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 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.
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 Olympics 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.
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]
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
^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]
^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]
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