North American Debating Championship

The North American Debating Championship is one of the two official university debate championships of North America. It is sanctioned by the national university debating associations in the United States and Canada, the American Parliamentary Debate Association and the Canadian University Society for Intercollegiate Debate. It has been held each winter on an alternating basis between the United States and Canada since 1992. The host university arranges all judging and is not allowed in the competition. The most frequent hosts have been the University of Toronto and McGill University, which have each hosted the championship three times. Bates College, Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, and Queen's University have each hosted twice. This tournament, often abbreviated as NorthAms, is not to be confused with the North American Universities Debating Championship, abbreviated as NAUDC, which is hosted separately in the fall of each year as a British Parliamentary Style tournament. The two events are coordinated such that each is hosted by a different country, the United States or Canada, in a given year.

The most recent iteration was held by the Odette School of Business in January 2025. The current North American champions are from the University of Chicago.

Results

Since 1992, the most successful university overall has been Yale University with nine championship victories, including three of the last four. Following it is the University of Toronto with seven wins. After that, Princeton University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and McGill University have two championships each, and no other university has won more than once.

No team has ever repeated as the top team at the championship. Five individuals have won the top team award twice. Most recently, Matthew Song won in 2022 and 2024, representing Yale University. Matthew Wansley of Yale University won back-to-back championships from 2005 to 2007. Prior to that, Nathan MacDonald and Robert Silver won first together for the University of Western Ontario in 1997–1998, then MacDonald for the University of Guelph in 1998–1999, and Silver for the University of Ottawa in 1999–2000. Three people have won the top individual debater award twice: Casey Halladay of the University of Ottawa in 1997–1998 and 1999–2000, Rory Gillis of Yale University in two consecutive years from 2004 to 2006, and Kate Falkenstien of Yale in two consecutive years from 2010 to 2012.

