World Athletics is delighted to announce the three finalists for the 2024 Women's Rising Star Award, which will recognise this year's best U20 athlete at the World Athletics Awards 2024.
The nominations reflect some of the standout performances that the sport has witnessed this year, at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, World Athletics Indoor Championships, World Athletics U20 Championships, World Athletics Cross Country Championships, one-day meeting circuits and other events around the world.
The winner of the 2024 Women's Rising Star Award will be announced on World Athletics' platforms on 1 December.
<h3>The finalists are:</h3>
Sembo Almayew, Ethiopia &bull; World U20 3000m steeplechase champion &bull; Olympic fifth place
Angelina Topic, Serbia &bull; World U20 high jump champion &bull; Olympic finalist and World Indoor Championships fifth place
Yan Ziyi, China &bull; World U20 javelin record &bull; World U20 champion
World Athletics

The Women's Rising Star Award will recognise this year's best U20 athlete at the World Athletics Awards 2024

Finalists announced for 2024 Women's Rising Star Award

Tamirat Tola earned Ethiopia&rsquo;s only gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics with an extraordinary performance in the men&rsquo;s marathon.
On a uniquely testing course, and in gruelling conditions, he won gold in an Olympic record of 2:06:26 &ndash; a performance that was all the more remarkable for the fact that he had only been called into the team with two weeks&rsquo; notice as a replacement for his injured compatriot Sisay Lemma.
The 33-year-old, who earned Olympic bronze over 10,000m in 2016, thus added a second global marathon title to his collection after his victory at the 2022 World Athletics Championships.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/66b72e51553963b671cc1242.jpg" alt="Tamirat Tola wins the marathon at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games" />
Tamirat Tola wins the marathon at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (&copy; Christel Saneh for World Athletics )
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<h2>Tola&rsquo;s 2024 in numbers</h2>
With the hills, and the heat, it was tough enough to run on the Paris marathon course. But you set an Olympic record of 2:06:26. How did you manage this feat?
&ldquo;It was a very difficult course in Paris. But the only thought in my mind was that I could not lose. Our country had won no gold medals on the track, and the marathon races were the last chance for us, so I needed to make the most of my talent.&rdquo;
&nbsp;
Many athletes found the steep hills and long descents of the Paris course the toughest they had faced, particularly around the 28km mark. Where did it hurt most for you?
&ldquo;It was hardest from 27 to 30 kilometres, with the steep hill and the long drop. I wasn&rsquo;t thinking about the time, but when I finished I had the Olympic record, which was another reason to be proud.
&ldquo;My coach had told me that this was a very difficult course, so when I arrived in Paris I thought about how I could run my best on this course. I used this challenge as motivation, and thankfully I overcame it.
&ldquo;In athletics, challenges are part of the sport. And we always have to do the best for our country.&rdquo;
&nbsp;
This was your second global marathon title following your success at the 2022 World Championships. How did the two victories compare?
&ldquo;In 2022 it was not easy, all the champions were also there. In the past I had been concentrating on the 10,000m, which led to the Olympic bronze medal in 2016. After that I won the marathon silver at the 2017 World Championships in London.
&ldquo;I improved my talent in 2022 to win the gold medal. I was happy at that time because after a long injury I was able to win for my country.
&ldquo;In 2023 I lost that title because of a problem with my stomach. But that made it all the more amazing to fulfil my goals at the Olympics in Paris.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62d44d211e279df31a804ad1.jpg" alt="Tamirat Tola wins the world marathon title in a championship record in Oregon" />
Tamirat Tola wins the world marathon title in a championship record in Oregon (&copy; Getty Images)
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&nbsp;
You had just two weeks to prepare after being told you were running in the Olympic marathon following the withdrawal of Sisay Lemma, after which you stepped up as the third Ethiopian entrant alongside Deresa Geleta and Kenenisa Bekele. How did you manage this challenge?
&ldquo;For three months together with Kenenisa, Lemma, Deresa and I prepared for the national team. At that time my coach said, &lsquo;prepare with them, and if you are not needed for Paris then go to do the New York City marathon&rsquo;.
&ldquo;When I heard the news that I was on the team, I was really excited for the following two weeks. But for Sisay, it wasn&rsquo;t an easy decision because it was for our country. We discussed it with him and he said, &lsquo;It won&rsquo;t be easy for me to run injured in Paris, so you go&rsquo;.
&ldquo;When I got to Paris, I was thinking about how I could challenge (Eliud) Kipchoge and other athletes. I knew the main contenders. There were lots of talented athletes.
&ldquo;But I reminded myself that I had worked hard. And when I got in front in the final kilometres, I knew I could win.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6765842f6461240cfad541f2.jpg" alt="Tamirat Tola in the marathon at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games" />
Tamirat Tola in the marathon at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (&copy; Getty Images)
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In Paris you became the fourth Ethiopian to win the Olympic marathon title after Abebe Bikila in 1960 and 1964, Mamo Wolde in 1968 and Gezahegne Abera in 2000. How proud are you to have done this, and what inspiration did you take from your victorious compatriots?
&ldquo;I did not expect to win because I knew there were runners there like Eliud Kipchoge, the two-time winner. But once I got ahead, I knew I could do it.
&ldquo;For a long time after Gezahegne, for 24 years, we were without an Ethiopian win in the men&rsquo;s marathon at the Olympics. I was happy to attain this goal in a Games record and to join the other Olympic champions.
&ldquo;It was Ethiopia&rsquo;s only gold medal in Paris &ndash; I was able to provide happiness for our country.&rdquo;
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics

