World Athletics Awards

The World Athletics Awards are annual awards to honor athletes participating in events within the sport of athletics. These are organised by World Athletics and include track and field, cross country running, road running, and racewalking.

World Athletics Awards
Presented by	World Athletics
First award	1988
Website	https://worldathletics.org/awards

Sprinter Usain Bolt, here holding the 2011 trophy, was World Athlete of the Year in 2008, 2009, 2011–2013, and 2016, more times than any other athlete.

The first athletes awarded World Athlete of the Year in 1988 were Americans, namely sprinter Florence Griffith-Joyner and track and field athlete Carl Lewis.

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt is the only athlete to win the World Athlete of the Year Awards six times. Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and Morocco's middle-distance runner Hicham El Guerrouj have won the main award three times. Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis has also won the award three times including the inaugural World Athlete of the Year (Men's Field) award in 2023 after World Athletics Awards changed from crowning a sole male and female winner to issuing awards across six categories.^[1] American track and field athlete Marion Jones, sprinter Sanya Richards-Ross representing the USA, Carl Lewis and other American sprinter Michael Johnson, Ethiopia's long-distance runner Kenenisa Bekele, Kenya's long-distance runner Eliud Kipchoge and Venezuela's triple-jumper Yulima Rojas have won the award twice each.

The Rising Star of the Year award was inaugurated in 1998, when Great Britain's sprinter Christian Malcolm was awarded. The first woman to be voted was 400 m and 400 m H specialist, Jana Pittman of Australia, in 2000.

Ethiopian long-distance runner Kenenisa Bekele was the first to receive Rising Star award followed by Athlete of the Year trophy in 2003 and 2004 respectively. The other athletes to achieve the feat were Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, American sprinter Allyson Felix, Belgian heptathlete Nafissatou Thiam, Venezuelan triple jumper Yulimar Rojas, American hurdler and sprinter Sydney McLaughlin-Levron, Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis, and Norwegian hurdler Karsten Warholm. Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt and American sprinter Erriyon Knighton are the only two athletes to be crowned Rising Star twice.

Changes to awards system

In 2003, the International Fair Play Committee (CIFP) first collaborated with World Athletics to look for moments that epitomise fair play during biennial World Athletics Championships with a view to recognising one athlete or moment with the CIFP Fair Play award.^[2] In earlier years of the award, the nomination pool included track & filed athletes who had then retired but had made a lasting name for themselves both as competitors as well as in their daily lives.^[3] In 2023, the partnership expanded the nomination period for award consideration beyond just the World Athletics Championships to include all World Athletics Series events and Continental Tour series events throughout the course of the year to enrich the pool of eligible athletes and potential nominations.^[4]

In 2009, on the recommendation of IAAF Press Commission, the IAAF World Journalist Award was created to mark outstanding lifetime contributions in the field of athletics journalism. Germany's Gustav Schwenk was the first recipient of this award.^[5] The award was last given out in 2015.^[6]

In 2015, World Athletics (then IAAF) together with their sponsor Adidas launched the Golden Shoe award to recognise the Best Performer of the IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015.^[7] The award went to Almaz Ayana (ETH).^[8] 2015 was the singular year the Golden Shoe Award was presented by Adidas.^[6] Following the doping crisis sweeping the sport and implicating World Athletics directly, Adidas decided to terminate their sponsorship deal with World Athletics three years earlier ending in 2016 instead of 2019.^[9]

In 2020, three new awards were created amongst the eight given out at the annual World Athletics Awards ceremony to commemorate the challenges faced by athletes, event organisers and their support groups in the wake of the Covid-19 pandamic. The new honours were namely Covid inspiration award, athletes community award and member federations award.^[10]

In 2023, the World Athlete of the Year awards for men and women were expanded into three event categories: track, field, and out of stadium.^[1][11]

In 2024, World Athletics further revamped the World Athletics Awards system. Besides the three separate World Athlete of the Year awards for each gender, there will also be men's and women's awards for an "overall World Athlete of the Year". Two finalists in each of the three category will progress to be considered for the overall World Athlete of the Year awards.

