Decathlon champion Damian Warner broke the Olympic record en route to gold medal in Tokyo
Olympic decathlon champion Damian Warner was voted Canada’s best athlete of 2021 on Wednesday.
Warner, 32, collects the Lou Marsh Trophy after his record-setting performance at the Tokyo Games, where he led after all 10 events to become just the fourth person ever to break the vaunted 9,000-point mark. He is the first Canadian to win the Olympic decathlon.
The London, Ont., native was later named Canada’s flag-bearer for the closing ceremony.
Warner, who won bronze at the 2016 Games in Rio, set an Olympic record and a national record with 9,018 points in Tokyo.
Warner tied his decathlon world mark in the 100 metres in Tokyo and set Olympic decathlon records in the long jump and 110-metre hurdles. He cleared a personal best 4.90 metres in the pole vault.