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The Lap Count's Early Picks For Track and Field Athletes Of The Year

By Paul Snyder

October 23, 2024

World Athletics has announced the nominees for its annual men’s and women’s track and field athletes of the year. And while there may be a few noticeable omissions – Keely Hodgkinson, Winfred Yavi, and Quincy Hall all spring to mind – winnowing down the entire sport’s pool of athletes into 22 nominees is no enviable task.

While naming a handful of nominees per category allows WA to diplomatically acknowledge a handful of stars, it’s ultimately you – the fans – who are tasked with selecting the winners via social media vote. Aristotle first wrote about the wisdom of the crowd all the way back in the 4th Century, BCE. And while “social media” and “wisdom” appear rarely in the same sentence, there’s something beautiful about democratically-selected awardees.

Now, we don’t want to put our thumbs on the scale too heavily, but if the ballot came down to the opinions of one newsletter, here’s where we’d land:

Women’s Field Athlete of the Year

A classic hypothetical among track and field fans is “would you rather win an Olympic gold medal or set the world record?” It’s a revealing Rorschach test of sorts for what a person values in their own lives: historic excellence as an individual or perseverance over all challengers. Well, if you’re asking that question to Yaroslava Mahuchikh, she conjured up a third option: both.

The Ukrainian high jumper cleared the bar in world record fashion (2.10m) at the Paris Diamond League meeting in July, then returned to Paris a month later to strike Olympic gold. She also won the European Championship as well as the Diamond League final, and went undefeated in outdoor competition. You really can’t ask for anything more than that.

Yaroslava MahuchikhYaroslava Mahuchikh

Justin Britton / @JustinBritton

Men’s Field Athlete of the Year

It’s not an interesting pick, but it’s the inevitable one. There is no figure in track and field today as dominant – or synonymous with their event – as Mondo Duplantis in the pole vault. Like Mahuchikh, Duplantis sored to an undefeated outdoor campaign, won gold at Euros, the Olympics, and the Diamond League final, and raised the bar on the previous world record (his own, several times). For good measure, he went undefeated indoors, too, including securing World Indoor gold.

You’ve gotta feel some level of pity for the great Ryan Crouser, who won his third straight Olympic title and is inarguably the greatest shot putter in history, but still gets overshadowed. Perhaps if he’d broken either of his own world records this year (indoors or out – he owns both) he’d be able to finally topple the pole vault GOAT in this category, but alas, he’ll have to settle for two global gold medals. So sad.

Mondo DuplantisMondo Duplantis

Justin Britton / @JustinBritton

Women’s Track Athlete of the Year

Here’s a fun one. This was a banner year for women’s track, across basically every event. World records were lowered, iconic races won, and global medals awarded to tiny nations’ enormous stars. There are a lot of ways to go here – do you reward being the best ever in your specialty event? Racing often and beating everyone? Or picking up hardware in multiple events?

The obvious choice might be Faith Kipyegon, who picked up her third Olympic title and fourth straight global gold in the 1500m and added a 5000m silver to her medal shelf. She also broke her own world record and extended a multiyear undefeated streak in her specialty event. The only real knock on Kipyegon is that she started her season late due to a small winter injury. Gabby Thomas didn’t complete an undefeated season, but she did pick up three Olympic golds in the 200m, 4x100m, and 4x400m and has to get some measure of credit for her commitment to building the sport more broadly through her involvement with the Athlos NYC event. But in the interest of rewarding excellence, consistency, and fearlessness, we’re going to hand this one to Dominican sprinter Marileidy Paulino, who emerged from a banner year in the women’s 400m undefeated over 11 races with Olympic gold and the fastest time on the year to boot.

Faith KipyegonFaith Kipyegon

Justin Britton / @JustinBritton

Men’s Track Athlete of the Year

Only one nominee in this category picked up multiple Olympic medals in individual events: Noah Lyles, the 100m champion and 200m bronze medalist. And whether you love him or hate him, it’s also hard to argue that anyone has worked harder to bring attention to the sport of track and field. But Lyles is the reigning Track Athlete of the Year and given that he picked up three gold medals in Budapest, only picking up a gold and a bronze in Paris has to be seen as a bit of an underperformance by his astronomically-high standards.

But what about a wide-angle view on one athlete’s impact on the sport? When Letsile Tebogo claimed Olympic gold in the 200m, he became the first ever gold medalist from the nation of Botswana. He was also the first ever 200m gold medalist from the entire African continent, and the first African man to win a medal of any type in the event since 1996. Upon his return home from Paris, he was treated to a parade in celebration of his feats – he also secured a silver medal in the 4x400m thanks to an incredible anchor leg – which drew 30,000 Batswana to the streets.

Noah LylesNoah Lyles

Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto

Paul Snyder

Paul Snyder is the 2009 UIL District 26-5A boys 1600m runner-up. You can follow him on Bluesky @snuder.bsky.social.