Sport Scientist Canada Honoured Innovation and Impact at SPIN Summit 2025

Sport Scientist Canada Honoured Innovation and Impact at SPIN Summit 2025

April 4, 2025 – Sport Scientist Canada proudly celebrated the nation’s leading sport science minds during SPIN Summit 2025, held from March 31^st - April 2nd, where the annual awards were presented in recognition of exceptional research, innovation, and lifelong contribution to Canadian high-performance sport.

Dr. Gord Sleivert Young Investigator Award
Named in honour of one of Canada’s sport science pioneers, this award recognized emerging researchers making meaningful advancements in their fields.

Taking first place was Normand Richard, a PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University. His research, Postpartum sprint interval training is safe and rapidly increases fitness in trained females, challenged outdated assumptions and offered a progressive approach to supporting elite athletes returning to sport after childbirth. Richard’s work opened new avenues in postpartum physiology and training.

In second place, Dan Geneau, a PhD student at the University of Victoria and biomechanist with the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific, was recognized for his study, Quality over quantity: Identifying key regions and minimum distance of linear sprint for acceleration-velocity profiling. His findings offered fresh insights into optimizing data collection for team sport athletes, focusing on efficient, effective force-velocity profiling.

Third place was awarded to Florence Morin, a kinesiologist since 2022 and current master’s student in exercise science at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Her case study, Comparing heart rate variability between natural menstrual and oral contraceptive cycles in two female athletes, contributed valuable knowledge to the growing field of female athlete health—an area she explored further through her work with the Institut national du sport du Québec.

Sport Scientist of the Year: Sylvain Gaudet

This year’s Sport Scientist of the Year was Sylvain Gaudet of INS Québec. In the face of a leadership gap with the Canadian Men’s Kayak team, Gaudet stepped in and elevated the team’s performance through cutting-edge analysis, strategic planning, and a reimagined approach to technical and physiological preparation. His ability to innovate under pressure and deliver performance-enhancing solutions at the highest level exemplified the vital role of sport science in competitive success.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr. Suzanne Leclerc

For the first time, Sport Scientist Canada presented a Lifetime Achievement Award, honouring Dr. Suzanne Leclerc of INS Québec for her extraordinary contributions to Canadian sport medicine. As Medical Director at INS Québec since 2011 and physician to multiple national and Olympic teams, Dr. Leclerc’s career has been defined by leadership, innovation, and unwavering dedication to athlete health. Her impact includes service at four Olympic Games and, most recently, as Team Canada’s Chief Doctor at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
From groundbreaking research to lifelong service, this year’s award recipients embodied the power of sport science to elevate athletes and transform Canadian sport.