Tamirat Tola earned Ethiopia’s only gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics

World out-of-stadium athlete of the year Tamirat Tola’s 2024 – in numbers

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was named women&rsquo;s track athlete of the year at the World Athletics Awards 2024 in Monaco after a season in which she twice lowered her own world 400m hurdles record and retained her Olympic title.
At this summer&rsquo;s Paris Games, she also helped the United States make a successful defence of the women&rsquo;s 4x400m title.
McLaughlin-Levrone&rsquo;s first world record of the year came at the US Olympic Trials which she won in 50.65, taking 0.03 off the world record she had set on the same track two years earlier in securing the world title.
In Paris, the day after her 25th birthday, she lowered that mark to 50.37 to add a second Olympic 400m hurdles gold to the one she had won three years earlier in Tokyo.
She followed up by running the second leg for a US 4x400m relay team that won gold in a North American record of 3:15.27, the second-fastest time in history and just 0.10 shy of the long-standing world record.
Speaking on stage with her award at the Theatre Princess Grace, McLaughlin-Levrone commented: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an honour to come here to have the season that the team have had together be recognised. We are always going to find something we can improve.
&ldquo;It was an amazing year. I&rsquo;m so grateful being able to be healthy coming back after last year. The ultimately glory goes to God. I am so super-honoured to be here.
Asked about her targets for next year, she replied with a smile: &ldquo;I honestly don&rsquo;t really know! Mondo&rsquo;s already training. Maybe I should be!&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6762a4b0312ca00b3d84dce8.jpg" alt="Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone at the 2024 World Athletics Awards" />
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone at the 2024 World Athletics Awards (&copy; Christel Saneh for World Athletics)
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<h2> McLaughlin-Levrone&rsquo;s 2024 in numbers</h2>
You broke the world 400m hurdles record twice in 2024, taking it from 50.68 to 50.65, and then 50.37. Do you think going below 50 seconds is now a possibility?
&ldquo;That definitely is on my mind for sure. An athlete would naturally want to do that. Whether that happens or not is up to God. I&rsquo;m just going to work for it, I can&rsquo;t put a number on it.
&ldquo;It may be me, or maybe an athlete in five or 10 years from now. So I&rsquo;m just going to continue to try to be the best I can be and if it comes it comes, and if it doesn&rsquo;t, it doesn&rsquo;t.
&ldquo;But I think for me it&rsquo;s just the desire to improve. Every time you go back to the table and look at it, there is always something you can do better. It&rsquo;s exciting in the hurdles, that there is always something you can improve on.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6762ab0bb43c1ec381e7e2b0.jpg" alt="Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone wins the 400m hurdles at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games" />
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone wins the 400m hurdles at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)
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You have now set six consecutive world records in the women&rsquo;s 400m hurdles. Do you have a favourite?
&ldquo;I think you can&rsquo;t ever beat the first time,&rdquo; she said, referring to her mark of 51.90 set at the US Olympic Trials in Eugene three years ago, which beat the record of 52.16 compatriot Dalilah Muhammad had set in beating her to the 2019 world title.
&ldquo;It was the first moment of realising that my childhood dreams came true. Going under 52, all that hard work, seeing it come to fruition &ndash; I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ll ever get past it.
&ldquo;Realising that barrier was possible to break. Learning about myself as an athlete. That race, for me, was the stepping stone. We then were able to see that we could push this further and further.&rdquo;
&nbsp;
You ran 47.71 on the second leg as the United States won the Olympic 4x400m title in 3:15.27, the second-fastest time in history. You have also run 48.74 in individual competition, just 0.04 off the US record. How do you see your 400m flat running progressing?
