, climbed from No. 32 in the world to finish the season at No. 7 in the World Tennis Association rankings.
She won her first WTA Tour title in Nürnberg, Germany and reached the singles final at Wimbledon as well as the semifinals at the Australian and French Opens. The WTA named her “Player of the Year.”
Bouchard won 74 or 80 votes from sports editors and television broadcasters across the country. Bobsledder Kaillie Humphries, freestyle skier Justine Dufour-Lapointe and goalie Shannon Szabados each received two votes.
The award is named for sprinter and all-around athlete Fanny “Bobbie” Rosenfeld, who was named top female Canadian Athlete of the first half of the 20th Century.
Earlier this month, the 29-year-old Humphries, who is based in Calgary, won the Lou Marsh Trophy, as the Canadian athlete–male or female–of the year.
Humphries is the reigning Olympic champion in the two-woman bobsled at the 2010 Winter Olympics and the 2014 Winter Olympics. With her victory in 2014 she became the first female bobsledder to successfully defend her Olympic title.
Last week, Humphries and Elana Meyers Taylor of the U.S. made history, becoming the first women to compete in a four-man bobsled event.
The award is named for Lou Marsh, a former sports editor of the Toronto Star. It is voted on by writers and broadcasters across Canada.
On Friday, tennis player Milos Raonic repeated as the winner the Lionel Conacher Award as Canadian Press’s male athlete of the year.
Raonic, 24, from Thornhill, Ontario, became the first Canadian to reach a Grand Slam men’s singles semifinal in the Open era, losing to Roger Federer in straight sets at Wimbledon. However, Raonic gained some revenge, defeating Federer at the Paris Masters.
Raonic also won his first World Tour 500-level event and ended the year No. 8 in the world in the ATP rankings.
Raonic finished with 82 votes in balloting by sports editors and broadcasters across the country. Los Angeles Kings defencemen Drew Doughty placed second with 19 votes.
The award is named for Lionel Conacher, who was voted Canada’s top male athlete for the first half of the 20th century. Known as “The Big Train,” Conacher was a phenomenal all-around athlete who won both the Stanley Cup and the Grey Cup.
In early December, Air Canada named free-style skier Alexandre Bilodeau, who repeated his 2010 Vancouver Olympics win in the moguls at Sochi, as it’s athlete of the year in a fan vote that also included Humphries and curler Jennifer Jones.
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