World champions Mondo Duplantis and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone have been announced as the World Athletes of the Year, receiving top honours in Monaco in recognition of their standout achievements in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sweden\u2019s\u00a0pole vault star\u00a0Duplantis\u00a0and\u00a0USA\u2019s\u00a0sprint sensation\u00a0McLaughlin-Levrone\u00a0were the final winners to be revealed\u00a0at the\u00a0World Athletics Awards 2025 on Sunday,\u00a0on an evening that saw six athletes crowned in three categories \u2013 track, field and out of stadium \u2013 before the two\u00a0overall\u00a0winners were\u00a0confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before being named as the World Athletes of the Year, Duplantis was announced as the men\u2019s field athlete of the year and McLaughlin-Levrone as the women\u2019s track athlete of the year. Spain\u2019s Maria Perez and Kenya\u2019s Sabastian Sawe were confirmed as the out of stadium athletes of the year, while Kenya\u2019s Emmanuel Wanyonyi received the men\u2019s track athlete of the year honour and Australia\u2019s Nicola Olyslagers the women\u2019s field athlete of the year accolade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe World Athletics Awards is a celebration of the very best of our sport. Tonight, we honour our greatest men\u2019s and women\u2019s athletes and rising stars across track, field and out of stadium,\u201d said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe during the awards ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s a motto for this year\u2019s Awards, it is \u2018for the athletes, by the athletes\u2019 and the recipients tonight will aptly receive their prizes from some of our most storied Awards winners down the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want to thank all the athletes present for their inseparable contribution to a memorable 2025, with its crescendo World Athletics Championships in Tokyo \u2013 the most widely covered and commercially impactful edition of our sport\u2019s flagship event in its history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Duplantis and McLaughlin-Levrone both won Rising Star awards in 2018 and have gone on to become two of the most successful athletes in the sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2025, Duplantis set four world pole vault records and was undefeated in 16 competitions, his wins including world titles both indoors and outdoors. The 26-year-old is the first male pole vaulter in modern history to go undefeated for two successive years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He set world records of 6.27m in Clermont-Ferrand, 6.28m in Stockholm, 6.29m in Budapest and 6.30m at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25, and won a fifth consecutive Diamond League title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Thank you so much. This is such a huge honour. Thank you to the jury and World Athletics for voting me in yet again,” said Duplantis. “I hope to keep pushing it. I hope to keep irritating everyone who has to vote for me for years to come. I’m proud to represent everyone who supports me \u2013 my family and my future wife. It’s really important for me to win this for the field eventers. It’s very special, I’m going to really cherish this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I genuinely try to be the best version of myself that I can possibly be. I have a lot of joy that I hope to spread when I’m on the track; I have an immense passion and joy for what I do. I’m so obsessed with pole vaulting and I love pushing myself. I hope that I can inspire the next generation to try athletics, and even pole vaulting. If I can inspire even just a few people to do it, then I feel I’m doing my job.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McLaughlin-Levrone has also been undefeated for two years in both the 400m flat, which was her main event in 2025, and in the 400m hurdles, extending her win streak in that discipline to 24 races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 26-year-old won the world 400m title in Tokyo in a North American record of 47.78, breaking a 42-year-old championship record with the second-fastest 400m of all time. As a result, she became the first athlete to have ever won world titles in both the 400m flat and 400m hurdles, following her win in the latter in Oregon in 2022. She also formed part of USA\u2019s victorious 4x400m team in Tokyo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Wow, I\u2019m honestly blown away to win this. Thank you so much, World Athletics, for this honour and recognition,” said McLaughlin-Levrone. “The culmination of the season in Tokyo was a really special moment. I\u2019m so thankful for everyone who supported, watched, voted and who was there throughout this whole process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Track and field is, I believe, the best sport in the world. I want to continue to show the world that we are some of the best athletes around. For me, 2025 was a year of stepping outside of the comfort zone and pushing the bounds of what was mentally and physically possible. I want to continue pushing boundaries in 2026.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her fellow track athlete of the year, Wanyonyi, won world and Diamond League titles in the 800m and achieved four of the top six performances of the year, including a world lead of 1:41.44 in Monaco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Olyslagers, who joined Duplantis in being named field athlete of the year, won world high jump titles indoors and outdoors and became the Diamond League champion and world leader with an Oceanian record of 2.04m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both out of stadium athletes of the year were unbeaten in 2025. The wins by Perez included world titles in both the 20km race walk and the 35km race walk at the World Championships in Tokyo, while Sawe won the London Marathon and the Berlin Marathon, the latter in a world lead of 2:02:16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year\u2019s Rising Stars were also celebrated, those honours going to world medallists Edmund Serem of Kenya and Zhang Jiale of China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite still being U20 athletes, both 17-year-old Edmund Serem and 19-year-old Zhang Jiale made an impact on the senior stage in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zhang improved the world U20 hammer record to 77.24m at the Chinese Championships in Quzhou and clinched bronze at the World Championships in Tokyo, throwing 77.10m to secure a spot on the podium alongside Canada\u2019s Camryn Rogers and her Chinese compatriot Zhao Jie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Serem also became a world bronze medallist as he finished third in the 3000m steeplechase behind New Zealand\u2019s Geordie Beamish and Morocco\u2019s Soufiane El Bakkali in Tokyo. He was runner-up in the Diamond League final and achieved top four finishes in four other Diamond League meetings during the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Keeping to the theme of the evening of \u2018for the athletes, by the athletes\u2019, 2018 Rising Star winner Duplantis presented the awards to Serem and Zhang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Women\u2019s World Athlete of the Year: <\/strong>Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA) Women\u2019s track:\u00a0<\/strong>Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA) Women\u2019s Rising Star: <\/strong>Zhang Jiale\u00a0(CHN) Woman of the Year<\/strong>: Ruth Jepchumba\u202fBundotich<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coaching Achievement Award<\/strong>: Michael O\u2019Connor<\/p>\n\n\n\n Photograph of the Year<\/strong>: Vegard Grott<\/p>\n\n\n\n Member Federation Award<\/strong>: China<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fair Play Award<\/strong>: Tim Van de Velde<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" World champions Mondo Duplantis and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone have been announced as the World Athletes of the Year, receiving<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[50,103],"class_list":["post-6640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-athletics","tag-awards"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/world-athletes-of-the-year_compressed.jpg",2000,1333,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/world-athletes-of-the-year_compressed-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/world-athletes-of-the-year_compressed-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/world-athletes-of-the-year_compressed-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/world-athletes-of-the-year_compressed-1024x682.jpg",640,426,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/world-athletes-of-the-year_compressed-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/world-athletes-of-the-year_compressed.jpg",2000,1333,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/world-athletes-of-the-year_compressed-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/world-athletes-of-the-year_compressed-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/world-athletes-of-the-year_compressed.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6642,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6640\/revisions\/6642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Men\u2019s World Athlete of the Year: <\/strong>Mondo Duplantis (SWE)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Women\u2019s field:\u00a0<\/strong>Nicola Olyslagers (AUS)
Women\u2019s out of stadium:\u00a0<\/strong>Maria Perez (ESP)
Men\u2019s track:\u00a0<\/strong>Emmanuel Wanyonyi (KEN)
Men\u2019s field:\u00a0<\/strong>Mondo Duplantis (SWE)
Men\u2019s out of stadium:\u00a0<\/strong>Sabastian Sawe (KEN)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Men\u2019s Rising Star:<\/strong> Edmund Serem (KEN)<\/p>\n\n\n\nOther award winners<\/h2>\n\n\n\n