Switzerland’s Audrey Werro and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi were awarded the 2026 European athletes of the year top honors on Saturday at the Golden Tracks awards ceremony in Lausanne, Switzerland, following a breakout season for both athletes.
Werro dominated the women’s 800m all season, winning the European title in Birmingham in August, the Diamond League final in Brussels in September and the Ultimate Championships a week later in Brussels in the discipline.
She is the first Swiss woman to win the athlete of the year honor and already has her sights locked on pushing the bounds of the event in what will be a busy campaign next season.
“I’m really happy to win this award here; the 2026 season was really amazing,” Werro said. “And for me at the end of the season it was still a bit hard to process everything that happened because each week it was something even more special for me. I want to own the word record, so this is always in my mind, but I need to keep working and maybe what one day I will have it.”
Werro is among the 20 athletes nominated for World Athletics athlete of the year prize in a loaded women’s field that includes Tigst Assefa, Chase Jackson, Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, Agnes Ngetich, Marileidy Paulino, María Pérez, Camryn Rogers, Masai Russell and Yan Ziyi.
A group of six finalists (three men and three women) will be revealed in early November, while two winners will be chosen at the World Athletics Awards ceremony in Monaco on November 29.
Meanwhile, Tamberi beat out Mondo Duplantis for the men’s prize, becoming the first Italian ever — man or woman — to win the award in the year when he ruled the men’s high jump.
He won a record fourth European high jump title in Birmingham in August and pulled off a stunning performance at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest weeks later as he cleared a world-leading 2.37m for the men’s title.
But Tamberi has battled to find his form since his 2024 European title as injuries became a recurring issue that threatened to limit his consistence in the event. He entered 2026 refocused and healthy and exited the season with a world lead and renewed sense of purpose that he will carry into 2027.
“I’m used to injuries. It is very normal to me starting this way with some problems, so nothing changed this year,” Tamberi said. “I just knew probably I could have fixed somehow during the season. I’m very, very happy because after 2025 it was very difficult. You know I’m a very young athlete, but you start thinking that maybe your career is almost at the end.”
Each award is decided with an equal 25 percent voting weight that includes fans of the sport, national athletics federations, the media and a panel of experts assembled by European Athletics.
In other awards, Switzerland’s Sylvia Aeby and Thomas Hager were presented with the top coaching honors, Michael Steele earned the top photographer prize, Anais Brosseau won for best article, while Christiane Vauthier and Peter Heinzer were given the European Athletics Member Federation awards, which recognized their service to athletics federations.