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s always amazing to run with those ladies. We are really together now and we have our own training situations. Representing the USA together and getting that gold in Paris was just a really special moment.
&ldquo;The 400m flat almost hurts a bit more than the hurdles, to be honest. You&rsquo;re going faster and you definitely feel that. But I think the open 400m is very helpful in terms of speed endurance, and it&rsquo;s always very helpful to have those hurdles in your mind when you&rsquo;re running it.
&ldquo;So they&rsquo;re both great, and hopefully I will get some more opportunities next year to do some flat 400s.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6762ab3fb43c1ec381e7e2b6.jpg" alt="The US 4x400m team celebrates their victory at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games" />
The US 4x400m team celebrates their victory at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)
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The next summer Olympics in 2028 are due to take place in Los Angeles. Your thoughts?
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s super-exciting to be able to have the Games in LA, where I&rsquo;m training right now. I drive by the Coliseum at times and imagine what it is going to look like during the Olympics. I hope LA is going to be prepared for that moment. I know it will be. It&rsquo;s a really special opportunity to have the Olympics in our back yard.&rdquo;
&nbsp;
Only two women have broken 51 seconds for the 400m hurdles &ndash; you and Femke Bol. How do you rate her as competition and how do you see your rivalry playing out in the next few years?
&ldquo;I think every athlete is focused on themselves, to be honest, because you still have to jump over those 10 hurdles. Obviously Femke is a wonderful competitor and there are so many women in our event that are just getting faster and faster. So you always have to show respect for your opposition because you never know what anyone is going to produce on any given day.
&ldquo;But like I said, it&rsquo;s you against you. And you have to be prepared to be at your highest level when you step on the track, because our event is going to heights I don&rsquo;t think any of us imagined &ndash; which is amazing because we are all just pushing one another to be the best. And I am really happy to be a part of this transition.&rdquo;
&nbsp;
You have said that moments after winning the 400m hurdles world title in 2022, you experienced the worst physical pain of your life. Was the post-race pain better or worse in Paris?
&ldquo;Believe it or not, it actually was better in Paris, although still very painful! But I think my body got used to 50-point and what it felt like going into shock.
&ldquo;In Paris it was a bit better for sure because I knew what to expect. So the second half of the race and what that felt like was a little bit better this time around.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6762ab1eb43c1ec381e7e2b3.jpg" alt="Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in Paris" />
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in Paris (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)
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You have achieved enormous success in your career so far. What is the one thing you have found hardest?
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think this will be a shock to the media but I think that for me would be the media and their opinions and stories of you they write. I know it&rsquo;s their job to get an interesting story, but their story may not always reflect the truth.
&ldquo;To any young athlete who is still very impressionable and trying to discover who they are, having the whole world have an opinion about them can be a little overwhelming.
&ldquo;And I think that&rsquo;s something that can be very difficult, especially on the world stage when you see articles that are written about you that are not true, and things that are posted about you that are not true.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very easy to let that get into your mind, into your performance, and I think that&rsquo;s something I tell young athletes all the time that is just something you have to be aware of what you let into your mind and into your circle. Because it can affect you.&rdquo;
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics

A numerical look back at Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone's 2024 season

World track athlete of the year Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s 2024 – in numbers

