World Athletics announced on 6 October the 20 nominees for its 2026 World Athlete of the Year awards, ten women and ten men, after an eight-member panel of statisticians, made up of two representatives from World Athletics and one from each of the six area associations, drew up the list. Six finalists, three women and three men, will be named on 10 and 11 November, with the winners announced live on stage at the World Athletics Awards in Monaco on Sunday 29 November.
The men’s list is led by two defining performances of the season. Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe is nominated for winning the London Marathon in a world record of 1:59:30, the first sub-two-hour run in a record-eligible marathon. Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis improved his own pole vault world record to 6.31m and won the Ultimate Championship, world indoor and European titles. They are joined by a strong group of record-setters: Brazil’s Alison dos Santos lowered the 400m hurdles world record to 45.80, American Ja’Kobe Tharp set a 12.75 world record in the 110m hurdles at the NCAA Championships, and Britain’s Josh Kerr ran a world mile record of 3:42.66.
Further nominees on the men’s side include Botswana’s Collen Kebinatshipi, who won the Ultimate 400m in 43.39 and ran a single-season record six sub-44 races, and American sprinter Kenneth Bednarek, who completed a sprint double at the Ultimate Championship. Slovenia’s Kristjan Čeh, Italy’s Andy Díaz Hernández and Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage, who won 13 of his 14 competitions and set a national record of 92.62m, complete the ten.
Among the women, distance running is strongly represented. Kenya’s Agnes Ngetich won the world half marathon title in a women-only world record of 1:05:15 and also took the world cross-country title, while Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa won in Berlin in 2:11:04 and in London in a women-only world record of 2:15:41. American hurdler Masai Russell set a 12.09 world record in the 100m hurdles and ran nine of the ten fastest times of the season, and Canada’s Camryn Rogers threw 81.13m in the hammer, second on the all-time list. The remaining nominees are Chase Jackson, Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, Marileidy Paulino, María Pérez, Audrey Werro and Yan Ziyi.
The result will be decided by a four-way vote in which World Athletics fans, athletes who competed at World Athletics Series events in 2026, accredited media, and the wider World Athletics family each contribute 25 per cent. Voting closed on Saturday 17 October. The Monaco ceremony will also present the Rising Star awards, Coach of the Year, the President’s Award and, for the first time, a Moment of the Year award. With two world records on the roads, a first sub-two-hour marathon and a haul of track and field records, the finalists announcement next week looks set to leave some difficult omissions.