Ahead of next month&rsquo;s&nbsp;World Athletics Awards 2021, World Athletics is delighted to announce the five nominees for the 2021 Female Rising Star Award to recognise this year's best U20 athlete. The nominations reflect the many incredible performances that the sport has witnessed this year, at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and other events around the world. The winner of the 2021 Female Rising Star Award will be selected by an international panel of experts and be announced live at the World Athletics Awards 2021 on&nbsp;1 December. The nominees are: Keely Hodgkinson, GBR&nbsp; - Olympic 800m silver medallist - Diamond League and European indoor 800m champion - European U20 800m records indoors and outdoors &nbsp; Silja Kosonen, FIN&nbsp; - World U20 hammer champion - European U20 hammer champion - World U20 hammer record &nbsp; Christine Mboma, NAM - Olympic 200m silver medallist - World U20 and Diamond League 200m champion - World U20 200m record &nbsp; Athing Mu, USA - Olympic 800m and 4x400m champion - World U20 indoor 800m record - North American U20 records at 400m and 800m &nbsp; Zerfe Wondemagegn, ETH - World U20 3000m steeplechase silver medallist - National U20 steeplechase record - Olympic 3000m steeplechase finalist &nbsp; Further information about the World Athletics Awards 2021 will be announced in the weeks leading up to the event. The male nominees will be announced tomorrow, Tuesday 9 November. World Athletics

World Athletics is delighted to announce the five nominees for the 2021 Female Rising Star Award

