Triple World Record holder Usain Bolt of Jamaica signs autographs during the IAAF World Championships in Berlin (© Getty Images)
We are in the midst of the crazy annual awards season but amongst the plethora of titles up for grabs, one in particular has sprung to the attention of Athletics fans.
The candidates for one of the most prestigious and historic annual honours has been announced, with World Athlete of the Year Usain Bolt vying to become the first sportsperson, let alone track and field athlete, to win TIME’s Person of the Year.
Since 1927, TIME Magazine has chosen a man, woman, or idea that "for better or worse, has most influenced events in the preceding year."
The announcement of the 2009 winner will be made on 16 December with Bolt’s name contending for the title with nine fellow nominees including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, last year’s recipient US President Barack Obama, large groups such as Iran Protesters and Somali Pirates, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
Dictators, presidents, prime ministers, royalty, religious leaders etc… the list of former winners encompasses a wide selection of the world’s heroes and villains.
A whole generation was named winner in 1966 - "Twenty-five and Under", and in 1982 “the computer” received the distinction, while in 2006 the winner was “you”!
Peter Ueberroth, the architect of the 1984 Olympic Games won in that year but that’s the nearest sport has come to a look in. Therefore simply to have been nominated is proof that Usain Bolt’s fame really has transcended the sport of Athletics, even if in the opinion of Time, the Olympics’ number one sport is on the fringe!
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UPDATE - 16 December: Ben Shalom Bernanke is TIME's Person of the Year for 2009
Bernanke is the 56-year-old chairman of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the U.S., the most important and least understood force shaping the American — and global — economy. Click here for profile
Click here for Usain Bolt's 'runners-up' profile
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2009 Candidates
Angela Merkel
Barack Obama
Ben Bernanke
Iran Protesters
Olympia Snowe
Somali Pirates
Stanley McChrystal
Steve Jobs
Timothy Geithner
Usain Bolt
Click here for more information
Past Winners
1927 Charles Augustus Lindbergh
1928 Walter P. Chrysler
1929 Owen D. Young
1930 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
1931 Pierre Laval
1932 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1933 Hugh Samuel Johnson
1934 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1935 Haile Selassie
1936 Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson
1937 Generalissimo & Mme Chiang Kai-Shek
1938 Adolf Hitler
1939 Joseph Stalin
1940 Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
1941 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1942 Joseph Stalin
1943 George Catlett Marshall
1944 Dwight David Eisenhower
1945 Harry Truman
1946 James F. Byrnes
1947 George Catlett Marshall
1948 Harry Truman
1949 Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
1950 American Fighting-Man
1951 Mohammed Mossadegh
1952 Elizabeth II
1953 Konrad Adenauer
1954 John Foster Dulles
1955 Harlow Herbert Curtice
1956 Hungarian Freedom Fighter
1957 Nikita Krushchev
1958 Charles De Gaulle
1959 Dwight David Eisenhower
1960 U.S. Scientists
1961 John Fitzgerald Kennedy
1962 Pope John XXIII
1963 Martin Luther King Jr.
1964 Lyndon B. Johnson
1965 General William Childs Westmoreland
1966 Twenty-Five and Under
1967 Lyndon B. Johnson
1968 Astronauts Anders, Borman and Lovell
1969 The Middle Americans
1970 Willy Brandt
1971 Richard Milhous Nixon
1972 Nixon and Kissinger
1973 John J. Sirica
1974 King Faisal
1975 American Women
1976 Jimmy Carter
1977 Anwar Sadat
1978 Teng Hsiao-P'ing
1979 Ayatullah Khomeini
1980 Ronald Reagan
1981 Lech Walesa
1982 The Computer
1983 Ronald Reagan & Yuri Andropov
1984 Peter Ueberroth
1985 Deng Xiaoping
1986 Corazon Aquino
1987 Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev
1988 Endangered Earth
1989 Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev
1990 The Two George Bushes
1991 Ted Turner
1992 Bill Clinton
1993 The Peacemakers
1994 Pope John Paul II
1995 Newt Gingrich
1996 Dr. David Ho
1997 Andy Grove
1998 Bill Clinton and Kenneth Starr
1999 Jeff Bezos
2000 George W. Bush
2001 Rudolph Giuliani
2002 The Whistleblowers
2003 The American Soldier
2004 George W. Bush
2005 Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, & Bono
2006 You
2007 Vladimir Putin
2008 Barack Obama