Women's Athlete of the Year nominees
The leading athletes of 2023 will be crowned on 11 December at the World Athletics Awards 2023.
Following last week’s announcement of the 11 nominees for the Female World Athlete of the Year 2023, we take a closer look at their seasons.
Tigist Assefa (ETH)
Marathon runners naturally compete far less than track and field specialists. So when they do take to the start line, the pressure is on to make their performance – and all of the miles they’ve logged in training – count.
Tigist Assefa did exactly that when she raced at the BMW Berlin Marathon in September. The 29-year-old Ethiopian set out well inside world record pace – and then got quicker. She reached the half-way point in 1:06:20, putting her on course to smash the world record by more than a minute, but there were also no signs of her slowing down.
Following a 31:02 split between 25km and 35km, Assefa’s victory was no longer in doubt. She continued to pick up the pace in the closing stages and she crossed the finish line in 2:11:53, taking more than two minutes off the world record – the biggest single improvement on the women’s marathon world record for 40 years.
Femke Bol (NED)
When Femke Bol broke 50 seconds for her first indoor 400m race of the year, it was clear she was set for a great season.
Just one week later, she broke the long-standing world indoor 400m record with a 49.26 clocking, then she took European indoor gold at that distance with another sub-50-second run, later anchoring the Netherlands to 4x400m gold.
Outdoors, she won all of her individual races over one lap of the track, both over the hurdles and on the flat. She reduced her own European record to 51.45 when winning at the Diamond League meeting in London and came close to matching that when winning the world title in Budapest, running 51.70.
After falling in the closing stages of the mixed 4x400m in Budapest, Bol rebounded on the final day of the championships to anchor the Netherlands to gold in the women’s 4x400m.
She ended her season by winning the Diamond League title in Eugene, notching up another sub-52-second run.
Shericka Jackson (JAM)
In 2023, Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson built on her legacy of being one of the finest all-round sprinters of all time.
She excelled at 200m, her specialist event, winning all of her races at that distance and retaining her world title in a championship record of 21.41, the second-fastest time in history.
She also clocked a world-leading 10.65 for 100m and earned silver at the World Championships in Budapest, then capped her championships with silver in the 4x100m.
After winning in Brussels with 21.48, the fourth-fastest time in history, Jackson headed to the Diamond League Final in Eugene, where she won the sprint double in 10.70 and 21.57. She is now the first woman in history to break 21.60 three times in one season.
Faith Kipyegon (KEN)
Having already established herself as one of the greatest championship middle-distance runners in history, Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon showed in 2023 that she is also capable of smashing world records.
At the Diamond League meeting in Florence, in just her second track race of the season, Kipyegon broke the world 1500m record with 3:49.11. In Paris one week later, in just the third 5000m race of her career, Kipyegon broke the world record at that distance. She hadn’t set out with the intention of breaking the record, nor was she on pace to do so for most of the way, but a sensational final kilometre brought her to the finish line in 14:05.20.
Her season was just getting started. One month later, at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco, she smashed the world record for the mile by five seconds, running 4:07.64.
She successfully doubled up at the World Championships, winning the 1500m and 5000m. She also won the shorter event at the Diamond League Final, clocking 3:50.72 – the fifth-fastest time in history.
She capped her season with another global medal, this time bronze in the road mile, at the World Athletics Road Running Championships Riga 23.
Haruka Kitaguchi (JPN)
After taking her first senior global medal in 2022, Japanese javelin thrower Haruka Kitaguchi established herself as the world No.1 in her event this year.
Her season started strongly with a world-leading 64.50m on home soil in Hiroshima. She improved her season’s best to 65.09m when winning at the Diamond League meeting in Paris, then broke her own national record with 67.04m in Silesia.
From that point of her season onwards, Kitaguchi was undefeated.
Her winning streak included gold at the World Championships, where her final throw of 66.73m clinched victory, and at the Diamond League meeting in Brussels, where she improved on her world-leading national record with 67.38m.
One week later, she won once again, this time at the Diamond League Final in Eugene.
Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR)
Not many athletes have won their third World Championships medal by the age of 21, but that’s what Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh achieved this year. And this time, following silver medals in 2019 and 2022, she struck gold.