Year	Host	Champion Team	College	Top Debater	College
2025	Template:Flagicon Odette	Alessandro Perri & Roy Tiefer	Template:Flagicon UChicago	Elizabeth Li	Template:Flagicon Stanford University
2024	Template:Flagicon UChicago	Justin Kim & Matthew Song	Template:Flagicon Yale	Ryan Lafferty	Template:Flagicon Dartmouth College
2023	Template:Flagicon Western	Ye Joo Han & Matt Mauriello	Template:Flagicon Harvard	Matt Mauriello	Template:Flagicon Harvard University
2022	Template:Flagicon Brandeis	Cameron Chacon & Matthew Song	Template:Flagicon Yale	Devesh Kodnani	Template:Flagicon University of Chicago
2021	Template:Flagicon Penn	David Edimo & Eva Quinones	Template:Flagicon Yale	Eva Quinones	Template:Flagicon Yale
2020	Template:Flagicon Waterloo	Gautier Boyrie & Chris Pang	Template:Flagicon Toronto	Samuel Arnesen and Shreyas Kumar	Template:Flagicon Princeton
2019	Template:Flagicon Rutgers	William Arnesen & Xavier Sottile	Template:Flagicon Yale	Sophia Caldera	Template:Flagicon Harvard
2018	Template:Flagicon Toronto	Harry Elliott & David Slater	Template:Flagicon Stanford	Christopher Taylor	Template:Flagicon Yale
2017	Template:Flagicon Middlebury	Megan Wilson & Kyle Hietala	Template:Flagicon Yale	Nathan Raab	Template:Flagicon Princeton
2016	Template:Flagicon Queen's	Anirudh Dasarathy & Brian Litchfield	Template:Flagicon Princeton	Denizhan Uykur	Template:Flagicon McGill
2015	Template:Flagicon NYU	Juliana Vigorito & David Israel	Template:Flagicon Hopkins	Shomik Ghosh	Template:Flagicon Michigan
2014	Template:Flagicon Ottawa & Carleton	Kaya Ellis & Louis Tsilivis	Template:Flagicon Toronto	Michael Barton and Veenu Goswami	Template:Flagicon Yale and Template:Flagicon Toronto
2013	Template:Flagicon Syracuse	Coulter King & Josh Zoffer	Template:Flagicon Harvard	Coulter King	Template:Flagicon Harvard
2012	Template:Flagicon Toronto	Simon Cameron & Romeo Maione	Template:Flagicon Carleton	Kate Falkenstien	Template:Flagicon Yale
2011	Template:Flagicon Fordham	Nate Blevins & Pam Brown	Template:Flagicon Yale<ref name="apdaweb">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> || Kate Falkenstien||Template:Flagicon Yale
2010	Template:Flagicon York	Adam Goldstein & Bill Magnuson	Template:Flagicon MIT<ref name="mit">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="yorku">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> || Richard Lizius||Template:Flagicon Toronto
2009	Template:Flagicon Amherst	Grant May & Andrew Rohrbach	Template:Flagicon Yale	Mark Samburg	Template:Flagicon Harvard
2008	Template:Flagicon Carleton	Jon Laxer & Jason Rogers	Template:Flagicon Toronto	Josh Bone	Template:Flagicon Yale
2007	Template:Flagicon Bates	Dylan Gadek & Matthew Wansley	Template:Flagicon Yale	Ian Freeman	Template:Flagicon Carleton
2006	Template:Flagicon Toronto	Ben Eidelson & Matthew Wansley	Template:Flagicon Yale	Rory Gillis	Template:Flagicon Yale
2005	Template:Flagicon Cornell	Joanna Nairn & Melanie Tharamangalam	Template:Flagicon Toronto<ref name="utoronto">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> || Rory Gillis||Template:Flagicon Yale
2004	Template:Flagicon Queen's	James Renihan & Gordon Shotwell	Template:Flagicon McGill	Greg Allen	Template:Flagicon UBC
2003	Template:Flagicon Hopkins	Phil Larochelle & Patrick Nichols	Template:Flagicon MIT<ref name="vimeo">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>|| Emily Schleicher||Template:Flagicon NYU
2002	Template:Flagicon McGill	Rory McKeown & Aaron Rousseau	Template:Flagicon Toronto<ref name="utoronto2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> || Ranjan Agarwal<ref name="scribd">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=ottawa>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>|| Template:Flagicon Ottawa
2001	Template:Flagicon Cornell	Storey Clayton & Adam Zirkin	Template:Flagicon Brandeis	David Silverman	Template:Flagicon Princeton
2000	Template:Flagicon Queen's	Casey Halladay & Robert Silver	Template:Flagicon Ottawa	Casey Halladay<ref name="ottawa"/>	Template:Flagicon Ottawa
1999	Template:Flagicon Smith	Nathan MacDonald & Averill Pessin	Template:Flagicon Guelph	Jason Goldman	Template:Flagicon Princeton
1998	Template:Flagicon McGill	Nathan MacDonald & Robert Silver	Template:Flagicon Western	Casey Halladay<ref name="ottawa"/>	Template:Flagicon Ottawa
1997	Template:Flagicon Hopkins	John Oleske & Niall O'Murchada	Template:Flagicon Princeton	John Oleske	Template:Flagicon Princeton
1996	Template:Flagicon Toronto	Matt Cohen & Jamie Springer	Template:Flagicon McGill	Ron Guirguis	Template:Flagicon Guelph
1995	Template:Flagicon Penn	Jeremy Mallory & Neal Potishman	Template:Flagicon Swarthmore	Michael D'Abramo	Template:Flagicon Toronto
1994	Template:Flagicon Dalhousie	Randy Cass & Avery Plaw	Template:Flagicon Toronto	Avery Plaw	Template:Flagicon Toronto
1993	Template:Flagicon Bates	Jason Brent & Thomas Meehan	Template:Flagicon Toronto	Marc Givens	Template:Flagicon Queen's
1992	Template:Flagicon McGill	Marc Givens & Elicia Maine	Template:Flagicon Queen's	Ted Cruz	Template:Flagicon Princeton

North American Public Speaking Championship

Every year from 1992 to 2001, and biannually from 2003 to 2007, individual public speaking was also an event at the championship. It was run as a parallel tournament, with a grand public speaking final before the final round of debate. After 2007, it was discontinued as APDA had shortened debating tournaments and discontinued public speaking as a regular event at US tournaments. No individual ever repeated as North American Public Speaking Champion. McGill University and the University of Ottawa each had three public speaking champions, the most of any university.

Year	Winner	College
2007	Vinay Kumar Mysore	Template:Flagicon McGill University
2005	Jason Rogers	Template:Flagicon McGill University
2004	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>||Template:Flagicon Dickinson State University
2001	Aidan Johnson	Template:Flagicon University of Toronto
2000	Jeremy Holiday	Template:Flagicon Middlebury College
1999	Mark Bigney	Template:Flagicon McGill University
1998	Michael Podgorski	Template:Flagicon Queen's University
1997	Jordan Mills	Template:Flagicon University of New Mexico
1996	Shuman Ghosemajumder	Template:Flagicon University of Western Ontario
1995	Marika Giles	Template:Flagicon Concordia University
1994	Jake Irving	Template:Flagicon University of Ottawa
1993	Michael McKneely	Template:Flagicon Colgate University
1992	Awanish Sinha	Template:Flagicon University of Ottawa

External links

• CUSID Summary of Past Championships