![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/indicator-big.gif\")
<\/p>\nRattee of Spruce Grove, Alta., claimed three titles at the national championship and broke a U Sports record in the 300 metres. Rattee went undefeated in his individual distances in 2026 despite a lingering back injury.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
Rattee raced for the Canadian men\u2019s 4\u00d7400 relay team at the World Athletics Relays in Gaborone, Botswana, in early May. He\u2019s scheduled to compete in this summer\u2019s Canadian track and field championships in Ottawa.<\/p>\n
Winners of the Lois and Doug Mitchell Awards receive a $5,000 scholarship, a trophy and a commemorative ring. Guezen and Rattee received theirs in a ceremony Wednesday in Calgary.<\/p>\n
U Sports is one of the largest sports leagues in Canada with nearly 15,000 student-athletes playing varsity sports in 58 Canadian universities from Victoria to St. John\u2019s, N.L.<\/p>\n
The top U Sports male and female athletes have been recognized since 1993 when former CFL player and commissioner and UBC football alum Doug Mitchell founded the awards.<\/p>\n
Mitchell died in 2022 the age of 83. <\/p>\n
His wife Lois, who was Alberta\u2019s lieutenant-governor from 2015 to 2020, has continued their joint sponsorship of the honours previously called the Howard Mackie Awards, BLG Awards and Lieutenant Governor Athletics Awards.<\/p>\n
The trustees of the Canadian Athletic Foundation, a not-for-profit board chaired by Mitchell, voted for the winners.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbby and Ryder had outstanding seasons, demonstrating their adaptability to any condition they have faced on the field of competition and in the classroom,\u201d Mitchell said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Previous winners include CFL players Tre Ford, Jesse Lumsden, Don Blair and Andrew Buckley as well as international rugby star Sophie de Goede and multi-medal Olympic swimmer Kylie Masse.<\/p>\n
No winners were announced in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
One finalist of each gender from each of the four conferences \u2014 Atlantic, Ontario, Quebec and Canada West \u2014 are chosen annually.<\/p>\n
Female athlete of the year finalists were Saint Mary\u2019s volleyball player Emilia Mikanovich, Concordia hockey player Jessymaude Drapeau and Guelph soccer forward Olivia Rizakos.<\/p>\n
Moncton hockey player Mika Cyr, Laval runner Philippe Morneau-Cartier and Toronto Metropolitan basketball player Aaron Rhooms were finalists for male athlete of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cCongratulations to Abby and Ryder on winning the Lois and Doug Mitchell Awards,\u201d said U Sports chief executive officer Pierre Arsenault in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had an outstanding group of nominees this year, with many national champions and athlete-of-the-year winners in their sports. To be recognized like this is a wonderful accomplishment for each of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2026.<\/p>\n
The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rattee of Spruce Grove, Alta., claimed three titles at the national championship and broke a U Sports record…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":["post-683817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}