Portal:Sport of athletics/Selected article/20
The World Athletics Awards is a prize that can be won by athletes participating in events within the sport of athletics organised by World Athletics (formerly named IAAF), including track and field, cross country running, road running, and racewalking.
The first athletes awarded World Athlete of the Year in 1988 were Americans, namely sprinter Florence Griffith-Joyner and track and field athlete Carl Lewis.
Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt is the only athlete, male or female, to win the World Athlete of the Year Awards six times. Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and Morocco's middle-distance runner Hicham El Guerrouj have won the main award three times. Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis has also won the award three times including the inaugural World Athlete of the Year (Men's field) award in 2023 after World Athletics Awards changed from crowning a sole male and female winner to issuing awards across six categories (see below for further details). American track and field athlete Marion Jones, sprinter Sanya Richards-Ross representing the USA, Carl Lewis and other American sprinter Michael Johnson, Ethiopia's long-distance runner Kenenisa Bekele, Kenya's long-distance runner Eliud Kipchoge and Venezuela's triple-jumper Yulima Rojas have won the award twice each.
The Rising Star of the Year award was inaugurated in 1998, when Great Britain's sprinter Christian Malcolm was awarded. The first woman to be voted was 400 m and 400 m H specialist, Jana Pittman of Australia, in 2000.
Ethiopian long-distance runner Kenenisa Bekele was the first to receive Rising Star award followed by Athlete of the Year trophy in 2003 and 2004 respectively. The other athletes to achieve the feat were Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, American sprinter Allyson Felix, Belgian heptathlete Nafissatou Thiam, Venezuelan triple jumper Yulimar Rojas, American hurdler and sprinter Sydney McLaughlin-Levron, Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis, and Norwegian hurdler Karsten Warholm. Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt and American sprinter Erriyon Knighton are the only two athletes to be crowned Rising Star twice. (Full article...)
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