Nominees announced for Female World Athlete of the Year 2021

This week marks the opening of the voting process for the 2021 World Athletes of the Year ahead of theWorld Athletics Awards 2021 to be held in December.

World Athletics is pleased to confirm a list of 10 nominees for Female World Athlete of the Year who were selected by an international panel of athletics experts, comprising representatives from all six continental areas of World Athletics.

The nominations reflect the remarkable range of exceptional performances that the sport has witnessed this year, at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, one-day meeting circuits and other events around the world.

Commenting on the Awards, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said: “As always, the World Athletics Awards will recognise athletes who have performed at the highest level across the year, taking into account not only the Olympic Games, but the one-day meeting circuits. We do recognise that athletes in some parts of the world faced greater challenges than others in accessing international competition this year, which complicated the nomination process. However, we saw some impressive breakthroughs at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and we look forward to those athletes having more opportunities to shine next year, with five World Athletics Series events and a full schedule of one-day meetings on the calendar.”

The nominees for 2021 Female World Athlete of the Year are (in alphabetical order): 

Valarie Allman, USA

- Olympic discus champion

- Diamond League discus champion

- North American discus record  

Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, PUR

- Olympic 100m hurdles champion 

- Broke the Olympic 100m hurdles record

- National record 12.26 moved to equal fourth on the world all-time list 

Sifan Hassan, NED

- Olympic 5000m and 10,000m champion

- Olympic 1500m bronze medallist

- Broke the world 10,000m record

Faith Kipyegon, KEN

- Olympic 1500m champion

- Diamond League 1500m champion

- Kenyan 1500m record 

Mariya Lasitskene, ANA

- Olympic high jump champion

- Diamond League high jump champion

- Jumped world-leading 2.05m 

Sydney McLaughlin, USA

- Olympic 400m hurdles champion

- Olympic 4x400m champion

- Set two world 400m hurdles records 

Shaunae Miller-Uibo, BAH

- Olympic 400m champion

- North American 400m record

- North American indoor 400m record

Athing Mu, USA

- Olympic 800m and 4x400m champion

- World U20 indoor 800m record

- North American U20 records at 400m and 800m 

Yulimar Rojas, VEN

- Olympic triple jump champion

- Diamond League triple jump champion

- World triple jump record 

Elaine Thompson-Herah, JAM

- Olympic 100m, 200m and 4x100m champion

- Diamond League 100m champion

- National 100m and 200m records, second fastest of all time 

A three-way voting process will determine the finalists.

The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family will cast their votes by email, while fans can vote online via the World Athletics social media platforms. Individual graphics for each nominee will be posted on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram this week; a ‘like’ on Facebook and Instagram or a retweet on Twitter will count as one vote.

The World Athletics Council’s vote will count for 50% of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes will each count for 25% of the final result.

Voting for the World Athletes of the Year closes at midnight on Saturday 6 November. At the conclusion of the voting process, five women and five men finalists will be announced by World Athletics.

The female and male World Athletes of the Year will be announced live at the World Athletics Awards 2021 in December. 

Further information about the World Athletics Awards 2021 will be announced in the weeks leading up to the event.

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