The system for selecting the winner for 2024 had also changed. As before, a three-way voting process with votes from the World Athletics Council (50%), World Athletics Family (25%) and the public via social media (25%) determined the finalists. However, a final round of voting cast by fans of the sport decided the overall World Athlete of the Year once the finalists had been established.

Letsile Tebogo and Sifan Hassan were the first men's and women's recipients of this overall winner awards in 2024. Each of them won two awards. Besides the overall award, they won the Athlete of the Year award for their event category too: Tebego was voted the Men's Track Athlete of the Year and Hassan was the winner of the Women's Out of Stadium Athlete of the Year award.^[12]

Annual awards

As of 2024, the World Athletics Awards included the World Athlete of the Year awards, Rising Star awards, Coaching Achievement Award, Woman of the Year, Photograph of the Year, Member Federation Award, President's Award ^[13] and CIFP Fair Play award.^[6] The CIFP Fair Play award, previously a biennial award given out after each World Athletics Championships, became an annual award after the expansion of nomination period in 2023.

Occasional awards

Awards that were given out on occasion when there are deserving nominees included the Lifetime Achievement awards (various types including those for athletes & coaches), Inspiration awards, World Athletics City award, Distinguished Career awards and Master Athlete of the Year awards.^[6]

Past awards

Past awards that had been discontinued included Performance of the Year awards, World Journalist awards and Journalist Lifetime Achievement award.^[6]

Special awards

Special awards were given out in the past to honor the outstanding achievements of an athlete and/or to commemorate a special milestone in the history of the sport. These included the historic Athlete of the 20th Century awards (1999),^[14] an award to mark 80 Years of Women Athletes at the Olympic Games (2008)^[15] and the Special Olympic awards given out after the Beijing Games (2008).^[6]

Athlete of the Year winners

Middle-distance runner Hicham El Guerrouj has won the World Athlete of the Year award three times in 2001–2003.

Pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva was World Athlete of the Year in 2004, 2005 and 2008, the most wins in the female category, because Marion Jones's third award was annulled.

World Athlete of the Year winners^[16]

Year	Men	Women	Ref.
1988	Carl Lewis (1/2)	Florence Griffith Joyner	[6]
1989	Roger Kingdom	Ana Fidelia Quirot	[17]
1990	Steve Backley	Merlene Ottey	[18]
1991	Carl Lewis (2/2)	Katrin Krabbe	[19]
1992	Kevin Young	Heike Henkel	[20]
1993	Colin Jackson	Sally Gunnell	[21]
1994	Noureddine Morceli	Jackie Joyner-Kersee	[22]
1995	Jonathan Edwards	Gwen Torrence	[23]
1996	Michael Johnson (1/2)	Svetlana Masterkova	[24]
1997	Wilson Kipketer	Marion Jones (1/2)	[25]
1998	Haile Gebrselassie	Marion Jones (2/2)	[26]
1999	Michael Johnson (2/2)	Gabriela Szabo	[27]
2000	Jan Železný	Marion Jones[note 1]	[29]
2001	Hicham El Guerrouj (1/3)	Stacy Dragila	[30]
2002	Hicham El Guerrouj (2/3)	Paula Radcliffe	[31]
2003	Hicham El Guerrouj (3/3)	Hestrie Cloete	[32]
2004	Kenenisa Bekele (1/2)	Yelena Isinbayeva (1/3)	[33]
2005	Kenenisa Bekele (2/2)	Yelena Isinbayeva (2/3)	[34]
2006	Asafa Powell	Sanya Richards (1/2)	[6]
2007	Tyson Gay	Meseret Defar	[35]
2008	Usain Bolt (1/6)	Yelena Isinbayeva (3/3)	[36]
2009	Usain Bolt (2/6)	Sanya Richards (2/2)	[37]
2010	David Rudisha	Blanka Vlašić	[38]
2011	Usain Bolt (3/6)	Sally Pearson	[39]
2012	Usain Bolt (4/6)	Allyson Felix	[40]
2013	Usain Bolt (5/6)	Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce	[41]
2014	Renaud Lavillenie	Valerie Adams	[42]
2015	Ashton Eaton	Genzebe Dibaba	[43]
2016	Usain Bolt (6/6)	Almaz Ayana	[44]
2017	Mutaz Essa Barshim	Nafissatou Thiam	[45]
2018	Eliud Kipchoge (1/2)	Caterine Ibargüen	[46]
2019	Eliud Kipchoge (2/2)	Dalilah Muhammad	[47]
2020	Armand Duplantis (1/3)	Yulimar Rojas (1/2)	[48]
2021	Karsten Warholm	Elaine Thompson-Herah	[49]
2022	Armand Duplantis (2/3)	Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone	[50]
2023[51]	Track: Noah Lyles Field: Armand Duplantis (3/3) Out of stadium: Kelvin Kiptum	Track: Faith Kipyegon Field: Yulimar Rojas (2/2) Out of stadium: Tigist Assefa	[1]
2024[note 2]	Letsile Tebogo	Sifan Hassan	[12]

