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 women’s sprints, jumps and hurdles this year. 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

Ackera Nugent, Jamaica, 100mH

Masai Russell, United States, 100mH

Natalia Kaczmarek, Poland, 400m

Brittany Brown, United States, 200m

Leyanis Perez-Hernandez, Cuba, Triple Jump

Sha’Carri Richardson, United States, 100m

10) Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, Puerto Rico, 100mH

Olympic bronze medalist; Season’s best of 12.35

Consistency is the name of Camacho-Quinn’s game, as she landed on her fourth-straight global podium in August, the only woman to do so in the highly-competitive sprint hurdles. While she didn’t win Olympic gold, she won basically everything else. Camacho-Quinn won 14 of her 17 races this year, including a 7-1 head-to-head record against Olympic champ Masai Russell, 5-2 against silver medalist Cyrena Samba-Mayela, and a perfect 3-0 against world leader Ackera Nugent.

9) Thea Lafond, Dominica, Triple Jump

Olympic gold medallist, World Indoor gold medallist; Season’s best of 15.02m

After a breakthrough 2023 campaign, Lafond established herself as the best triple jumper in the world in 2024 (granted, it was in the absence of Yulimar Rojas). With best marks of 15.02m and 15.01m, she was the only woman this year to clear the 15m barrier under legal conditions, and she did so in the two meets that mattered most. She only won five of nine competitions on the year, but she showed that she steps up to the plate when the lights are brightest and was an easy pick for this list.

8) Nina Kennedy, Australia, Pole Vault

Olympic gold medallist; Season’s best of 4.90m

In 2024, Kennedy simply decided that losing isn’t really her thing. The co-World champ from 2023 nearly went undefeated this summer, with the only spot on her 11-meet resume coming from a second-place finish in the Doha Diamond League. The Aussie had four of the six best vaults in the world this year, including her best performance of 4.90m coming in Paris to secure Olympic gold. The only thing she could’ve done to better this ranking would have been competing indoors, but she still came away with a very strong 2024.

7) Gabby Thomas, United States, 200m

Three-time Olympic gold medallist (200m, 4x100m, 4x400m); Season’s best of 21.78

Thomas cemented her place as one of the most versatile sprinters in the world this season, and that versatility paid off with an unmatched medal haul in Paris. In her signature event, the 200m, she recorded five of the six fastest times in the world and a massive win in the Olympic final. She also ranked inside the top 25 fastest women in the world this year at double the distance with her 400m season’s best of 50.37. Thomas was spectacular, and her work with Athlos to move the sport forward can’t go unnoticed, but seventh is as high as she can go on this list.

6) Femke Bol, Netherlands, 400m/400mH

Three-time Olympic medallist (Mixed 4x400m gold, 4x400m silver, 400mH bronze), Two-time World Indoor champion (400m, 4x400m); Season’s bests of 49.17 for the indoor 400m (WR) and 50.95 for the 400mH

When an Olympic bronze medal is the only fault that can be found in your season, you’re doing something right. Outside of that Olympic final, Bol went undefeated in individual 400m/400mH races both indoors and outdoors. She became the second woman in history to break 51 seconds in the 400mH with her clocking of 50.95 seconds in July, and broke the world record in the indoor 400m twice this winter, with that mark now sitting at 49.17 seconds. On the always-strong Dutch relay teams, she was once again a stalwart anchor leg and picked three medals in three opportunities at the global level.

5) Marileidy Paulino, Dominican Republic, 400m

Olympic gold medallist; Season’s best of 48.17

Paulino orchestrated one of the best seasons in 400m history in 2024. Amidst a season where she won all nine races she was entered in, she took home the Olympic gold with a monster performance of 48.17, moving her to the fourth spot on the all-time list. Paulino hasn’t lost a one-lap race since mid-July of 2023, and it seems like she’s showing little interest in letting that streak be broken any time soon.

4) Tara Davis-Woodhall, United States, Long Jump

Olympic gold medallist, World Indoor gold medallist; Season’s best of 7.18m

To use any word other than “dominant” to describe Davis-Woodhall’s 2024 campaign would be blasphemy. She was undefeated across her 10 competitions this year, stretching all the way back to January 26th, and she cleared the 7m barrier in her last eight competitions in a row. Only one other woman in the world this year was able to reach the 7m barrier, and Davis-Woodhall did it eight times (that’s excluding ancillary marks too). She was the best jumper in the world this year by a comfortable margin and more than earned her placement here.

3) Julien Alfred, St. Lucia, 60m/100m/200m

Olympic gold medallist (100m), Olympic silver medallist (200m), World Indoor gold medallist; Season’s bests of 6.98 for the indoor 60m, 10.72 for the 100m, and 21.86 for the 200m

Alfred’s first professional season picked right up where her collegiate career ended off - winning all the time. She got her season underway with an undefeated indoor campaign that resulted in a World Indoor title. Alfred’s outdoor season wasn’t flawless, as she picked up a couple of losses in both the 100m and 200m. A pair of historic Olympic performances elevated her to number three, but because she didn’t record the world lead in either the 100m or 200m and had five combined losses, she can’t quite crack the top two.

2) Yaroslava Mahuchikh, Ukraine, High Jump

Olympic gold medallist, World Indoor silver medallist; Season’s best of 2.10m (WR)

The only blemish in Mahuchikh’s legendary 2024 campaign was a silver medal at World Indoors back in March, where she fell to Nicola Olyslagers by a single jump. She went on a tear after that loss, clearing at least 2m in each of her next four competitions. Sandwiched between European and Olympic gold was a 2.10m clearance that broke a world record that had stood for 37 years. Including ancillary marks, Mahuchikh had the four best jumps in the world this year. The fact that her level of dominance only gets her up to the second slot on this list says more about the athlete ahead of her than it does about Mahuchikh.

1) Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, United States, 400m/400mH

Two-time Olympic gold medallist (400mH and 4x400m); Season’s bests of 48.75 for the 400m and 50.37 for the 400mH (WR)

Could it have been anyone else? McLaughlin-Levrone set the 400mH world record twice this summer, she was the fourth-fastest woman in the world over 400m and the eighth-fastest over 200m, and she also ran the third-fastest relay split ever en route to Olympic gold in the 4x400m. McLaughlin-Levrone is seemingly untouchable every time she steps on the track, and we’ll be lucky enough as track fans to see that happen more often in 2025 with Grand Slam Track.