Canadian Sport Awards

AthletesCAN Social Responsibility Award

This award honours a current or retired national team athlete who used their platform to make a positive impact in their sport or community at the local, national, or international level. This award recognizes the significant contributions of an athlete leader in the areas of diversity, equity, inclusion, community, volunteer and/or social change initiatives.

Specific Criteria:

1. This award can be presented to an individual only once in their lifetime.
2. This award must be presented to a current or retired national team athlete.

True Sport Award

The True Sport Award recognizes an inspirational Canadian citizen who exemplifies true sport values of fairness, excellence, inclusion, and fun in a meaningful way. Through the pursuit of sporting excellence this Canadian hero showcases dedication, perseverance, sportsmanship, respect for others, and a true love of sport. 

Specific Criteria:

1. This award can be presented to an individual only once in their lifetime.
2. This award must be presented to a Canadian citizen.

#AthleteVoice Award – Rep of the Year

The #AthleteVoice Award – Rep of the Year recognizes the significant contributions of an athlete representative within their national sport organization, multi-sport organization or international sport organization. The athlete representation movement is only as good as the athletes chosen by their teammates to effect positive change. This award highlights the initiative, courage, and leadership of these individuals.

Specific Criteria:

1. This award must be presented to a current or retired national team athlete who was an official athlete representative, Athletes’ Council/Commission member, and/or Athlete Director within a national, international, or multi-sport organization within the Qualifying Period.
2. The nominator must be involved in the rep’s respective organization as an athlete, administrator, volunteer, or director.

Bruce Kidd Leadership Award

The Bruce Kidd Leadership Award is presented annually to a retired national team athlete, sport leader, or organization, who has provided meaningful contributions to the betterment of sport as a leader, advocate, change agent, or builder. This award highlights the ground breaking work that contributed to the betterment of sport through inspirational leadership, innovative practices, and/or positive influence on the Canadian sport sector. The Bruce Kidd Leadership Award is named in honour of 1968 Canadian Sports Hall of Fame Inductee Dr. Bruce Kidd, who has made enormous contributions to Canada’s sporting community as an athlete, advocate, author, historian, and academic.

Specific Criteria:

1. This award must be presented to a retired national team athlete, sport leader who represents a national sport organization, or an organization at the national or provincial level.
2. Eligible sport leaders must represent a national organization working for the betterment of Canadian sport.
3. Eligible organizations include those that operate at a national or provincial level and whose mandate includes the betterment of Canadian sport.
4. This award can be presented to an individual only once in their lifetime for individual recipients.
5. This award can be presented to an organization more than once provided the contributions noted within subsequent nominations differ from those in any previous win.

About AthletesCAN
AthletesCAN, the association of Canada’s national team athletes, is the only fully independent and most inclusive athlete organization in the country and the first organization of its kind in the world.  As the voice of Canadian national team athletes, AthletesCAN ensures an athlete centered sport system by developing athlete leaders who influence sport policy and, as role models, inspire a strong sport culture.

About the Canadian Sport Awards
The Canadian Sport Awards were established 49 years ago in 1972 by modern day co-founders True Sport, Canadian Centre for Ethics and Sport, Canada Games Council, Commonwealth Sport Canada, and AthletesCAN to recognize and showcase excellence in Canadian sport. Since then, the CSA evolved over time to become the premier recognition event for national sporting excellence. After the 40th anniversary, the awards experienced a five-year hiatus. In 2017, AthletesCAN successfully acquired the rights to revive this staple event to once again bring together members of the sport community to honour the spirit, drive, and commitment of Canada’s international level athletes, coaches, volunteers, and sport leaders. Past recipients include including Canadian sport icons Donovan Bailey, Chantal Petitclerc, Hayley Wickenheiser, Mark Tewksbury, Tessa Virtue, Scott Moir, Simon Whitfield, and Catriona Le May Doan, among many others.