Won per country

Awards won per country

Country	Awards
United States	20
Jamaica	10
Ethiopia	7
Kenya	5
United Kingdom	5
Russia	4
Morocco	3
Sweden	3
Germany	2
Venezuela	2
Algeria	1
Australia	1
Belgium	1
Botswana	1
Colombia	1
Croatia	1
Cuba	1
Czech Republic	1
Denmark	1
France	1
Netherlands	1
New Zealand	1
Norway	1
Qatar	1
Romania	1
South Africa	1

Track, Field & Out of stadium Athlete of the Year winners

Year	Men's Track	Men's Field	Men's Out of stadium	Women's Track	Women's Field	Women's Out of stadium	Ref.
2023	Noah Lyles	Armand Duplantis	Kelvin Kiptum	Faith Kipyegon	Yulimar Rojas	Tigist Assefa	[1]
2024	Letsile Tebogo	Armand Duplantis	Tamirat Tola	Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone	Yaroslava Mahuchikh	Sifan Hassan	[12]

Rising Star winners

Sprinter Erriyon Knighton is one of the two athletes that won the Rising Star of the Year award twice, in 2021 and 2022. Usain Bolt achieved that feat in 2002 and 2003.

The Rising Star of the Year award for the best under-20 athlete was introduced by World Athletics in 1998.^[53] In 2008, the award was presented as "Revelation of the Year Award".^[15]

Rising Star of the Year winners

Year	Men	Women	Ref.
1998	Christian Malcolm	–	[54]
1999	not awarded		[55]
2000	Hamdan Al-Bishi	Jana Pittman	[29]
2001	not awarded		[56]
2002	Usain Bolt (1/2)	Carolina Kluft	[57]
2003	Usain Bolt (2/2) Kenenisa Bekele Eliud Kipchoge	Allyson Felix Tirunesh Dibaba	[58]
2004	not awarded		[33]
2005	Harry Aikines-Aryeetey	–	[59]
2006	Margus Hunt	–	[6]
2007	–	Ruth Bosibori	[6]
2008	–	Pamela Jelimo[note 3]	[6]
2009	not awarded
2010	Till Wöschler	Angelica Bengtsson	[60]
2011	Kirani James	Christin Hussong	[61]
2012	Keshorn Walcott	Anthonique Strachan	[6]
2013	–	Mary Cain	[6]
2014	Wilhem Belocian	Morgan Lake	[6]
2015	Abdul Hakim Sani Brown	Candace Hill	[6]
2016	Andre De Grasse	Nafissatou Thiam	[6]
2017	Karsten Warholm	Yulimar Rojas	[6]
2018	Armand Duplantis	Sydney McLaughlin	[6]
2019	Selemon Barega	Yaroslava Mahuchikh	[6]
2020	not awarded[note 4]
2021	Erriyon Knighton (1/2)	Athing Mu	[49]
2022	Erriyon Knighton (2/2)	Adriana Vilagoš	[62]
2023	Emmanuel Wanyonyi	Faith Cherotich	[11]
2024	Mattia Furlani	Sembo Almayew	[12]