Nominees announced for 2021 Female Rising Star Award

<a href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/netherlands/sifan-hassan-14489606" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sifan Hassan</a>&rsquo;s extraordinary performance at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where she claimed 5000m and 10,000m bronze before winning the marathon in an Olympic record, was honoured at the World Athletics Awards 2024 in Monaco on Sunday (1).
The 31-year-old won the women&rsquo;s out of stadium category before being named as women&rsquo;s World Athlete of the Year.
The Dutch star earned the final athletics gold of the Paris Olympics in gruelling conditions on a course reckoned to be one of the most challenging ever seen at the Games.
Her marathon victory was confirmed in dramatic fashion as she clashed with Ethiopia&rsquo;s Tigist Assefa on the run-in before moving away over the final 100 metres to finish three seconds clear &ndash; the narrowest margin in any women&rsquo;s Olympic marathon.
&ldquo;I am so honoured,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Being named World Athlete of the Year among such incredible athletes, and on such a year, means the world to me. Since I was young, I watched marathon runners with admiration. They made me wonder if I could run like them, or if I could even finish a marathon. I used to wonder if I could even race a 10km.
&ldquo;This year, my curiosity pushed me to take a risk and compete in three distances at the Paris Olympics. It was terrifying, and that made each finish line more meaningful. It wasn&rsquo;t perfect, but sometimes happiness comes from embracing imperfections.
&ldquo;This award isn&rsquo;t just for me, my team, or my family. It&rsquo;s for every young girl out there, watching, dreaming, and believing she can achieve greatness through sport. To all of you, I want to say: keep exercising, keep training, keep pushing, keep believing, and always remember that no dream is too big.&rdquo;
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<h2>Hassan&rsquo;s 2024 in numbers</h2>
 At the Paris Olympics you became the first woman to win medals in the 5000m, 10,000m and marathon at the same Games, and the first athlete since Emil Zatopek, who won all three men&rsquo;s titles in Helsinki in 1952. Does this kind of historic statistic resonate with you?
&ldquo;To me, it&rsquo;s not about history, it&rsquo;s about what I can do. Everybody is different. I focus on what I can do, how I can show my strength. How am I going to improve, even my weaknesses? So, I am always excited, curious to see what I can do.&rdquo;
 The Paris 2024 marathon course has gone down as one of the toughest and most challenging in Olympic history, taking place in gruelling conditions and featuring one long, sustained climb and a second almost vertiginous climb around the 29km marker before a long, steep, giddy downhill stretch heading back into the city centre. What are your memories of this unique challenge?
&ldquo;After I ran the Tokyo marathon, I looked at the Paris course. I started really practising to run 600 metres up, then 800 metres down. I did it so often that I couldn&rsquo;t sit down, I couldn&rsquo;t run. I almost injured myself.
&ldquo;My coach said to me: &lsquo;Why are you only focusing on this?&rsquo; And I said: &lsquo;You didn&rsquo;t see what I saw!&rsquo; Really, before Paris, I overtrained. I felt like I was done.
&ldquo;When it came to the hill &ndash; here we go! &ndash; I was almost walking. Everybody was running, but I thought: 'I&rsquo;m going to catch you because this downhill will be crazy'. I knew how hard it would be. And because of the practice, it made it less hard. It was a crazy course &ndash; but it was beautiful.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/674f0eebaf5869093fddd2a2.jpg" alt="Sifan Hassan during the marathon in Paris" />
Sifan Hassan during the marathon in Paris (&copy; Mattia Ozbot)
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Your marathon win in an Olympic record of 2:22:55 came just 37 hours after you had won 10,000m bronze, and six days after your 5000m bronze. What did you do to prepare in that short time?
&ldquo;After the 10,000m I had an ice bath and there was doping control, so I got back late to the village. When I race, really, I talk too much. I can&rsquo;t stop talking. I stayed awake until 6am and had maybe one or two hours&rsquo; sleep. Then the next day there was the medal ceremony.
&ldquo;The night before the marathon I remember cursing myself, hating myself, saying: &lsquo;Why have you done the track, you&rsquo;ve got the marathon tomorrow!&rsquo;
&ldquo;I woke up at 4am and I was telling myself: 'This is the wrong thing I have done'. Then before the race, I looked at everybody and how fresh they were. And I looked terrible! I was so scared of myself. I tried talking to myself then, getting ready to use my brain to run.
&ldquo;After I won, I got to sleep at 3am. The night had been crazy with media and supporters. I heard my name a lot, and saw a lot of orange! After a couple more days, I felt the pain.&rdquo;
 In the marathon, you finished three seconds clear after outsprinting Ethiopia&rsquo;s then world record-holder Tigist Assefa. It was the smallest ever winning margin in the women&rsquo;s marathon at the Games. Were you always confident you could beat her? How well do you remember your collision on the run-in?
&ldquo;You know, when I run there is always some kind of big drama. And that marathon I told myself I will do everything. At one point, I thought I was going to fall down. I didn&rsquo;t want to fall down &ndash; it would look bad. So it was crazy. You know, I don&rsquo;t really like drama, but drama follows me.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/674f0fadaf5869093fddd2a5.jpg" alt="Sifan Hassan at the World Athletics Awards 2024" />
Sifan Hassan at the World Athletics Awards 2024 (&copy; Christel Saneh for World Athletics)
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You have now run four marathons &ndash; London and Chicago in 2023, Tokyo and Paris this year. How many marathons do you think you will run in 2025?
&ldquo;My first three marathons were all different and for the Olympic marathon, I was really fighting myself. One side of me said: 'concentrate on the marathon', the other side said: 'better that you do the track'. I was really struggling with myself. I didn&rsquo;t have confidence I was going to win after the track.
&ldquo;But I think I&rsquo;m going to do the track and road again, because I just want to do those things, a combination of track and road close to each other. Because I am very curious. I really like it because I don&rsquo;t know for sure if it is going to happen. I like the excitement.
&ldquo;One time, I want to do four marathons in a year &ndash; from February to February. I want to see if it is possible.&rdquo;
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics

Sifan Hassan’s extraordinary performance at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where she claimed 5000m and 10,000m bronze before winning the marathon in an Olympic record, was honoured at the World Athletics Awards 2024

