Canada’s Top 5 Male Athletes of 2024

With 2025 coming to an end, Canadian sport can look back on 12 months full of highlights for its male athletes. From the NBA floors to international ice courts, from athletics tracks to tennis courts, local athletes have multiplied their exploits. Broken records, major titles and remarkable performances marked a season that placed Canada at the forefront on the world sports scene.

Here are the five Canadian male athletes who made the most impact in 2025.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Ontario basketball player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is unequivocally established as the most decorated Canadian male athlete of the year. Winner of a second North Star prize in 2025 (awarded by the Toronto Star to the best Canadian athlete of the year), the leader of the Thunder of Oklahoma City delivered a historic season.

He first became the first Canadian player since Steve Nash, crowned in 2005 and 2006, to receive the title of MVP of the NBA. But Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t stop there. The Hamilton native then went even further than his idol by leading the Thunder to a championship of the NBAat the end of a finale with decidedly Canadian accents.

In the process, he became the first Canadian to be named MVP of the final, an honor generally reserved for the leader of the champion team.

Also the season’s top scorer, Gilgeous-Alexander has entered an extremely closed circle: he is one of four players in the history of the NBAalongside Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neal, to have won, during the same season, the title of MVP of the season, that of the final, the championship and the title of top scorer in the league.

Its impact also crossed the border. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was named Athlete of the Year at the ESPYSjointly with Simone Biles, during the network gala ESPN.

William Dandjinou

In short track speed skating, one name has stood out undisputedly in 2025: William Dandjinou. The Sherbrookois had a simply dominant season on the international scene.

The Quebecer won his second individual crystal globe this year, a trophy awarded to the leader of the general classification of the World Short Track Circuit, in addition to savoring the collective globe as in 2024.

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Aged only 24, he dominated over all distances (500m, 1000m and 1500m), a rarity in a discipline where specialization is often the norm.

The pinnacle of his year was reached last October, in Montreal, where he covered himself with gold by winning all the individual events in which he took part, thus consecrating his domination on the circuit.

At this rate, the Quebecer is now among Canada’s best medal chances for the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, where he could well become one of the headliners of the Canadian delegation and the competition.

Félix Auger-Aliassime

On the tennis courts, Félix Auger-Aliassime offered one of his most memorable seasons in 2025, for him and for Canadian men’s tennis as a whole.

After a difficult start to the season, it was his performance at the US Open in September that was the highlight of his year. The Montrealer reached the semi-finals, signing his best result in a grand slam tournament and becoming one of the rare Canadians to reach the final four of the New York major.

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The consistency of his performances allowed him to reach a new peak in the ranking ofATPclimbing to 5th in the world, his career best. Only Milos Raonic, 3rd in 2016, did better than him in the country.

Auger-Aliassime also won his ticket to the finals of theATPreserved for the eight best players of the season. Present at this prestigious end-of-year tournament, he concluded 2025 among the established figures of international tennis, which confirmed his place among the world elite.

Ethan Katzberg

Named male athlete of the year by The Canadian Press in 2024, Ethan Katzberg left his mark on 2025 with a historic mark in the hammer throw. At just 23 years old, the British Columbian became one of only two Canadians in history, across all disciplines, to successfully defend a world title, equaling the feat of his compatriot Camryn Rogers.

In the final of the World Championships, Katzberg dominated the competition with a masterful throw of 84.70 m, a new personal best and fifth throw in the history of the discipline. This performance earned him a second consecutive world title and allowed him to set a championship record.

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Olympic champion in the hammer throw at the 2024 Games, Ethan Katzberg had already established himself in the Canadian sporting imagination last year and is continuing on the same trajectory.

In a discipline where athletes generally reach their full potential after their thirties, Katzberg is already establishing himself as a major figure in world athletics and as one of the pillars of the Canadian program to watch during the next major international events.

Connor McDavid

In 2025, Connor McDavid once again led Canadian hockey to the gates of history by leading the Oilers of Edmonton to a second straight Stanley Cup final.

Opposed once again to Panthers from Florida, Oilers came within a breath of ending a drought of more than 30 years without a Canadian team winning the trophy, a scenario that once again placed McDavid at the heart of the hopes and frustrations of an entire country.

The other highlight of his year remains his winning goal against the United States in the final of the 4 Nations Showdown last February, a moment which brought together a large part of the country in front of the screen.

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In a context where Canadian-American tensions were at their peak, his overtime goal offered the Canadian public a rare sporting event shared live, followed from coast to coast.

Verdict and honorable mentions

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander stands out in 2025 as the best Canadian athlete, having won almost all the distinctions he could claim. The 27-year-old Ontarian, who continues to dominate the NBA during the 2025-2026 season, not only accomplished what no Canadian had achieved before him, but he also joined the biggest names in basketball history in the scale of his exploits.

Let us add to the group the names of Quebecer Éliot Grondin, snowboard cross world champion and dominant figure in the discipline this season, that of British-Columbian Evan Dunfee, crowned world champion in the 35 km walk at the world athletics events, that of Quebecer Anthony Bouchard, world champion in the 100 m T52 at the Para-Athletics Worlds, as well as that of Reece Howden, who collected his third crystal globe this year in ski cross, without forgetting the name of Jonathan David in soccer, named player of the year in Canada and by the CONCACAFeach of them having contributed to making Canada shine in their sport in 2025.

Although he marked the year with the Toronto Blue Jays and a run to the World Series, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. represents the Dominican Republic and is therefore not eligible among the Canadian athletes of the year.