(Reuters) – Swimmer Summer McIntosh won the Northern Star Award as Canada’s top athlete of 2024 on Tuesday after a year in which she became the first athlete from her country to win three gold medals at a single Olympic Games.
At the Paris Olympics, McIntosh won gold in the 400 metres individual medley, 200m butterfly and 200m individual medley, as well as taking silver in the 400m freestyle.
Her four podium finishes tied fellow swimmer Penny Oleksiak for the most medals won by a Canadian athlete at one summer Games.
The 18-year-old McIntosh was announced as the Northern Star Award winner shortly after she broke the world record in the short-course 400m freestyle in Budapest.
Among the other finalists for the award were 2023 winner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder, NHL player Connor McDavid and Olympic hammer throw gold medallist Ethan Katzberg.
Previously known as the Lou Marsh Trophy, the Northern Star Award is handed out annually by the Toronto Star newspaper and is voted on by a panel of Canadian sports journalists.
Past winners include Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies (2020) former U.S. Open tennis champion Bianca Andreescu (2019) and Oleksiak (2016).
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; editing by Clare Fallon)
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