Post by Peter Gross on Dec 31, 2009 5:51:53 GMT -5
Below you will see the voting for the Canadian Athletes of the Year. Sidney Crosbie was the runaway winner of the Lou Marsh Award and tennis player Alexandra Wozniak was chosen for the Bobbie Rosenfeld bling. This is a horse racing blog, so when I ask, ‘Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture?' you should see where I’m going.
Sidney Crosbie 72 15 2 248
George St. Pierre 11 19 7 78
Steve Nash 2 10 12 38
John tavares 3 6 15 36
Jason bay 0 11 12 34
Daniel Nestor 4 7 7 33
Justin Morneau 3 8 5 30
Alexander Bilodeau 2 5 4 20
John Kucera 1 5 7 20
Alexandre Despatie 2 4 2 16
Patrick Chan 1 3 7 16
No argument about Sid the Kid and mixed martial artist George St. Pierreapparently had a huge year (not that I’d recognize him on the subway). Steve Nash has had better seasons on the hardcourt and I admit that Tavares, Bay and Nestor all deserve votes. But why have both jockey Patrick Husbands and harness driver Jody Jamieson been completely ignored?
Husbands was the best rider in Canada this year. he won 188 races and unlike every person on the list of athletes who attracted votes, Husbands had no slump. He won at least one race every single week of the very long Woodbine meet that went from the first week of April to the second week of December. Husbands also won 20 Stakes races and his horses accumulated almost $11 million in purses.
In 1973, when he won 515 races to lead all jockeys in North America, Sandy Hawley was chosen as Canada’s best athlete. So why is it that when Jody Jamieson leads all drivers in the world with 796 wins (and whatever he adds in the afternoon card today at Woodbine) he doesn’t even get a sniff? A couple of weeks ago, Jamieson broke the Canadian record of 739 wins in a year. He’s had a remarkable year in a demanding sport, but apparently the sports editors across the country don’t recognize harness drivers as athletes.
But come on…did Alexander Bilodeau and John Kucera both do better in 2009 than Husbands and Jamieson? I had to google them, because as a mainstream sportscaster for more than three decades, I barely knew who they are. Bilodeau is a free-style skier who earlier this year won four straight world cup events. Fair enough. Kucera is a skier who competed in 20 events this year with two wins. Jody Jamieson competed in 3322 races this year and won 796 of them.
As for the voting for the Female Athlete of the Year, you can see that jockey Chantal Sutherland came in 11th.
Athlete 1st 2nd 3rd Tot
Aleksandra Wozniak 20 16 10 102
Priscilla Lopes-Schliep 12 10 12 68
Christine Nesbitt 15 8 6 67
Hayley Wickenheiser 10 8 13 59
Joannie Rochette 5 15 9 54
Kristina Groves 11 8 4 53
Jennifer Heil 10 6 9 51
Annamay Pierse 6 4 6 32
Emilie Heymans 2 6 9 27
Lauren Woolstencroft 2 7 3 23
Chantal Sutherland 2 4 5 19
This is interesting because Sutherland won 159 races this year and in each case beat male jockeys. The 2009 Bobbie Rosenfeld Award winner, Alexandra Wozniak won….no tennis tournaments this year. Yes it was an excellent year for Wozniak, but she will probably do much better in 2010 and get nothing at year-end, because the voters will gravitate to the women who won medals at the winter games.
If the awards are really for the ‘Athlete’ of the year, then Sutherland deserved to be ranked much higher. The physical skills required to ride race horses are many – get on a fractious two year-old colt if you really want to know. A professional jockey must be remarkably fit, have the most advanced muscular vascular system, incredible courage, reflex and intellect capable of making split second decisions that make the difference between victory or catastrophic injury.
Anna May Pierse is a swimmer who finished second at the World Aquatic Championships. Does that top the 12 Stakes races won by Sutherland?
This is really an indictment about how marginalized horse racing has become. The media guys at Woodbine, for example, send out hundreds of press releases each year, but for the most part, they are ignored by the newspaper editors, who comprise most of the voters for these awards.
