Oklahoma City Thunder star and NBA MVP Shai Gillegos-Alexander was named Canada’s Athlete of the Year on Tuesday. He beat out Olympic swimmer and 2024 winner Summer McIntosh, as well as Rachel Homan, Sophie de Guede and Camryn Rogers in the voting conducted by a media panel in Toronto.

Gillegos-Alexander previously won the North Star Award (formerly known as the Le Marche Award) in 2023 after leading Canada to its first World Cup bronze medal and Olympic berth in 23 years.

The 27-year-old is the 10th player to win the award multiple times, trailing only Wayne Gretzky and legendary skater Barbara Ann Scott.

In May, he became the second Canadian to win the NBA MVP award, following Steve Nash in 2005 and 2006.

Last season, Gillijos-Alexander averaged 32.7 points, 6.4 assists and five rebounds, leading the Thunder to a 68–14 record and their second championship in franchise history. He was the first guard to win the MVP award since James Harden in 2018.

In NBA history, only three players have won the NBA MVP, MVP, championship and Finals MVP awards in the same season: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal; and Gillijos-Alexander is close behind.

Alongside him, Summer McIntosh also had a stellar performance, winning four gold medals and five medals overall at the World Swimming Championships, becoming only the second woman in history to win four individual titles in a single long-term competition.

The North Star Award is presented annually by the Toronto Star newspaper, as voted on by sports reporters across Canada, and has been around for nearly 90 years.

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