Won per country

Awards won per country

Country	Awards
United States	7
Kenya	5
Ethiopia	4
United Kingdom	3
Sweden	3
Germany	2
Jamaica	2
Australia	1
Bahamas	1
Belgium	1
Canada	1
Estonia	1
France	1
Grenada	1
Italy	1
Japan	1
Norway	1
Saudi Arabia	1
Serbia	1
Trinidad and Tobago	1
Ukraine	1
Venezuela	1

Fair Play award winners

The Fair Play award was introduced in 2003 by World Athletics in partnership with CIFP. Initially, the award was presented near the end of a World Championships edition but since 2019, it was part of the World Athletics Awards.

• 2003 - Johnathan Edwards (GBR)
• 2005 - Frank Fredericks (NAM) & Heike Drechsler (GER)^{[note 5]}
• 2007 - Mike Powell (USA)^{[63][note 5]}
• 2009 - Lars Riedel (GER)^{[note 5]}
• 2011 - Koji Murofushi (JPN)^[64]
• 2013 - Igor Ter-Ovanesyan (USSR)^{[65] [note 5]}
• 2015 - To be added
• 2017 - Ruth Beitia (ESP)^[66]

Beitia was recognised for her efforts to console Alessia Trost of Italy after she failed to qualify for the final in the women's high jump at the IAAF World Championships London 2017. It was an emotional moment for the 24-year-old Trost, whose mother and former coach passed away in the last year.

• 2019 - Braima Suncar Dabó (GBS)^[67]

Dabo, a distance runner from Guinea-Bissau, made headlines around the world after he helped fellow runner, Jonathan Busby of Aruba, to the finish line during their opening round heat of the 5000m at the 2019 World Championships in Doha. Busby was near collapse with about 200 metres left in the race, when Dabo stopped to help his distressed fellow competitor.

• 2022 - Katie Nageotte (USA) & Holly Bradshaw (GBR)^[68]

In Oregon, at 2022 World Athletics Championships, Bradshaw injured herself after her pole snapped during the pole vault warm-up session. Her fellow competitor Nageotte immediately went over to support her. Bradshaw received a lot of abuse on social media for withdrawing from the competition, but Nageotte again offered support by taking to Twitter in defence of her competitor.

• 2023 - Letesenbet Gidey (ETH)^[69]

Gidey's fair play moment occurred at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23. After securing silver in the women's 10,000m, Gidey went back to comfort Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan after Hassan's dramatic fall on the home straight.

• 2024 - Sander Skotheim (NOR)

At Paris 2024, despite the disappointment of no-heighting in the pole vault and losing contention for a decathlon medal, Skotheim's continued to compete and unselfishly supported his compatriot Markus Rooth in the final discipline – the 1500m. Rooth eventually clinched the Olympic gold for Norway by 48 points.^[70]

Coaching Achievement award winners

The award was first presented in 2006 and had several variation before its current name:

• Coach of the Year Award or Coaches Award (2006 - 2007, 2009 - 2010)
• Coaching Lifetime Achievement Award (2011 & 2012)
• Coaching Achievement Award (2013 - present).

Coaching Achievement award winners

Year	Winner	Ref.
2006	Woldemeskel Kostre	[6]
2007	Vitaly Petrov	[71]
2008	Not awarded	[15]
2009	Clyde Hart	[72]
2010	Santiago Antúnez	[60]
2011	John Velzian	[61]
2012	Glen Mills	[6]
2013	Alberto Salazar	[6]
2014	Tom Tellez	[6]
2015	Bart Bennema	[6]
2016	Harry Marra	[6]
2017	Anna Botha	[6]
2018	Joe Vigil	[6]
2019	Colm O'Connell	[73]
2020	Helena and Greg Duplantis	[74]
2021	Bobby Kersee	[49]
2022	Gennadii Zuiev	[75]
2023	Laurent Meuwly	[76]
2024	Trevor Painter	[77]

Inspiration award winners

The Inspiration award was first given out in 2000. It recognises an individual or group of individuals whose efforts have resulted in a particularly inspiring athletics event or experience.