World Athlete of the Year Sifan Hassan's 2024 – in numbers

A season of historic achievement by 21-year-old <a href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/botswana/letsile-tebogo-14883897" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Letsile Tebogo</a> was richly acknowledged in Monaco on Sunday (1) as he was announced as the men&rsquo;s World Athlete of the Year at the World Athletics Awards 2024.
Tebogo, who also accepted an award as men&rsquo;s track athlete of the year, earned Botswana&rsquo;s first Olympic gold medal in any sport as he won the 200m at the Paris Games in an African record of 19.46.
The next day he helped Botswana reach the men&rsquo;s 4x400m final, where his extraordinary final leg earned silver behind the United States in an African record of 2:54.53. His split of 43.04 is among the fastest ever recorded.
Tebogo&rsquo;s Paris showing &ndash; which was marked with a national holiday &ndash; had begun with a sixth-place finish in the 100m final in a national record of 9.86.
Speaking on stage at the Theatre Princesse Grace in Monaco, Tebogo &ndash; who had dedicated his Olympic performances to his late mother Seratiwa &ndash; said: &ldquo;It feels good to know that what you have been putting in throughout the year is now giving you some of the fruits that you have been waiting for. I&rsquo;m grateful for the team that was around me.&rdquo;
Looking ahead, he added: &ldquo;I believe the next year is going to be a different Letsile; he&rsquo;s going to be a changed and a mature one.&rdquo;
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<h2>Tebogo&rsquo;s 2024 in numbers</h2>
 Your 200m win in Paris was a first ever Olympic gold medal in any sport for Botswana. How does it feel to make that kind of history and have a national holiday declared in your honour?
&ldquo;It was a great feeling. I didn&rsquo;t expect the President to give out a holiday in my honour, but it was one of the greatest feelings ever. When I went into that race, the first thing I thought was changing the perspective of Africa from being a long-distance continent into being a short-distance continent. I looked at a lot of factors and I knew I had everything in me to make it happen.
&ldquo;So that made me more hungry to succeed. The night before the final I had to set down why I had started in this journey and what I wanted to achieve. At the end of the Olympic Games, would I achieve what I wanted to achieve? So that&rsquo;s how I came to my conclusion. And I also thought that a lot of people were relying on me to make everything happen.&rdquo;
 You won the Olympic 200m title in an African record of 19.46. You also ran nine sub-20 second 200m races this season. How important was this consistency to your performance in Paris and how were you able to achieve it?
&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t even count how many 19-second races I ran in this season. Because it was Olympic year, there was just that drive in me that wanted to keep on going, even though we had to cut some races. But if it was nine times, I believe it. It showed we were really on the right track and that this was just the beginning.
&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t change anything in training &ndash; it was just a combination of things I have been working on. It was the same environment, the same places across the continents. Nothing has really changed in our training sessions. The confidence came in from the 200m. So that&rsquo;s how we went about it.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/674f14025e34d95ffccfafe7.jpg" alt="Letsile Tebogo at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco" />
Letsile Tebogo at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco (&copy; Getty Images)
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At the World Athletics Relays in May you ran a split of 43.72 to help Botswana win the 4x400m. And when you ran the anchor leg to help Botswana earn Olympic silver you clocked 43.04. Were you surprised at what you managed to achieve, and how do you rate the relay successes?
&ldquo;In Paris I was supposed to run the final only but we had an injury and we had to look at the options. They chose me to hand over the baton in the heats. They said I should just jog out the race but when I saw the splits it was really crazy.
&ldquo;The day of the final was the one we had all been waiting for and I was ready to give it my best. When we found out I had split 43-zero it was just crazy and we couldn&rsquo;t believe it. Looking at how many times I had run during the Olympics, it showed that we were really hungry for that medal.
&ldquo;It meant more because it was a group thing. From the beginning of the camp, that is what we had locked ourselves in for. We were happy with the silver because it was an improvement from the Tokyo Olympics and hopefully in LA 2028 we will get the gold medal.&rdquo; 
You set two national records in the 100m &ndash; 9.88 in London and 9.86 in the Olympic final. You also set a world 300m best of 30.69 in Pretoria. How do you see your career progressing &ndash; will it involve the 100m and 200m, or the 200m and 400m, or all of them?
&ldquo;I think for now it will be all of them. I don&rsquo;t want to limit myself into a particular event. I just want to leave it open so that I know when I am training that they can use me again in the 400m, not just be the sprints guy.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/674def34290bce3928afddd5.jpg" alt="Letsile Tebogo at the World Athletics Awards 2024" />
Letsile Tebogo at the World Athletics Awards 2024 (&copy; Sona Maleterova)
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You are only 21 and you have achieved so much already. What would you hope to have on your CV at 31?
&ldquo;I would just like to be in the history books as the youngest guy to ever do it, at 21 or 22 or whenever.&rdquo;
 Your mum was your number one. How did you manage to achieve what you did in a year when she so sadly died?
&ldquo;I think firstly I am grateful for the team that was around me &ndash; my teammates, my coach, my family members. Because when my mother passed away, I thought it was the end of my career. Because there was no drive in me. But I remember one day I was asked: &lsquo;Just come and watch us train.&rsquo; So I did that, and I started getting more interested again to get back into the sport.&nbsp;It was a really tough balance, but I&rsquo;m glad that when my mother saw that it was coming to an end, she to me: &lsquo;I have tried to be strong my son, now it is your turn.&rsquo; So I think she was preparing me for what was going to happen.
&ldquo;It was not an easy journey and it was not an easy thing for me to overcome. I had to also be there for my little sister, be there for myself. My sister is 12. I don&rsquo;t think she is going to follow in my footsteps because she is more into swimming, but she is proud of me.&rdquo;
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics

A season of historic achievement by 21-year-old Letsile Tebogo was richly acknowledged in Monaco as he was announced as the men’s World Athlete of the Year

World Athlete of the Year Letsile Tebogo's 2024 – in numbers

Olympic champions Sifan Hassan and Letsile Tebogo have been announced as World Athletes of the Year at the World Athletics Awards 2024 in Monaco.
Following a vote by fans, Hassan and Tebogo received top honours on an evening that saw six athletes crowned in three categories &ndash; track, field and out of stadium &ndash; before the overall two winners were revealed.
Tebogo was confirmed as men&rsquo;s track athlete of the year, with Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone receiving the women&rsquo;s honour. Hassan claimed the women&rsquo;s out of stadium crown and Tamirat Tola the men&rsquo;s, while Mondo Duplantis and Yaroslava Mahuchikh were named field athletes of the year.
This year&rsquo;s Rising Stars were also celebrated, with Sembo Almayew and Mattia Furlani receiving recognition.
<h3>World Athletes of the Year for 2024</h3>
Women&rsquo;s World Athlete of the Year: Sifan Hassan (NED) Men&rsquo;s World Athlete of the Year: Letsile Tebogo (BOT)
Women&rsquo;s track: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA) Women&rsquo;s field: Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR) Women&rsquo;s out of stadium: Sifan Hassan (NED) Men&rsquo;s track: Letsile Tebogo (BOT) Men&rsquo;s field: Mondo Duplantis (SWE) Men&rsquo;s out of stadium: Tamirat Tola (ETH)
Women&rsquo;s Rising Star: Sembo Almayew (ETH) Men&rsquo;s Rising Star: Mattia Furlani (ITA)
Watch the full 2024 World Athletics Awards show exclusively on Inside Track:<a href="https://worldathletics.org/videos/playlist/latest-videos/674d8ca46b6a1bb5c8c6c1a3" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/674e2e99005014a8550afdfa.jpg" alt="Watch the full 2024 World Athletics Awards show exclusively on Inside Track" /></a>
&ldquo;At the end of what has been a stellar year for athletics, we are delighted to reveal our list of World Athletes of the Year &ndash; both in their respective disciplines and overall,&rdquo; said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe. &ldquo;This group of athletes represents the very best of our sport and has this year redefined what is possible in terms of athletic performance.
&ldquo;Our 2024 cohort set new standards in heights, speed and distance, including six world records and a host of Olympic and national records between them.
&ldquo;I congratulate all our award winners, and all of the athletes nominated for these honours, and I thank them for inspiring us all with their performances this year.&rdquo;
World Athletes of the Year Hassan and Tebogo both won gold and claimed multiple medals at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Dutch star Hassan&rsquo;s medal treble in Paris was capped by her winning the final athletics gold medal of the Games with her triumph in the marathon in an Olympic record of 2:22:55.&nbsp;That performance came just 37 hours after Hassan claimed bronze in the 10,000m, and six days after her first medal in the French capital &ndash; also bronze &ndash; in the 5000m.
As a result, she became the first woman to win medals in the 5000m, 10,000m and marathon at the same Games, and the first athlete since Emil Zatopek, who won all three men&rsquo;s titles in Helsinki in 1952.
Tebogo also made history in Paris when he won the 200m, as he claimed a first ever Olympic gold medal in any sport for Botswana. He ran an African record of 19.46 &ndash; a time that moved him to fifth on the world all-time list &ndash; and that performance followed his sixth-place finish in the 100m final. He went on to form part of Botswana&rsquo;s silver medal-winning men&rsquo;s 4x400m team.
He dipped under 20 seconds for 200m a total of nine times in 2024, with those performances topped by his Olympic title-winning mark which remained the fastest of the year.
His fellow track athlete of the year, McLaughlin-Levrone, improved her own world 400m hurdles record twice, to 50.65 and 50.37, and claimed Olympic gold in that event as well as in the 4x400m. Tola, who joined Hassan in being named out of stadium athlete of the year, won the Olympic marathon title in Paris in an Olympic record.
World records were set by both field athletes of the year. Mahuchikh cleared 2.10m to improve the world high jump record before winning Olympic gold, while Duplantis revised his own world pole vault record three times, eventually taking it to 6.26m, and won the Olympic title.
"Thank you to the fans, to everybody who voted," said Hassan, who was in Monaco to receive her two awards. "I never thought I was going to win this one. This year was crazy. It&rsquo;s not only me &ndash; all the athletes have been amazing. I&rsquo;m really grateful. What more can I say?"
Standing alongside Hassan on the stage at the Theatre Princesse Grace, Tebogo said: "It feels amazing to know that the fans are always there for us athletes. It was a great year.
