World Indoor champion and Olympic gold medallist Julien Alfred had to settle for second this weekend, as Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the USA was named World Athletics Track Athlete of the Year, and Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands was named Female Athlete of the Year.
The awards were announced at the World Athletics Awards 2024 in Monaco on Sunday. Saint Lucia’s Alfred, the 60m World Champion, 100m Olympic Champion, and Wanda Diamond League 100m Champion, was a finalist for Female Track Athlete of the Year.
Alfred had also won awards from the Association of National Olympic Committees, the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees, and Athletics Weekly, based on her superb performances throughout the year.
When it came to the biggest award of 2024, however, McLaughlin-Levrone’s unbeaten season, which included setting two World records and an Olympic record, outweighed Alfred’s stellar season in the minds of fans, who voted on the award.
McLaughlin-Levrone was also voted World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year in 2022.
Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Urkaine was adjudged Field Events Female Athlete of the Year. Dutch star Hassan was named Out Of Stadium Female Athlete of the Year, making her one of the three finalists for Female Athlete of the Year, which she duly won.
Hassan’s medal treble at the Olympics 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.
