Sports in Canada in 2015 were marked by the rebirth of Canadian excellence in track and field, the thrilling run for the American League pennant by the Toronto Blue Jays, the brilliance of Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price, the burgeoning basketball stardom of Toronto’s Andrew Wiggins, the emergence of teen-aged golfer Brooke Henderson and the season-long miseries suffered on the tennis court by one-time phenom Eugenie Bouchard.
Canada also served as host to a pair of international events over the summer: the FIFA Women’s World Cup, won by the United States, and the 2015 Pan Am Games and the Parapan Am Games in Toronto.
Both events were greeted scepticism going in but wound up proving their doubters wrong.
As the world inches toward the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, the event providing the most optimism for 2016 took place in August in Beijing: The World Track and Field Championships.
Canadians had their best results ever, finishing with eight medals, including two golds–Derek Drouin in the high jump and Shawn Barber in the pole vault.
It marked the first time Canada has won two gold medals in a single World Championships since 1995 when Donovan Bailey and the 4×100 metre relay team won gold.
While the track and field athletes were running and jumping in Beijing, the Toronto Blue Jays brought people across the country to their feet with a thrilling run to Major League Baseball’s playoffs before falling in the American League Championship Series to the eventual World Series winners, the Kansas City Royals.
Price had a year for the ages. He won the Vezina Trophy as top goalie and the Hart Trophy as the National Hockey League’s MVP. Price also took the Ted Lindsay Award as most outstanding player as voted by the players and shared the William Jennings Trophy for the lowest team goals-against total. For good measure, The Canadian Press named him male athlete of the year.
As one wag noted, “The only thing Carey didn’t win was the Stanley Cup.”
The Cup was won by the Chicago Blackhawks, leaving Canadian teams–once again–to wish and hope for better things in the future. No Canadian team has won the Cup since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993.
The 20-year-old Wiggins, after just one season of playing university ball, was the rookie of the year in the National Basketball Association while playing for Minnesota. A fluid player and graceful shooter, Wiggins will now give chase to Steve Nash for the honour of being called Canada’s greatest basketball player ever.
Hobbled by injuries, Nash, a two-time NBA MVP and seven-time All-NBA selection, announced his retirement in March after 19 years in the NBA.
He is currently attempting to help propel the Canadian men’s basketball team to the Rio Olympics while serving as the team’s general manager. Nash or not, an Olympic berth remains a long-shot.
Several Canadian women athletes had excellent years.
Henderson, who is 18, won the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as The Canadian Press female athlete of the year after becoming the first Canadian to win on the LPGA tour in a decade.
Henderson finished the season ranked 18th in the world, a jump of 200 positions over 2014.
And she became the first golfer to win The Canadian Press award since Lorie Kane in 2000.
Gymnast Ellie Black soccer player Kadeisha Buchanan tied for second in the vote. Black won five medals, including three golds, at the Pan Ams. Buchanan helped Canada get to the quarter-finals at the Women’s World Cup, where they lost to England.
Bouchard, who won the award in 2013 and 2014, had a miserable year, completely losing her bearings and playing as if in a nightmare. She finished the year ranked 49th in the world and, after a fall in the locker room at the U.S. Open in September, is suing the United States Tennis Association for injuries she suffered.
The good news in tennis was Vasek Pospisil’s electric run at Wimbledon, where he made it to the quarter-finals before losing to World No. 3 Andy Murray in straight sets. Pospisil finished the year ranked 39th in the world.
Canada’s top male player, Milos Raonic, spent a good part of the year injured or recovering from injury and finished 2015 ranked 14th.
As we do every year, we contacted Bruce Dowbiggin, a noted journalist, author and radio personality, for some perspective.
Dowbiggin spoke by phone from Calgary, where he maintains a website called “Not the Public Broadcaster.”
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