True to expectations, American 400m hurdler Sydney McLaughlin -Levrone emerged the World Athletics Athletes of the Year beating off contenders like Tobi Amusan and Shirley Ann Fraser-Pryce. McLaughlin-Levrone, who is winning the award for the first time broke her own 400m hurdles world record twice this year. She became the first American to win Athlete of the Year since fellow 400m hurdler Dalilah Muhammad in 2019. “I would describe 2022 for myself by just saying incredible,” McLaughlin-Levrone said. “Everything that we aimed to do we were able to accomplish.” Amusan stunned the world at the WA World Championships in Oregon, USA breaking the world 100m hurdles record twice, but the second effort was adjudged wind assisted. Fraser-Pryce, won fifth world 100m title. Mundo Duplantis, the Louisiana-raised Swede, won the men’s award for the second time in three years. He upped his pole vault world record three times in 2022 and swept the world indoor and outdoor and Diamond League titles in the event. “It’s probably been by far the best year that I’ve ever had,” Duplantis said.
The other men’s finalists were Moroccan steeplechaser Soufiane El Bakkali, who went undefeated in 2022; Norwegian runner Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the world outdoor 5000m champion who ran the world’s fastest mile in 21 years; Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, who broke his own marathon world record by 30 seconds, and American Noah Lyles, who broke Michael Johnson‘s 26-year-old national record in the 200m.
