Penny Oleksiak Wasn't the Only Choice, but She Was Canada's Best Athlete in 2016

This article originally appeared on VICE Sports Canada.

A 16-year-old high schooler was more athletically impressive in 2016 than Sidney Crosby, Milos Raonic, and a slew of other world-class athletes, and now Penny Oleksiak has the Lou Marsh award to prove it.

She was awarded Canada's highest individual athletic honour on Tuesday because she was simply the best in 2016—a year saturated by incredible performances both individually and at a team-level and one that saw Oleksiak outperform them all.

The Toronto native won four medals, including one gold, at the Olympics in Rio and capped off 2016 by winning four more medals at the world short-course swim championships in December. Aside from essentially every opponent she faced in the pool, Oleksiak also crushed several Canadian records this year and, in Rio, set a top-Olympic time of 52.70 seconds in the 100-metre freestyle.

Oh, and she did it all at an age when most kids are just trying to navigate their way through a bowl of cereal every morning before battling to scrounge up a C+ on an applied geography quiz.

Born just months after the world finished freaking out over its certain demise at the hands of Y2K, Oleksiak is the youngest to ever win the prestigious award in its 74-year history. The grade 11 Monarch Park Collegiate student had a response to winning that perfectly represents how unique of a situation this really is.

"The first thing I told my teacher when I walked into class was that I would be on my phone… and that I was just watching out for something on Twitter, so she let me on my phone during that class. She called me out a few times to search something on Google," Oleksiak said over a conference call with media Tuesday.

She found out in law class—high school law class—and beat out one hell of a field to win that thing, too. Oleksiak faced stiff competition this year from some of the best athletes Canada has ever produced during a strong Olympic year, and topped the world's best hockey player after he turned in one of the finest stretches of his career.

But the sentiment that Oleksiak was guaranteed the award because of her Olympic performance or that she should have won easily—as many on social media have suggested, if not demanded—not only demeans one of the greatest Olympic accomplishments Canada has ever seen, but also downplays how truly great, and deep, the field of competition was during this year's race for the award.

Sidney Crosby won his second Stanley Cup and the Conn Smythe Trophy as the NHL's playoff MVP. He later captained Team Canada to a gold medal win at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey while adding that tournament MVP to his award collection. Oh yeah, the 29-year-old—who won the Lou Marsh award in 2007 and 2009—is also leading the NHL in goals with 21 and is on pace to smash his career high of 51 tallies, all while missing the first couple weeks of this season with his latest concussion.

Crosby's 2016 year was incredible, and remarkable considering at this time last year talk of his declining game was picking up steam as he entered Jan. 1 with only nine goals and 27 points last season before going on an absolute tear to finish third in the league in scoring.

It's easy to forget how special Crosby is and overlook the all-time great's accomplishments when he continues to dominate. The Oleksiak pick wasn't wrong, but a vote for Crosby wouldn't have been, either, despite what the social media world would have you believe.

Crosby had an air-tight case, and while this was probably a two-person race, others had exceptional years, too—2016 will be remembered as an incredible time for Canadian athletes.

The most obvious Oleksiak contender outside of Crosby was sprinter Andre De Grasse.

The magnitude of De Grasse's success is even more impressive after realizing how quickly the Markham, Ontario, native rose to prominence on an international level. The 22-year-old didn't start racing until grade 11, and five years later he was capturing Olympic silver in the 200-metre and bronze in both the 100-metre and 4x100 relays. Without the legendary Usain Bolt in the mix, De Grasse would have had a legitimate opportunity to win multiple gold medals in what is generally deemed to be the crown jewel of Olympic competition—track.

Other notables Oleksiak topped include Raonic, who reached the first Grand Slam final of his career at Wimbledon, and finished 2016 ranked No. 3 in the world, the highest for any Canadian ever. Golfer Brooke Henderson won her first LPGA major this year while climbing as high as No. 2 in the women's world rankings. Decorated Paralympic swimmer Aurélie Rivard and Olympic high jumper Derek Drouin were also in the running, but none were as great as Penny.

In a year that was one of Canada's best ever on the ice, track, court, and in the pool, a 16-year-old stood out as the best athlete we have, and that's pretty cool.