Mondo Duplantis, named as the men&rsquo;s field athlete of the year at the World Athletics Awards 2024, has further adorned his status as the greatest male pole vaulter with another year of dizzying achievement.
After retaining his world indoor title in Glasgow, the Swedish phenomenon &ndash; who only turned 25 on 10 November &ndash; went on to tick all the boxes as he set three more world records, bringing his total to 10.
The first came at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Xiamen on 20 April, when he cleared 6.24m. Next came the ultimate athletic experience as he retained his Olympic title with a clearance of 6.25m in a packed Stade de France in which he was not only the last man standing in his event, but the last athlete competing on the night.
Twenty days later, at the Silesia Diamond League meeting, he added a further centimetre to his best mark.
Duplantis also retained his European title in Rome thanks to a championship record of 6.10m.
And he also found time to win a personal 100m challenge with Norway&rsquo;s world 400m hurdles champion and world record-holder Karsten Warholm in a race that took place during the Zurich Diamond League meeting. Duplantis clocked 10.37 &ndash; underlining the speed he has on tap to convert into height&hellip;
In a recorded message played at the Theatre Princess Grace when his latest award was announced, Duplantis &ndash; who was training in the United States &ndash; paid tribute to his mother Helena, a former heptathlete and volleyball player, and his father Greg, a former pole vaulter with a best of 5.80m.
&ldquo;This is always special and hard to wrap my head around,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I am very appreciative. There is nothing more important than an Olympic year for us athletes, so I&rsquo;m grateful things worked out the way they did and I performed the way I did.
&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t give enough thanks to my family who are my team &ndash; my mum and dad are my trainer and technical coach. I couldn&rsquo;t be in the situation I&rsquo;m in today without them, fighting for world and Olympic gold medals and doing other things I&rsquo;ve dreamed of since I was a little kid.
&ldquo;Right now I&rsquo;m back here in the United States working for next year.
&ldquo;Thanks so much &ndash; this award truly means so much to me and my family.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/66b12b4d3b4bba6b2abdb529.jpg" alt="Mondo Duplantis at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games" />
Mondo Duplantis at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (&copy; Dan Vernon)
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<h2> Duplantis&rsquo;s 2024 in numbers</h2>
After retaining your Olympic title at the Paris 2024 Games in front of a huge crowd in the Stade de France, you raised your world record by a centimetre when you cleared 6.25m on your third attempt. How did that feel to you?
"It was one of those things that don&rsquo;t really feel real, such an out-of-body experience. I had just broken a world record at the Olympics &ndash; the biggest possible stage for a pole vaulter.
&ldquo;The biggest dream since I was a kid was to break the world record at the Olympics, and I&rsquo;d been able to do that in front of the most ridiculous crowd I&rsquo;ve ever competed in front of."
&nbsp;
You have now set 10 consecutive world pole vault records. Did you feel something of this kind might happen once you had set your first one when you cleared 6.17m in Torun in February 2020, then 6.18m a week later in Glasgow?
&ldquo;It was very important to me to show that the first world record wasn&rsquo;t a fluke. It was like &lsquo;This was what&rsquo;s to come. This is what I am, this is the level I am competing at&rsquo;. I didn&rsquo;t just happen to get over the 6.17m.
&ldquo;I wanted to show that I could do the next one, and do it even easier than the first one.&rdquo;
&nbsp;
Your most recent world record, set in Silesia, was 6.26m. You&rsquo;ll never guess this question. Oh yes you will. How much higher can you go?
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve said numerous times that I want to jump over 6.30m. Because I think that&rsquo;s very possible and it just seems like the next real barrier to get over for pole vaulters in general.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s something that can happen when everything just comes together in the right way, but I don&rsquo;t think about it so much, honestly. I think I will just let it come, and it will just come.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/66e1c48c98560f77a695b07d.jpg" alt="Mondo Duplantis in Continental Tour Gold action" />
Mondo Duplantis in Continental Tour Gold action (&copy; Sona Maleterova)
</div>
&nbsp;
You tend to have seven or eight poles in your bag. How does this number work for you?
&ldquo;I am always trying to use stiffer and stronger poles. If I can put more energy into a stiffer pole it is going to fling me up higher. It&rsquo;s going to catapult me up there.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m always trying to improve that aspect and to use different poles. There always seems to be a pole for the year &ndash; one I did my good jumps on.&rdquo;
&nbsp;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/66c642126265d4433918343a.jpg" alt="Mondo Duplantis at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Lausanne" />
Mondo Duplantis at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Lausanne (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)
</div>
&nbsp;
Reflecting on your 10th and most recent world record, the 6.26m you cleared at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Silesia on 25 August, how close to the perfect jump did it feel?
&ldquo;My first world record also came in Poland, indoors in Torun, so I had great memories from there. The track was wonderful, the conditions were perfect, everything just came together to allow me to do it.
&ldquo;It is just about being in good shape and believing you can do it. I always want to jump as high as I possibly can and to keep pushing. But I have never hit a jump that felt absolutely perfect, so I always feel like I can do better.&rdquo;
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics

Mondo Duplantis has further adorned his status as the greatest male pole vaulter with another year of dizzying achievement

Press Release12 Nov 2024

Finalists announced for 2024 Women's Rising Star Award

The finalists are:

World out-of-stadium athlete of the year Tamirat Tola’s 2024 – in numbers

World track athlete of the year Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s 2024 – in numbers

World field athlete of the year Mondo Duplantis’s 2024 – in numbers