The long-awaited(?) World Athletics Awards came and went last weekend, with the who’s-who of European track and field descending on Monaco while us Americans were still polishing off leftover turkey and nodding off while “watching” our football teams’ rivalry games.

The winners were… largely predictable, with Mondo Duplantis and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone picking up the overall Athlete of the Year awards. The two biggest surprises came in the men’s track events, where Emmanuel Wanyonyi beat out Noah Lyles, and in the women’s field, where Nicola Olyslagers triumphed over Tara Davis-Woodhall. Once again, it seems that World Athletics has prioritized the “World” part of its name, selecting winners from five different continents and only one country—Kenya, which produced Wanyonyi, consensus top marathoner Sabastian Sawe, and Rising Star Edmund Serem—getting multiple nods.

Lyles and Davis-Woodhall getting shut out, combined with the Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Valarie Allman snubs in the nomination phase, feels like a bit of a pointed nose-thumbing at Team USA. (For what it’s worth, Sydney returned the favor to WA, skipping out on the ceremony entirely.) Not to mention the very nature of the awards itself—buried at the end of an American holiday weekend, with no way to watch the ceremony internationally. Ultimately, the whole shebang landed with a bit of a she-fizzle, at least on this side of the Atlantic.

But just because we don’t have the means to invite all our readers to a swanky Monte Carlo gala doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate as well! So here are a few Lap Count Athlete of the Year Award categories our European overlords were too cowardly to hand out.

Podcaster of the Year: Geordie Beamish

With all due respect to runner-up, Chris Chavez, the Kickin’ Kiwi put out regular episodes of the Coffee Club podcast and won the World title in the steeplechase, dethroning two-time defending champ Soufiane El Bakkali in the process. The “Textbook George” kick became world famous not once, but twice over the course of Tokyo, as first Beamish had to bounce back from a final-lap fall just to book a spot in the final and then went from 11th to first over the last 400m of the final to shock the world. He headed home to Colorado with plenty to talk about on mic!

Social Media Star of the Year: Gabby Thomas

The 2024 Olympic 200m champ may not have had an ideal end to her season, with an Achilles injury hampering the latter part of her summer and keeping her off Team USA, but Thomas still made quite the impact on the sport in 2025. Whether it was sleuthing out the true identity of “Track Spice” on Twitter or sharing her candid thoughts on the anti-doping system, Thomas was a must-follow on every social media platform she graced.

Late-Season Surge of the Year: Brittany Brown

Brown had a slow start to the season after undergoing a medical procedure during the winter for complications related to endometriosis, but once she was back in action she got better every outing. She gritted out a fourth-place finish at USAs on limited training, then defended her title in the Diamond League final to book a wild-card spot on Team USA. At Worlds, she made the 200m final, finishing sixth, and then capped off the season with a nice little payday in New York, winning both the 100m and 200m at ATHLOS. Talk about ending on a high note!

Championship Peak of the Year: Cian McPhillips

Many of our readers may be surprised to see a Cole Hocker snub in this category—for the second year in a row the American won a gold medal in his best race of the season when it really mattered. But perhaps the wildest championship jump of all in Tokyo came from an athlete who didn’t even medal: 23-year-old Irishman Cian McPhillips, who finished fourth in the 800m. His best heading into the season was 1:45.92, which he improved to 1:44.19 in July to earn his first-ever spot on the World starting line. That’d be an impressive accomplishment in and of itself, but once he got to Worlds he knocked two full seconds off his PB over the course of three rounds, breaking the Irish national record in both the semi and the final to end the year with a 1:42.15 to his name.

Busiest Baddie of the Year: Melissa Jefferson-Wooden

She should’ve been Track Athlete of the Year, but in addition to the high highs of MJW’s breakout season, the American sprint sensation raced early and often, across multiple continents and formats. Jefferson-Wooden began with three Grand Slam victories, continued with two titles at USAs, found time for three Diamond League appearances, and still wasn’t too tired to bring home triple gold in Tokyo. What more can we ask of our biggest stars than a packed year of entertaining performances?

Disrespected King of the Year: Ethan Katzberg

Much like Jefferson-Wooden, Canadian hammer thrower Ethan Katzberg was snubbed from finalist consideration despite a stellar season. Unlike Jefferson-Wooden, however, he couldn’t even drown his sorrows with a big paycheck or two, because neither GST or the DL offer hammer throw as a discipline. And yet, Katzberg still won eight of his 10 competitions and put up the farthest throw in the world in 20 years in Tokyo, an 84.70m mark that’s fifth on an admittedly-sketchy all-time list.

Swan Song of the Year: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce

The last thing the Pocket Rocket needs is more awards, but we’re going to toss one more onto the enormous mountain of accolades upon which Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce perches. The 38-year-old Jamaican legend finally hung up her spikes, but not before giving us one last great year with a 10.91 100m season’s best, a sixth-place finish in the final, and a silver medal in the 4x100m—the 25th global medal of her career. One more round of applause for the GOAT.

Well, that would’ve been a more fun and interesting ceremony! There’s more to track and field than just the ability to impress a few dozen members of a World Athletics selection committee, and just because these athletes (and more) were overlooked doesn’t mean they haven’t earned our recognition—and yours. So as 2025 draws to a close, let’s take one last moment to cheer on the athletes that made it so special. Huzzah!

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