To champion something means to advocate for it, as for a cause. I champion equal rights for all, for instance. Other meanings of the word as a verb are similar. None of these meanings, in any reputable dictionary, champions the word as a synonym for the word "win." (See what I did there?) If I champion a tournament, I support it and push for it. I don't even have to attend it to do so. If I win a tournament, then I am the champion. Or you might say, I was the champion of the tournament, which would mean either that I won it, or that I advocated for it. If you wanted to be absolutely clear, however, you would say that I won the tournament. But in no way can you say that my championing a tournament is the equivalent of my winning the tournament.
Given that NSD, the repeat offending culprit of this piece, is organization that, presumably, has some responsibility for education in the language arts, wouldn't it be nice if they exercised that responsibility? A neologism I might accept; a misuse, not so much.
[I shake my head and drag myself wearily off the stage and out into the darkest night.]
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