McIntosh favourite to win the Northern Star award
The 2024 Northern Star Award won’t be handed out for a few more months, but that doesn’t mean we can’t debate who will win it.
With the Summer Games in the rear-view mirror, a clear frontrunner to win the award has emerged.
The Northern Star Award is given annually to Canada’s top athlete each year. The winner can be a professional or amateur athlete.
It’s been an incredible year for Canadian athletes, and the remaining four months should be no different.
But only one person can win the award as Canada’s top athlete, so let’s look who FanDuel thinks it’ll be.
McIntosh favourite to win the Northern Star award
Summer of Summer
Summer McIntosh is only 18 years old and she is already one of the most successful swimmers this country has ever turned out.
After nearly missing the podium as a 14-year-old in Tokyo in 2021, McIntosh came back in 2024 better than ever.
The Canadian won four medals this summer in France; three gold and one silver.
But Summer didn’t just win gold. She broke records and rewrote history books while doing it.
McIntosh set an Olympic record in the women’s 200m butterfly while logging the second-fastest time in the event’s history.
Her second gold medal made her the first Canadian woman to win two individual gold medals at a Summer Olympics and the first Canadian to win two gold medals at a Summer Olympics since Donovan Bailey in 1996.
Her third gold medal was only another part of history as she became the first Canadian to win three gold medals at a single Summer Olympics, while her four medals tied Penny Oleksiak for the most Canadian medals in a single Olympics by a single athlete.
If not Summer… who?
There is only one other option in this market shorter than 10-1: Connor McDavid.
The Edmonton Oilers superstar set a career-high with 100 assists last season, while his 132 points were the third-most in the NHL.
He added 42 points in the Oilers' 25 games in the playoffs and captained the team’s best postseason run since losing in the 2006 final.
McDavid became the first player to win the Conn Smythe Award despite his team not winning the Stanley Cup since Jean-Sebastien Giguere in 2003. He’s the first skater to do that since Reggie Leach in 1976.
If not McDavid, perhaps Andre De Grasse could hear his name called for the award in December.
De Grasse ended his Olympic career on a high note this summer by anchoring Canada’s 4x100m men's team to the program's first gold medal in the event.
Canada was a stunning 50-1 longshot to win the event, and with De Grasse as the last leg, he will forever be remembered as the man who crossed that finish line to make history.
The gold was a fantastic ending to a rather unfortunate Summer Games for De Grasse, who failed to reach the finals in the 100m and 200m races after winning medals in both events in 2020 and 2016.
A Take You Didn’t Ask For
No matter how you slice it, this is Summer’s award to lose, in my opinion.
Over the last decade, an Olympian received this award in 2014, 2016, 2018, 2021 and 2022.
Every time this committee has had an opportunity to give it to an Olympian, they have done just that.
The best case I can make for McIntosh winning this award is that Oleksiak won it in 2016 for everything she did in the pool at the Rio Games.
Looking at McIntosh’s Olympics this summer, it’s clear that she was more historic and had reached higher levels.
What McDavid did this year was incredible, but without a Stanley Cup in his back pocket I just don’t see him getting an edge over an 18-year-old that won this country three gold medals.
This market has evolved very quickly. Thursday night, when I played it, the number was -113. Twelve hours later, when I got to work, it was -166. While writing this article, it once again moved to -350.
My guess is this number will continue to fall, so if you’re like me and agree the award is hers to lose you better act fast.
If you think someone else will win the award, let us know on X @TSN_Edge.
