World Athletics on December 1, announced the winners for the 2021 Athlete of the Year award.
Olympic champions Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica and Karsten Warholm of Norway were named the Athletes of the Year at the 2021 World Athletics Awards ceremony, held virtually on Wednesday.
The winners were selected by an international panel of athletics journalists, council representatives from World Athletics, and social media fans.
Both Thompson-Herah and Warholm have had a season of remarkable performances in track and field at the Olympic Games and one-day meets on the World Athletics circuit.
Warholm won the men’s award over fellow Olympic gold medalists Joshua Cheptegei (Uganda, 5000m), Ryan Crouser (USA, shot put), Mondo Duplantis (Sweden, pole vault) and Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya, marathon).
Karsten ran one of the most remarkable performances in recent Olympic history, when he stormed down the final stretch for gold in the 400m hurdles.
He twice broke what was the longest-standing world record among men’s track races set by American Kevin Young, who went 46.78 in the 1992 Olympic final as he lowered it to 46.70 on July 1, then to 45.94 in the Tokyo Olympic final.
In the Olympic run alone, Warholm took 1.6 percent off the world record, just shy of Michael Johnson‘s 1.7 percent drop in the 1996 Olympic 200m final.
Thompson-Herah ran the second-fastest 100m in history this year, running 10.54 at the Diamond League’s Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore. She also defended her Olympic 100m and 200m titles in Tokyo, adding a third gold medal in the 4x100m relay for Jamaica.
In an interview with World Athletics, Thompson-Herah said, “I just take it year by year. I was very close to the world record, so anything is possible.” She noted that she isn’t planning on hanging up the spikes anytime soon, and hopes to compete at the World Championships next summer in Eugene.
The other awards presented were the Rising Star Award, to up-and-coming U.S. track stars Athing Mu and Erriyon Knighton, and the Inspiration Award, to co-high-jumper gold medallists Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy and Mutaz Barshim of Qatar.