With the 2024 track and field season wrapped up, CITIUS MAG’s Anderson Emerole gave a breakdown of his picks for the 10 best athletes in the men’s sprints, jumps and hurdles this year. In case you missed it, he dropped his top 10 on the women’s side yesterday. It’s a daunting task, especially when trying to make comparisons across events with athletes that compete at varying frequencies, but Emerole took the year as a whole into consideration and weighed every factor. With those disclaimers out of the way, here’s his list:

Honorable Mentions

Jordan Diaz Fortun, Spain, Triple Jump

Shelby McEwen, United States, High Jump

Muzala Samukonga, Zambia, 400m

Wayne Pinnock, Jamaica, Long Jump

Sam Kendricks. United States, Pole Vault

10) Matthew Hudson-Smith, Great Britain, 400m

Olympic silver medallist (400m), Olympic bronze medallist (4x400m); Season’s best of 43.44

After solid seasons with world medals in 2022 and 2023, Hudson-Smith took a huge step forward this year. In July, he became the first European to break the 44-second barrier, and then went on to repeat that feat twice more. The crowning moments of his season came in Paris, where he ran 43.44 to become the fifth-fastest man in 400m history and take home Olympic silver, and then later recorded the fourth-fastest 4x400m split ever in 43.09.

9) Kenny Bednarek, United States, 100m/200m

Olympic silver medallist (200m); Season’s bests of 9.87 for the 100m and 19.57 for the 200m

Bednarek has been one of the best 200m runners in the world over the last four years, but his leap in the 100m this year was a sight to behold. His PB of 9.87 in Eugene landed him on his first national team at the shorter distance, where he eventually finished seventh in the deepest Olympic final ever. In his signature event, Bednarek picked up his second-straight Olympic silver medal. He recorded five of the nine fastest times in the world this season over 200m, and joined the exclusive club of men to break 19.60 multiple times in the same year.

8) Quincy Hall, United States, 400m

Olympic gold medallist; Season’s best of 43.40

If a star was born with Hall’s World Championship bronze medal last year, then a legend was born with his Olympic gold in August. The former 400m-hurdler shook off a very slow start to the season and closed it out with one of the most iconic races in history. His come-from-behind 43.40 run to win Olympic gold will go down in the annals of track and field history not just for making him the fourth-fastest man in history, but for the resiliency and pure effort he showed during it. His position on this list was hamstrung (no pun intended) by an injury he picked up in said Olympic final that kept him out of the 4x400m and post-Olympic Diamond Leagues, but it was still a remarkable season nonetheless.

7) Hamish Kerr, New Zealand, High JumpOlympic gold medallist, World Indoor gold medallist; Season’s best of 2.36m

Kerr proved that he is a winner among winners this year, taking home both global titles and going 10-3 across the season. His best performance of 2.36m, which he produced on two occasions, moved him inside the top 25 performers in history. His win in a jump-off with Shelby McEwen in the Olympic final is a moment that track and field fans will not soon forget.

6) Miltiadis Tentoglou, Greece, Long Jump

Olympic gold medallist, World Indoor gold medallist; Season’s best of 8.65m

A simple way of describing how good Tentoglou was in 2024 is that he did something in the men’s long jump that only Carl Lewis had ever done before - successfully defend his Olympic title. Add on to that accomplishment his second-straight World Indoor crown and his third-straight European crown, and it becomes pretty clear that Tentoglou is one of the best athletes in the world, bar none. One final note is that he won that European title with a mark of 8.65m, which was the longest jump in nearly five years and moved Tentoglou to 14th on the all-time list.

5) Rai Benjamin, United States, 400mH

Two-time Olympic gold medallist (400mH, 4x400m); Season’s best of 46.46

Benjamin was undefeated this season and recorded four of the five fastest times in the world in an event where the three fastest men ever are all racing at the same time. That’s special. Benjamin raced sparingly in 2024, only contesting four finals, but he made them count, as his slowest time on the year was 46.67. Benjamin also turned his typically-strong performance on the anchor leg for Team USA, this time running the seventh-fastest split ever in 43.17 as his team came up just short of the world record in Paris.

4) Noah Lyles, United States, 60m/100m/200m

Olympic gold medallist (100m), Olympic bronze medallist (200m), World Indoor silver medallist (60m); Season’s bests of 6.43 for the indoor 60m, 9.79 for the 100m, and 19.53 for the 200m

Coming off triple gold from Budapest, 2024 was set to be a monumental season for Lyles, and it was for the most part. He got his season underway with major improvements over 60m, clocking a PB of 6.43 that moved him into the top 10 in the event’s history before taking home silver in Glasgow. The outdoor season was rolling right along, as he won the U.S. Trials in both the 100m and 200m, and completed the first step toward an Olympic triple with a dramatic 100m win in Paris. A bout of COVID after that race hurt his 200m chances and kept him out of the 4x100m, but Lyles still had the most complete season in the short sprints of anyone in the world.

3) Letsile Tebogo, Botswana, 100m/200m

Olympic gold medallist (200m), Olympic silver medallist (4x400m); Season’s bests of 9.86 for the 100m, 19.46 for the 200m, and 30.69 for the 300m (WR)

The Paris Olympics provided the perfect springboard for Tebogo to enter international superstardom, as the young Motswana won 200m gold over one of the best fields ever and followed that up with the second-fastest 4x400m split ever in 43.03. Tack on to those performances the fastest 300m ever run back in February and a sixth-place Olympic finish in the 100m in a PB of 9.86, and it’s clear that Tebogo had a season for the ages. But the most exciting part of all of this isn’t even what he showed on the track this year. It’s the fact that he just turned 21 in June.

2) Grant Holloway, United States, 60mH/110mH

Olympic gold medallist, World Indoor gold medallist; Season’s bests of 7.27 for the indoor 60mH (WR) and 12.86 for the 110mH

Three things are guaranteed in life: death, taxes, and Holloway dominating the 60mH (and maybe one more thing but we’ll get to that in a minute). Including rounds, he raced the indoor hurdles eight times this winter. He had the seven fastest times of the year, including a world record of 7.27 to win the U.S. title. He was nearly as dominant outdoors, posting six of the eight sub-13 clockings this season and nine of the 11 fastest times of the season. His best performance of 12.86 is fourth-fastest in history and he was able to claim the Olympic title that eluded him three years ago.

1) Mondo Duplantis, Sweden, Pole Vault

Olympic gold medallist, World Indoor gold medallist; Season’s best of 6.26m (WR)

Just like Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone on the women’s side, could it have been anybody else? Duplantis is the only man on this list with nearly as many competitions as he did to have gone undefeated in 2024, notching a 16-0 record. He won his second-straight World Indoor and Olympic titles, and broke his own world record on three occasions, bumping that number up to 10 across his whole career. The Silesia Diamond League in August was the first meet in history where three men cleared at least 6m in the same competition, and Duplantis still won by 26cm on that day. He is simply a head above everyone in that event, and this year he was a head above everyone across the men’s sprints, jumps and hurdles.