World Athletics announced the nominees for its male and female track athlete of the year honors on Monday featuring a list loaded with the top performers of a busy season.
Ten athletes will face one final competition as a fan vote will decide the Track Athlete of the Year 2025 awards.
Among the stack list of nominees are Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, Noah Lyles, Faith Kipyegon, Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Beatrice Chebet. And each of the ten — five men and five women — had strong seasons that peaked at world championships in Tokyo last month.
Meanwhile, Americans dominate the nominations with five of the ten athletes hailing from Team USA.
• Jefferson-Wooden’s leads the way, with a perfect season that saw her go undefeated in the 100m this year and take gold on the world stage in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay.
• Femke Bol was flawless in the 400m hurdles in 2025 and won the world championship and Diamond League title in the event.
• Chebet stunned in the 5,000m after shattering the world record in Eugene and followed that mark with wins in Tokyo in the 5,000m and 10,000m.
• Kipyegon broke the world record in the 1,500m and coasted to a gold at world championships at the distance along with winning silver in the 5,000m
• Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone did not lose a 400m and 400m hurdles showdown all year and won world titles in the 400m and 4x400m relay.
• Lyles was flawless in the 200m this season and won the Diamond League title in the event. He is also the 200m world champion and won gold in the 4x100m champion along with bronze in the 100m.
• Cordell Tinch is the world and Diamond League champion in the 110m hurdles champion.
• Wanyonyi has four of the top six performances of the year while claiming world and Diamond League 800m championships.
• Rai Benjamin won the world championship in the 400m hurdles in Tokyo with two of the top three 400m hurdles performances.
• Jimmy Gressier stunned with it a win in the 10,000m at world championships and later won bronze in the 5,000m. He is also the Diamond League 3000m champion.
Men
Rai Benjamin, USA
Jimmy Gressier, France
Noah Lyles, USA
Cordell Tinch, USA
Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Kenya
Women
Femke Bol, Netherlands
Beatrice Chebet, Kenya
Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, USA
Faith Kipyegon, Kenya
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, USA
The vote to determine the Track Athlete of the Year finalists is now open on World Athletics’ social media platforms and will close on October 19.
October 13-19: Vote opens for track athletes of the year
October 20-26: Vote opens for field athletes of the year
October 27 – 2 November 2: Vote opens for out-of-stadium athletes of the year
November 3: Finalists announced for each category
November 3: Fan vote opens
November 9: Fan vote closes
