AS I SEE IT COLUMN: 2025 sports year in review

Best reminder that Manitoba remains a curling powerhouse: Seeing all the Manitoba teams at the Olympic curling trials was more proof that we produce some of the best curlers in all the land.

Most important performance by a team: Tie between Team Canada at the 4 Nations and the Blue Jays. One team won and the other team lost, but both unified the country in ways we haven’t seen in many years.

Award for outstanding community service: Paul Dyck deserves boatloads of credit for consistently putting a quality MJHL team on the ice year after year after year. He deserves even more credit for instilling in his players the many benefits of giving back to the community. This noble mindset was formally recognized when Pistons forward Connor Paronuzzi was awarded the prestigious RBC Community Award for his extensive volunteerism.

Best example of sport shutting up Trump: The convicted felon U.S. president (who should be in jail, not in the White House) tried to insert himself into the 4 Nations by threatening to annex Canada and making fun of our Prime Minister. Thanks to Connor McDavid and company, Team Canada shut the criminal’s pie hole.

Worst (and worsening) trend in sports: With high profile criminal gambling charges to athletes in the NBA and Major League Baseball, the scourge of sports betting is only going to get a lot worse.

Biggest local head-scratcher: How the Jets went from being the best team in the regular season to one of the worst in just a few months is a mystery of epic proportions.

Next biggest local head-scratcher: How is it that Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck consistently plays so well in the regular season and then plays so poorly in the playoffs?

Most glaring double standard in all of sport: The IOC rightly continues to ban Russia from the Olympics for its war in Ukraine, while allowing Israel to compete in the Olympics when it has slaughtered over 70,000 Palestinians (58,000 of which are children and women) in the war in Gaza. Why the immoral double standard?

Saddest disappointment: It was beyond discouraging that the Bombers couldn’t play in this year’s Grey Cup, after playing in the last five. A Bombers-RoughRiders final would have been classic.

Best individual performance: Swimmer Summer McIntosh’s four gold medals at the World Aquatic championships proved the best swimmer on the planet right now is a proud Canadian.

Worst example of ‘Greed kills’: If NHL teams had released all of the junior-aged players eligible to represent Canada at last year’s World Juniors, we would have been runaway favourites. Thanks to pure selfishness on the part of those teams, Canada finished out of the medals for the second year in a row.

Worst sporting example of pure evil: Trump threatening to kidnap and deport soccer fans attending the 2026 World Cup of soccer is the latest in a miles-long litany of examples that he is a ghastly, evil, deranged monster.

Most encouraging sports venue: The opening of the Southeast Event Centre is a monumental development for Steinbach and south eastern Manitoba. Having many of the best curlers in the world play at the Event Centre in a couple of weeks will be a fantastic way to kick off the 2026 year in sport.

Thanks to the Blue Jays improbable World Series run and Team Canada’s emotional win at the 4 Nations, sport proved yet again that it can unite Canadians in ways almost nothing else can.

Here’s to more of that in February’s Winter Olympics in Italy.

Happy New Year!