• Years Awarded
  • 2000 - Cathy Freeman (AUS)^[29]
  • 2007 - Haile Gebrselassie (ETH) & Paula Radcliffe (GBR)^[6]
  • 2008 - Henry Rono (KEN)^[15]
  • 2012 - Aries Merritt (USA)^[6]
  • 2020 - Ultimate Garden Clash, an original idea by Renaud Lavillenie (FRA)^{[74][note 6]}
  • 2021 - Mutaz Barshim (QAT) & Gianmarco Tamberi (ITA)^[49]
• Years Not Awarded
  • 2001 to 2006^[56][57][78]
  • 2009 to 2011^[72][60][61]
  • 2013 to 2020 ^{[79][80][81][82][83][84][85][74]}
  • 2022 to 2024

Woman of the Year winners

The award started out in 2014 as "Women in Athletics Award" before it was changed by World Athletics in 2019 to "Women of the Year Award".^[86]

Woman of the Year winners

Year	Women	Ref.
2014	Evie Garrett Dennis	[6]
2015	Not awarded
2016	Polyxeni Argeitak	[6]
2017	Cherry Alexander	[6]
2018	Evelyn Claudio Lopez	[84]
2019	Derartu Tulu	[85]
2020	Not awarded
2021	Anju Bobby George	[87]
2022	Donna Fraser	[88]
2023	Falilatou Tchanile-Salifou	[89]
2024	Renee Washington	[90]

President's award winners

The President's award was inaugurated in 2016 during the tenure of Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics (2015 - present) to recognise and honour exceptional service to athletics.

• 2016 - Tegla Loroupe (KEN)^[6]
• 2017 - Usain Bolt (JAM)^[6]
• 2018 - Andreas Brugger (SUI)^[6]
• 2019 - Vikki Orvice (GBR)^[6]
• 2020 - Tommie Smith (USA), Peter Norman (AUS) and John Carlos (USA)^[74]
• 2021 - Peter Diamond (USA)^[91]
• 2022 - Ukrainian Athletic Federation^[75]
• 2023 - Abbott World Marathon Majors^[92]
• 2024 - Phil Knight (USA)^[12]

Photograph of the Year winners

The World Athletics Photograph of the Year was first awarded in 2017.^[93]

Photograph of the Year winners

Year	Winner (organisation)	Ref.
2017	Paul Sanwell (freelance)	[6]
2018	Felix Sanchez Arrazola (freelance)	[84]
2019	Felix Sanchez Arrazola (freelance)	[85]
2020	Michael Steele (Getty Images)	[74]
2021	Ryan Pierse (Getty Images)	[91]
2022	Martin Rickett (PA Media)	[94]
2023	Mattia Ozbot (freelance)	[95]
2024	Michael Steele (Getty Images)	[96]

Member Federation award winners

The Member Federation award was inaugurated in 2020.^[10]

Member Federation award winners

Year	Winner	Ref.
2020	Polish Athletics Association	[74]
2021	Costa Rican Athletics Federation	[91]
2022	Brazilian Athletics Confederation	[97]
2023	Athletics Australia	[98]
2024	USA Track & Field	[99]

Notes

1. In 2007, Marion Jones's award was annulled by the IAAF after she had pleaded guilty to the use of steroids in 2000 and 2001.^[28]
2. Both Tebogo and Hassan won two awards each in 2024 after a revamp of the awards system: Overall World Athlete of the Year award for men and women respectively and Athlete of the Year award in their respective event discipline. Only the overall winner award shall be counted towards statistics with the exception of the year 2023 where there was no overall winner award given out.^[52]
3. As Revelation of the Year award
4. Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic
5. Award was given after the athlete retired
6. As Covid Inspiration award