Husbands and Jamieson deserved more recognition for their spectacular year. Chantal Sutherland continues to write an amazing story – she’s a professional female athlete, earning more each year than any other distaff Canadian pro and doing so in the only sport where women compete daily on a level playing field against men. That she is – voting-wise - the 11th best female athlete in the country does not compute.
Sidney Crosbie 72 15 2 248
George St. Pierre 11 19 7 78
Steve Nash 2 10 12 38
John tavares 3 6 15 36
Jason bay 0 11 12 34
Daniel Nestor 4 7 7 33
Justin Morneau 3 8 5 30
Alexander Bilodeau 2 5 4 20
John Kucera 1 5 7 20
Alexandre Despatie 2 4 2 16
Patrick Chan 1 3 7 16
No argument about Sid the Kid and mixed martial artist George St. Pierreapparently had a huge year (not that I’d recognize him on the subway). Steve Nash has had better seasons on the hardcourt and I admit that Tavares, Bay and Nestor all deserve votes. But why have both jockey Patrick Husbands and harness driver Jody Jamieson been completely ignored?
Husbands was the best rider in Canada this year. he won 188 races and unlike every person on the list of athletes who attracted votes, Husbands had no slump. He won at least one race every single week of the very long Woodbine meet that went from the first week of April to the second week of December. Husbands also won 20 Stakes races and his horses accumulated almost $11 million in purses.
In 1973, when he won 515 races to lead all jockeys in North America, Sandy Hawley was chosen as Canada’s best athlete. So why is it that when Jody Jamieson leads all drivers in the world with 796 wins (and whatever he adds in the afternoon card today at Woodbine) he doesn’t even get a sniff? A couple of weeks ago, Jamieson broke the Canadian record of 739 wins in a year. He’s had a remarkable year in a demanding sport, but apparently the sports editors across the country don’t recognize harness drivers as athletes.
But come on…did Alexander Bilodeau and John Kucera both do better in 2009 than Husbands and Jamieson? I had to google them, because as a mainstream sportscaster for more than three decades, I barely knew who they are. Bilodeau is a free-style skier who earlier this year won four straight world cup events. Fair enough. Kucera is a skier who competed in 20 events this year with two wins. Jody Jamieson competed in 3322 races this year and won 796 of them.
As for the voting for the Female Athlete of the Year, you can see that jockey Chantal Sutherland came in 11th.
Athlete 1st 2nd 3rd Tot
Aleksandra Wozniak 20 16 10 102
Priscilla Lopes-Schliep 12 10 12 68
Christine Nesbitt 15 8 6 67
Hayley Wickenheiser 10 8 13 59
Joannie Rochette 5 15 9 54
Kristina Groves 11 8 4 53
Jennifer Heil 10 6 9 51
Annamay Pierse 6 4 6 32
Emilie Heymans 2 6 9 27
Lauren Woolstencroft 2 7 3 23
Chantal Sutherland 2 4 5 19
This is interesting because Sutherland won 159 races this year and in each case beat male jockeys. The 2009 Bobbie Rosenfeld Award winner, Alexandra Wozniak won….no tennis tournaments this year. Yes it was an excellent year for Wozniak, but she will probably do much better in 2010 and get nothing at year-end, because the voters will gravitate to the women who won medals at the winter games.
If the awards are really for the ‘Athlete’ of the year, then Sutherland deserved to be ranked much higher. The physical skills required to ride race horses are many – get on a fractious two year-old colt if you really want to know. A professional jockey must be remarkably fit, have the most advanced muscular vascular system, incredible courage, reflex and intellect capable of making split second decisions that make the difference between victory or catastrophic injury.
Anna May Pierse is a swimmer who finished second at the World Aquatic Championships. Does that top the 12 Stakes races won by Sutherland?
This is really an indictment about how marginalized horse racing has become. The media guys at Woodbine, for example, send out hundreds of press releases each year, but for the most part, they are ignored by the newspaper editors, who comprise most of the voters for these awards.
Husbands and Jamieson deserved more recognition for their spectacular year. Chantal Sutherland continues to write an amazing story – she’s a professional female athlete, earning more each year than any other distaff Canadian pro and doing so in the only sport where women compete daily on a level playing field against men. That she is – voting-wise - the 11th best female athlete in the country does not compute.
