(April 30, 2007)

The Ontario Sport Awards were held at the Granite Club in Toronto on April 26, 2007. Of the seven categories of awards presented to outstanding athletes, teams and coaches for 2006, three went to the sport of figure skating.

Jeffrey Buttle was named 2006 Ontario Male Athlete of the Year for the second year in a row in recognition of his competitive success in 2006: being crowned Canadian champion and winning the bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Turin.
Jeff Buttle
Ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir were named 2006 Ontario Team of the Year. They captured the gold medal at the 2006 ISU World Junior Championships and had an impressive debut on the ISU Senior Grand Prix circuit winning the silver medal at the 2006 HomeSense Skate Canada International Grand Prix in Victoria, BC.
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir
Also, for the second year in a row, Lee Barkell was named Ontario Male Coach of the Year. Barkell works at the Mariposa School of Skating in Barrie and his students include Jeff Buttle.
Lee Barkell
   
In addition to the athlete and coach awards, two other awards winners have ties to figure skating.
The 2006 Syl Apps Special Achievement Award was given to Janet Balkwill for her long term volunteer commitment to excellence and to the development of figure skating throughout Ontario. Janet is the past Chair of Skate Canada - Eastern Ontario.
Janet Balkwill
Skate Canada’s corporate partner and title sponsor HomeSense won the 2006 Corporate Sport Citation award in recognition of its outstanding commitment to the development of figure skating both in Ontario as well as throughout Canada.
HomeSense

Skate Canada congratulates all the 2006 Ontario Sport Awards recipients.