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Following a groundbreaking year, Letsile Tebogo and Sifan Hassan have been named winners of the 2024 World Athletics Athletes of the Year.
In a season with tremendous record-breaking performances, Botswana's speed king Letsile Tebogo and Dutch queen Sifan Hassan have been named the 2024 World Athletics Athletes of the Year.
Both Olympic champions in Paris, their performances this season were marked in the history books, following a year that saw them compete in more than one event.
Tebogo was earlier announced the winner of the Male Track Athlete of the Year for his 2024 season's exploits, by becoming Africa and Botswana's first Olympic champion in history after defeating pre-championship favourite Noah Lyles in the 200m final.
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The youngster clocked a new African Record of 19.46s ahead of American Kenny Bednarek for the silver medal, while Covid-stricken Lyles settled for the silver medal. He also anchored the Botswana 4x400m relay squad to the silver medal, thus leaving his first Olympic Games with two medals.
Aside from these, he finished fifth in the 100m final in Paris, and earlier in the season, he clocked the 300m World Best of 30.69s, and his 400m personal best of 44.29s places him in the Top 5 of the world's top list this year.
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Despite losing the Diamond League title to Bednarek and not setting a World Record, Tebogo's accomplishments this year were enough to highly rate him by fans, the media, and the World Athletics governing body.
Speaking after receiving his prestigious Athlete of the Year Award, he said: "It feels amazing to know that the fans are always there for us athletes. It was a great year.
"This means a lot," he added. "It’s not just about the team that is around you, there are a lot of fans out there that really want us to win something great for the continent. It was a real surprise to hear my name because I didn’t expect this."
Likewise, Hassan claimed multiple medals at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
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Her treble in Paris was capped by her winning the final athletics gold medal of the Games with her triumph in the marathon in an Olympic record of 2:22:55. That performance came just 37 hours after Hassan claimed bronze in the 10,000m, and six days after her first medal in the French capital – also bronze – in the 5000m.
As a result, she became the first woman to win medals in the 5000m, 10,000m and marathon at the same Games, and the first athlete since Emil Zatopek, who won all three men’s titles in Helsinki in 1952.
"Thank you to the fans, to everybody who voted," said Hassan, who was in Monaco to receive her two awards. "I never thought I was going to win this one. This year was crazy. It’s not only me – all the athletes have been amazing. I’m really grateful. What more can I say?"
Meanwhile, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won the Female Track Athlete of the Year, Hassan claimed the women’s out of stadium crown and Tamirat Tola the men’s, while Mondo Duplantis and Yaroslava Mahuchikh were named Field Athletes of the Year.
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