Two-time Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon and double Tokyo Olympic Games winner Sifan Hassan headline the 2021 World Athletes of the Year in a 10-woman shortlist released by WA on Friday.
Kipyegon had a stellar season where she won the Diamond League 1500m trophy and also set a new Kenya record.
In addition to the Olympic 5000m and 10,000m titles, Hassan broke the 10,000m world record and added a 1500m bronze medal at the Tokyo Games.
A World Athletics statement said the nominations reflect the remarkable range of exceptional performances that the sport has witnessed this year, at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, one-day meeting circuits and other events around the world.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said: “As always, the World Athletics Awards will recognise athletes who have performed at the highest level across the year, taking into account not only the Olympic Games, but the one-day meeting circuits."
"We do recognise that athletes in some parts of the world faced greater challenges than others in accessing international competition this year, which complicated the nomination process. However, we saw some impressive breakthroughs at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and we look forward to those athletes having more opportunities to shine next year, with five World Athletics Series events and a full schedule of one-day meetings on the calendar.”
Other nominees are ANA athlete Mariya Lasitskene (Olympic and Diamond League high jump champion) USA’s Sydney McLaughlin (Olympic 400m hurdles champion, Olympic 4x400m champion, set two world 400m hurdles records), Bahrain’s Shaunae Miller-Uibo (Olympic 400m champion, North American 400m record, North American indoor 400m record), USA’s Athing Mu (Olympic 800m and 4x400m champion), Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas (Olympic and Diamond League triple jump champion, new world record), Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica (Olympic 100m, 200m and 4x100m and Diamond League 100m champion), USA’s Valarie Allman (Olympic, Diamond League discus champion), Puerto Rican’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (Olympic 100m hurdles champion, Olympic 100m hurdles record).
A three-way voting process will determine the finalists. The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family will cast their votes by email, while fans can vote online via the World Athletics social media platforms. Individual graphics for each nominee will be posted on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram this week; a ‘like’ on Facebook and Instagram or a retweet on Twitter will count as one vote.
The World Athletics Council’s vote will count for 50 per cent of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes will each count for 25 per cent of the final result.
Voting for the World Athletes of the Year closes at midnight on November 6. At the conclusion of the voting process, five women and five men finalists will be announced by World Athletics. The female and male World Athletes of the Year will be announced live at the World Athletics Awards 2021 in December.
