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Awards season underway, let the debating begin

Awards season underway, let the debating begin

By Gavin Day

As 2015 winds its way to a close, the end-of-year sporting award season approaches, and all the controversy and debate that goes along with it.

Air Canada got the ball rolling Thursday when they announced the finalists for the 2015 Air Canada Athlete of the Year Award are Derek Drouin (Athletics-High Jump), Shawnacy Barber (Athletics-Pole Vault), and Mark de Jonge (Canoe/Kayak Sprint).

All three men had remarkable years as they won gold medals at this summer’s 2015 Pan American Games while Drouin and Barber were world champions at the World Athletics Championships held in Beijing, China.

But in a year where Canada hosted the largest women’s single-sport event in the world, the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, it’s a bit of a surprise that not only are there no soccer players on the list, but no women either.

Kadeisha Buchanan, the 20-year-old native of Brampton, Ont., certainly has a strong argument to be included in an end of the year award such as this, as she not just emerged but exploded on to the world stage, standing out for her bone-crunching tackles and resplendent bright red hair extensions.

Her absence on the list caught the eye of a number of people on Twitter who argued for her inclusion and asked if they could vote for her as a write-in candidate.

Buchanan, who’s still attending West Virginia University, was the rock at the heart of the Canadian defence as Canada reached the quarterfinals of the World Cup. She won the Young Player Award at the end of the tournament and is on the shortlist of 10 for the FIFA Ballon d’Or as women’s player of the year.

The final shortlist of three contenders will be announced by FIFA on Monday, ahead of the FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala in Zurich on January 11.

According to Air Canada’s media release, the shortlist for their award was “selected by a committee representing Air Canada, the Canadian Olympic Committee, athletes, the government, media and also last year’s Award winner.”

Last year’s winner was freestyle skier Alex Bilodeau. Canadian soccer does have a history with the award as iconic forward Christine Sinclair won the inaugural award in 2012 after the team’s memorable run at the Olympics in London where Canada won a bronze medal.

The winner will be chosen in a public online vote that ends Dec. 4, with the winner announced Dec. 11.

This award is the first of many that will likely continue the debate on who was Canada’s best in 2015.

The Lou Marsh Award, which honours Canada’s top athlete as decided by a variety of media outlets in the country, will be awarded on Dec. 15. Other outlets like Rogers Sportsnet, The Canadian Press and CBC Sports also will be announcing their own choices in the coming weeks.