HASSAN, TEBOGO SHINE AT 2024 ATHLETICS AWARDS

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Sifan Hassan and Letsile Tebogo were named World Athletes of the Year at the 2024 World Athletics Awards in Monaco, celebrating their record-breaking achievements at the Paris Olympics.  

Has­san, from the Nether­lands, made his­to­ry by win­ning medals in the 5000m, 10,000m, and marathon, includ­ing a marathon gold in an Olympic record time of 2:22:55. Botswana’s Tebo­go claimed his coun­try’s first Olympic gold in any sport, win­ning the 200m with a scorch­ing African record of 19.46 sec­onds, along with a sil­ver medal in the 4x400m relay.  

Cat­e­go­ry Win­ners

- Field Ath­letes of the Year: Yarosla­va Mahuchikh (Ukraine) and Mon­do Duplan­tis (Swe­den). 
- Track Ath­letes of the Year: Syd­ney McLaugh­lin-Lev­rone (USA) and Tebo­go.
- Out-of-Sta­di­um Ath­letes of the Year: Has­san and Tami­rat Tola (Ethiopia).  

McLaugh­lin-Lev­rone shat­tered her 400m hur­dles world record twice, while Mahuchikh set a high jump world record of 2.10m. Duplan­tis extend­ed his pole vault record to 6.26m, and Tola tri­umphed in the Olympic marathon.  

Ris­ing Stars and Spe­cial Hon­ors

Ethiopia’s Sem­bo Almayew and Italy’s Mat­tia Furlani received Ris­ing Star awards for their excep­tion­al per­for­mances in U20 and senior com­pe­ti­tions. Phil Knight, Nike co-founder, was pre­sent­ed with the President’s Award for his last­ing impact on ath­let­ics.  

Sebas­t­ian Coe, Pres­i­dent of World Ath­let­ics, com­mend­ed the ath­letes for redefin­ing lim­its in 2024, not­ing their con­tri­bu­tion to six world records and numer­ous Olympic and nation­al mile­stones.  

The cer­e­mo­ny also hon­ored the lega­cy of marathon world record-hold­er Kelvin Kip­tum, who trag­i­cal­ly passed away ear­li­er this year, and cel­e­brat­ed the achieve­ments of coach­es, admin­is­tra­tors, and con­trib­u­tors to the sport.  

Has­san and Tebogo’s emo­tion­al speech­es high­light­ed the glob­al sup­port for ath­letes. “This year was crazy,” Has­san said, reflect­ing on her record-break­ing feats. Tebo­go, vis­i­bly moved, thanked fans for their unwa­ver­ing sup­port, adding, “This means a lot for my coun­try and con­ti­nent.”  

The evening was a cel­e­bra­tion of resilience, inno­va­tion, and excel­lence in ath­let­ics, mark­ing an unfor­get­table year for the sport.