At the start of the year she retained her European indoor title, having cleared a world-leading 2.02m just a few weeks before. She went on to notch up several wins on the circuit outdoors before heading to the World Championships in Budapest, where she won with 2.01m.
One week later, she equalled the world-leading mark of 2.02m in Xiamen, then she rounded out her season by taking joint victory at the Diamond League Final with a world-leading 2.03m.
By the end of the season, having competed consistency between January and September, Mahuchikh had won 15 of her 17 competitions.
Maria Perez (ESP)
There’s nothing like a couple of technical disqualifications in high-profile races to fire up a race walker leading into a season.
Maria Perez found that out the hard way. After being disqualified from both the World Championships and European Championships last year, her focus in the off-season was on technique.
The extra work and commitment paid dividends in 2023, and in just her second race of the year she smashed her own national 20km record with a world-leading 1:25:30.
Two months later, she broke the world record for the 35km race walk, clocking 2:37:15 to win at the European Team Championships in Podebrady.
She emerged from the World Championships in Budapest as a double champion, first winning the 20km title in 1:26:51, then following it four days later with victory in the longer event in 2:38:40.
Gudaf Tsegay (ETH)
From the way Gudaf Tsegay started her 2023 campaign, it was clear she was heading for a memorable year.
During the indoor season she raced three times and won on each occasion with world-leading marks. She performances in the mile (4:16.16) and 3000m (8:16.69) moved her to second on the world all-time lists.
She carried her winning momentum into the outdoor season across a range of distances. She won the 1500m in Rabat, the 5000m in London and the 10,000m at Ethiopia’s world trials in Nerja, the latter with a world-leading 29:29.73.
In a dramatic 10,000m final in Budapest, Tsegay came through in the closing stages to take gold. She carried an injury going into the 5000m final and was in contention for most of the way, but faded in the closing stages.
After resting for a few weeks, she rebounded in style at the Diamond League Final in Eugene, smashing Faith Kipyegon’s world record with a stunning 14:00.21.
Sha’Carri Richardson (USA)
US sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson made her long-awaited global championships debut in 2023 and came away from it with a haul of three medals, two of them gold.
Leading into the World Championships, she had established herself as the leading contender in the 100m. She won all of her races up to mid-July, breaking 10.80 on seven occasions.
In the World Championships semifinals, though, she finished third in her heat and only just scraped through to the final. Drawn in lane nine for the final, she came through to win in a world-leading PB of 10.65.
Four days later, she stood on the podium again when taking bronze in the 200m, clocking a PB of 21.92. She wrapped up her World Championships campaign by anchoring the USA to gold in the 4x100m in 41.03, the fourth-fastest time in history.
Yulimar Rojas (VEN)
World record-holder Yulimar Rojas enjoyed yet another undefeated season in the triple jump in 2023. Her streak almost came to an end, though, on the biggest stage of the year.
The Venezuelan opened her season in June with victories in Madrid and Oslo. She followed it with gold at the Central American Games with 15.16m, then extended that world-leading mark to 15.18m with her win in Silesia.
In the World Championships final, however, she struggled to nail a big jump and was sitting down in eighth place going into the final round. With her last attempt of the competition, she bounded out to 15.08m to take the lead and secure her fourth successive world title.
With the pressure having eased, she followed it one week later with victory in Zurich (15.15m) and then she ended her season on a high by leaping a world-leading 15.35m to win the Diamond League title in Eugene.
Winfred Yavi (BRN)
Having finished fourth at the past two World Championships, Bahrain’s Winfred Yavi finally enjoyed her moment in the spotlight in 2023 by winning the world steeplechase title in Budapest.
In fact, she dominated the event for the entire season. Apart from one small hiccup in Florence, she won all of her other races this season, starting at the Diamond League meeting in Doha, where she clocked 9:04.38.
She followed that with gold at the Pan-Arab Championships, then went on to win gold at the World Championships in Budapest, clocking a PB of 8:54.29.
She wasn’t finished there, though. After winning in Zurich, she went on to take the Diamond League title in Eugene in an Asian record of 8:50.66, the second-fastest time in history.
Her long season finally came to an end at the Asian Games in Hangzhou in early October, where she won yet another gold medal.
