Olympic champions among World Athletics’ Men’s Athlete of the Year Award 2021 nominees

Olympic champions Karsten Warholm (400m hurdles) and Ryan Crouser (shot put) both headline the Athlete of the Year Award nomination list (Men’s) announced by World Athletics on Thursday. All of the 10 nominated athletes have bagged gold at the Tokyo Olympics.

Norway’s Karsten Warholm in July broke Kevin Young’s 29-year-old 400m hurdles world record by clocking 46.70sec on a home track in Oslo.

The Norwegian then set his own mark at the Olympics. Warholm clocked a staggering 45.94sec to beat American Rai Benjamin and third-placed Alison dos Santos of Brazil.

He then bagged the Diamond League trophy in 400m hurdles this year.

America’s Ryan Crouser, who also won the Olympic gold and Diamond League title, joined Warholm in the World Athletics’ Men’s Athlete of the Year Award nomination list.

He broke a 31-year-old record in June, having thrown 23.37m.

Legendary marathon runner Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge (two-time Olympic champion), Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei (Olympic gold medallist in 5000m and silver medallist in 10,000m) and Jakob Ingebrigtsen (1500m Olympic champion) are also shortlisted for World Athletics’ Men’s Athlete of the Year Award.

Sweden’s pole vaulter Armand Duplantis was last year’s World Athletics’ Men’s Athlete of the Year and is now looking for his second title in a row. He is joined by his compatriot Daniel Stahl.

Ståhl won Olympic and Diamond League discus throw titles, while Duplantis did the same in pole vault. Both also set world-leading marks in 2021.

Portugal's Olympic and Diamond League triple jump champion Pedro Pichardo, Canada's Tokyo Olympic decathlon gold medalist Damian Warner and Greece's reigning Olympic long jump champion Miltiadis Tentoglou complete the nominees.

Voting process for World Athletics’ Men’s Athlete of the Year Award

The voting process for the World Athletics’ Men’s Athlete of the Year Award will be threefold, with World Athletics accounting for half of the total vote.

A weightage of 25% is given to the votes from the “World Athletics Family”, who will cast their picks via email. The other 25% comes from a public vote on social media.

The voting for World Athletics’ Men’s Athlete of the Year Award ends on November 6, with the winner to be announced in December.