Five Americans are among the 12 nominees for World Athletics Female and Male Track Athletes of the Year.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who broke her 400m hurdles world record at the Olympic Trials and the Paris Games, and Gabby Thomas, who won 200m, 4x100m and 4x400m gold in Paris, are among six Female Athlete of the Year nominees.
For the men, 100m gold medalist Noah Lyles, 110m hurdles gold medalist Grant Holloway and 400m hurdles gold medalist Rai Benjamin made the list.
All 12 athletes nominated won individual Olympic gold in Paris.
Women’s Track Athlete of the Year nominees
Julien Alfred (Saint Lucia, 100m)
Beatrice Chebet (Kenya, 5000m, 10,000m)
Faith Kipyegon (Kenya, 1500m)
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA, 400m hurdles)
Marileidy Paulino (Dominican Republic, 400m)
Gabby Thomas (USA, 200m)
Men’s Track Athlete of the Year nominees
Rai Benjamin (USA, 400m hurdles)
Grant Holloway (USA, 110m hurdles)
Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Norway, 5000m)
Noah Lyles (USA, 100m)
Letsile Tebogo (Botswana, 200m)
Emmanuel Wanyonyi (Kenya, 800m)
An international expert panel compiled the nominees.
Two finalists for each award are determined by a three-way voting process from now to Sunday: World Athletics Council vote (50%), World Athletics family vote (25%) and public vote through Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram (25%).
A like on Facebook and Instagram or a retweet on X counts as one vote.
World Athletics changed its awards system this year, crowning overall women’s and men’s World Athlete of the Year awards, in addition to the three separate awards for women and men for track events, field events and out-of-stadium events.
Field event nominees were announced last Monday.
Once the finalists have been determined, a fan vote will open on the World Athletics Inside Track platform to help determine the overall Athletes of the Year.
Last year, World Athletics divided its World Athlete of the Year awards into three categories for the first time.
The 2023 winners were Lyles (men’s track), Kipyegon (women’s track), Swedish pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis (men’s field), Venezuelan triple jumper Yulimar Rojas (women’s field), Kenyan marathoner Kelvin Kiptum (men’s out of stadium) and Ethiopian marathoner Tigist Assefa (women’s out of stadium).
Before 2023, the award winners were one male athlete and one female athlete across all events. In that era, the last Americans to win a singular World Athlete of the Year were McLaughlin-Levrone in 2022 for the women and decathlete Ashton Eaton in 2015 for the men.
