Olympic champions Letsile Tebogo and Sifan Hassan have been named male and female athletes of the year at the World Athletics Awards held in Monaco.
Tebogo, 21, made history as Botswana’s first Olympic champion after winning the 200m final in Paris with an African record time of 19.46 seconds. His achievements also earned him the male track athlete of the year award. Additionally, he contributed to another African record by helping his team secure silver in the men’s 4x400m relay.
“It feels amazing to know that the fans are always there for us athletes. It was a great year. This means a lot,” Tebogo said during his acceptance speech.
Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands was celebrated for her extraordinary versatility, winning bronze in the 5,000m and 10,000m events in Paris before clinching gold in the women’s marathon. Her feat of winning medals in all three events at the same Games made her the first athlete to achieve this in 72 years. The 31-year-old was also named female out-of-stadium athlete of the year.
“I never thought I was going to win this one. This year was crazy,” Hassan remarked.
Other notable winners included Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola, who claimed the male out-of-stadium athlete of the year award after winning gold in the men’s marathon in Paris.
American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was recognised as female track athlete of the year following her record-breaking performance in the 400m hurdles, where she shattered her own world record to win gold.
In the field events category, Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis was named male field athlete of the year after breaking his own pole vault world record en route to Olympic gold. Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who won gold in Paris, received the female field athlete of the year award.