"This means a lot," he added. "It&rsquo;s not just about the team that is around you, there are a lot of fans out there that really want us to win something great for the continent. It was a real surprise to hear my name because I didn&rsquo;t expect this."
During the ceremony, a moment was taken to remember last year&rsquo;s men&rsquo;s out of stadium athlete of the year Kelvin Kiptum, the marathon world record-holder who died in a road traffic accident in February, as well as other figures from the sport who have passed away in 2024.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/674ca0695a7474627ee8ce71.JPG" alt="World Athletics Awards 2024" />
World Athletics Awards 2024 (&copy; World Athletics)
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<h2>Almayew and Furlani named Rising Stars of 2024</h2>
Not only did Sembo Almayew and Mattia Furlani achieve great things as U20 athletes in 2024, they both also secured success on the senior stage.
Almayew finished fifth in the 3000m steeplechase final at the Paris Olympics, going close to her own national U20 record with her 9:00.83 performance, before she travelled to Lima where she won the world U20 title, setting a championship record in the process. With that win, the 19-year-old became the first ever Ethiopian world U20 women&rsquo;s steeplechase champion.
Furlani improved the world U20 long jump record to 8.38m at the European Championships on home soil in Rome to secure silver, and he won two more senior major medals at the World Indoor Championships, where he got another silver, and the Olympic Games, where he claimed bronze.
In Glasgow &ndash; at the age of 19 years and 24 days &ndash; Furlani became the youngest athlete ever to win a world indoor medal in the horizontal jumps.
<h2>Knight wins President&rsquo;s Award</h2>
The winner of the President&rsquo;s Award was also announced in Monaco on Sunday (1), with Nike co-founder Phil Knight receiving the honour in recognition of his constant inspiring support for athletics and the development of the sport.
The President's Award, first awarded in 2016, recognises and honours exceptional service to athletics. Past winners of the award include the Ukrainian Athletics Association, British journalist Vikki Orvice, Swiss meeting director Andreas Brugger, Jamaican sprint superstar Usain Bolt, the Abbott World Marathon Majors, and 1968 men&rsquo;s 200m medallists Tommie Smith, Peter Norman and John Carlos for their iconic moment on the podium in Mexico.
&ldquo;Phil Knight&rsquo;s passion for athletics is pretty much lifelong,&rdquo; said Coe. &ldquo;He developed an almost father-son relationship with his coach, the legendary Bill Bowerman, whose training approach was a departure from the orthodoxies of the day and who not only guided Knight&rsquo;s career on the track but became a central figure when Phil took his first tentative steps in the running shoe business that became the dominant global force Nike.
&ldquo;His love of athletics runs through Nike. It is a business created and driven by runners, with Phil never afraid to be the front runner.&rdquo;
Knight said: &ldquo;Thank you, Seb Coe, for the ultimate honour of the President&rsquo;s Award, given by World Athletics. I am in great company, with Tommie Smith and John Carlos, and Usain Bolt. Obviously, I didn&rsquo;t run as fast as those guys, but I am in such high company that I am thrilled by the award. Track and field has always been an important part of Nike &ndash; it has always been a central part of who Nike is.
&ldquo;I do think running will continue to grow. Not only does Seb and his team do a great job promoting the sport, but it is a sport that not only is enjoyable, but it is probably the best fitness activity you can do. So, for me to win this honour, it is very meaningful.&rdquo;
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<h2>Other award winners</h2>
Coaching Achievement Award <a href="https://worldathletics.org/awards/news/coaching-achievement-award-2024-trevor-painter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trevor Painter</a>
Woman of the Year <a href="https://worldathletics.org/awards/news/woman-of-the-year-2024-renee-washington" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Renee Washington</a>
Photograph of the Year <a href="https://worldathletics.org/awards/news/photograph-year-award-2024-michael-steele" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Steele</a>
Member Federation Award <a href="https://worldathletics.org/awards/news/member-federation-award-2024-usatf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">USA Track &amp; Field</a>
 World Athletics

Olympic champions Sifan Hassan and Letsile Tebogo have been announced as World Athletes of the Year at the World Athletics Awards 2024 in Monaco

Press Release08 Nov 2021

Nominees announced for 2021 Female Rising Star Award

World Athlete of the Year Sifan Hassan's 2024 – in numbers

World Athlete of the Year Letsile Tebogo's 2024 – in numbers

Hassan and Tebogo named World Athletes of the Year