World Athletics Opens Voting for World Athlete of the Year 2026

Mondo Duplantis soaring over the bar, Sebastian Sawe demolishing road times, Tigist Assefa redefining the women's marathon, Melissa Jefferson-Wooden exploding in the 100 meters. The 20 names competing for the most prestigious title in world athletics are already on the table, and from now until October 17, the public—you included—can vote. If you run, train, or simply love this sport, understanding how this award works is understanding what the elite of running and global athletics truly value.

The Context

The World Athlete of the Year award has existed since 1988 and is, basically, the Oscars of track and field. World Athletics, the global governing body of the sport, awards it every year to a man and a woman who have dominated their season with extraordinary results, records, consistency, and impact on the sport.

What makes the 2026 process interesting is its mixed voting system: it's not decided by a closed committee or only by specialist press. It's divided into four voting blocs—fans (that's you), active athletes, accredited media, and the so-called "World Athletics family" (former athletes, officials, federations). This democratization of the vote seeks to balance technical prestige with the emotional connection an athlete generates with the general public, something that doesn't always align.

Among the nominees there's a mix of everything: pure sprinters, road distance runners, jumpers, throwers. It's a complete snapshot of what the track and field season was like globally, from track to street races. The awards ceremony will be held on November 29 in Monaco, the historical home of these awards and also the Diamond League Final, confirming that city as a kind of administrative capital of athletics.

For the running enthusiast, looking at this list is also a way to study the best: what distances they dominate, what nationalities are emerging, and what performance patterns repeat in those who reach the top.

What the Science Says

Names like Sebastian Sawe or Tigist Assefa don't reach these levels of performance through pure talent: there's a scientific structure behind them that optimizes every possible variable. A key aspect in elite distance running is managing fatigue during self-paced effort: a recent review describes how world-class endurance athletes actively manage perceived fatigue signals to sustain pace without collapsing before the finish (Azevedo et al., 2021).

Race strategy also matters, and a lot. In the marathon, analysis of pacing variables shows that those who achieve the best times tend to be those who distribute effort with less variability between the early and final kilometers, avoiding the abrupt pace drops that ruin a race (Cuk et al., 2024). This is exactly what sets a Sawe or an Assefa apart: not just raw speed, but pace intelligence.

On the other hand, personalized nutrition has become a decisive factor in elite sport. Strategic carbohydrate supplementation, tailored to the specific demands of each endurance event, can make the difference between sustaining intensity until the end or "hitting the wall" (Cao et al., 2025). And increasingly, elite programs use individualized nutrition approaches, based on the athlete's actual metabolic response, to maximize performance without leaving it to chance (Sutehall & Pitsiladis, 2025).

What It Means for You

You don't have to be Duplantis to apply these same principles to your training:

• Work on your pacing. Before your next long race, set realistic splits and train the discipline of not going out too fast. Science confirms that pace consistency predicts better results than explosive starts.
• Don't underestimate race nutrition. Practice your carbohydrate strategy during long training sessions, don't improvise on race day.
• Train your fatigue tolerance. Include repeats where you have to sustain pace under accumulated fatigue; it's the way to train that mental capacity that sets the best apart.
• And while you're at it, go vote. It's free, takes two minutes, and it's a way to connect with the sport you love from another angle: the informed spectator's.

References

• Azevedo RA, Silva-Cavalcante MD, Lima-Silva AE. "Fatigue development and perceived response during self-paced endurance exercise: state-of-the-art review." Eur J Appl Physiol, 2021. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33389141/
• Cuk I, Markovic S, Weiss K. "Running Variability in Marathon-Evaluation of the Pacing Variables." Medicina (Kaunas), 2024. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38399506/
• Cao W, He Y, Fu R. "A Review of Carbohydrate Supplementation Approaches and Strategies for Optimizing Performance in Elite Long-Distance Endurance." Nutrients, 2025. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40077786/
• Sutehall S, Pitsiladis Y. "Personalized Nutrition for the Enhancement of Elite Athletic Performance." Scand J Med Sci Sports, 2025. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40164953/