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≡ WORLD ATHLETICS AWARDS ≡
Sunday’s World Athletics Awards in Monaco showcased some of the greatest athletes of the year, with two Paris 2024 gold medalists receiving the top honors as World Athletes of the Year: Dutch marathon winner Sifan Hassan and men’s 200 m champion Letsile Tebogo of Botswana.
Hassan, now 31, was going to be hard-pressed to repeat her sensational Tokyo 2020 performances, when she won the women’s 5,000 m and 10,000 m and earned a bronze in the 1,500 m.
But she pulled off a stunner by winning a bronze medal in the women’s 5,000 m on 5 August, then another bronze in the 10,000 m on 9 August and then, two days later, won the women’s marathon in 2:22:55, beating Ethiopian world-record holder Tigst Assefa by three seconds in Olympic Record time.
Hassan’s amazing capacity to run and win at a world-class level made her the winner of the women’s Out of Stadium award for 2024 and she received the most votes as the women’s overall World Athlete of the Year.
Tebogo, just 21 at the time of the Paris Games, was at his best in Paris, running a lifetime best of 9.86 to get sixth in the men’s 100 m final, the blasted to a world-leading 19.46 to win the 200 m ahead of Americans Kenny Bednarek and Noah Lyles, moving to no. 5 all-time.
The 100 m Worlds silver medalist in 2023, he appears to be ready to challenge the world in both sprints for years to come. He won the men’s Track Athlete of the Year honors and the men’s World Athlete of the Year.
There were four more athletes who were honored for their best-of-the-world performances in 2024:
● Men/Field Athlete of the Year: Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis was honored for the third straight year and fourth time overall as the top field athlete of the year, after repeating as Olympic champ in Paris, winning the European title and setting three world records of 6.24 m (20-5 1/2) in April, 6.25 m (20-6) in Paris and 6.26 m (20-6 1/2) in Chorzow, Poland on 25 August. Simply the best in history.
● Men/Out-of-Stadium Athlete of the Year: Tamirat Tola, Ethiopia’s 2022 World Champion in the marathon, added to his trophy case with a 2:06:26 Olympic Record win in the men’s marathon in Paris. He only ran three races in 2024: seventh in a Half in the UAE in February, his Olympic win in August and a strong fourth at the New York City Marathon in November. But his Paris win was superb.
● Women/Track Athlete of the Year: American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone delivered what everyone was hoping for in Paris: another world record in the women’s 400 m hurdles at 50.37, improving on her own 50.65 world record set at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June. These were her fifth and sixth world records in the event across the last three years. But she wasn’t done, breaking open the women’s 4×400 m relay final on the second leg as the U.S. cruised to victory in a world-leading 3:15.27, the no. 2 performance in history.
● Women/Field Athlete of the Year: Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh had a dream season in 2024, winning the European Championship in Rome, the Olympic gold in Paris and setting the world record of 2.10 m (6-6 3/4) at the Paris Diamond League meet on 7 July. That broke the seemingly unapproachable 1987 mark by Bulgarian star Stefka Kostadinova of 2.09 m (6-10 1/4).
Beyond McLaughlin-Levrone’s award, the U.S. earned three more awards during the evening:
● USA Track & Field was honored as the National Federation of the Year, not least for its dazzling performance in Paris, where American athletes won 34 medals (14-11-9), with Kenya next with 11.
● USA Track & Field Chief Operating Officer Renee Washington was recognized as the World Athletics Woman of the Year.
● The World Athletics President’s Award was given to Nike co-founder Phil Knight, who has been a force in the sport for decades. Said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe (GBR): “His love of athletics runs through Nike. It is a business created and driven by runners, with Phil never afraid to be the front runner.”
British coach Trevor Painter, who guided women’s 800 m star Keely Hodgkinson to the 2024 Olympic title, was honored as the Coach of the Year.
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