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Reviewing Beatrice Chebet's golden Olympic year worthy of being crowned as World Athletics Female Track Athlete of the Year.
Kenya's golden girl Beatrice Chebet had a monumental 2024 season, unarguably one of the greatest in long-distance running history, which has deservedly earned her a spot on the nominee list of the World Athletics Female Track Athlete of the Year Award.
Others on the list are - Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (400mH), Faith Kipyegon (1500m and 5000m), Gabby Thomas (200m), Marileidy Paulino (400m), and Julien Alfred (100m) who all became Olympic champions in Paris, with the first two alongside Chebet (5000m and 10000m), breaking the World Record (WR) at least once during the season.
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13:52 - 21.10.2024
Track Athlete of the Year: Julien Alfred, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, and Faith Kipyegon make tough women's list
The nominees for the World Athletics Women's Athlete of the Year has been announced, featuring Julien Alfred, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, and Faith Kipyegon.
There have been several discourses among track enthusiasts on the more deserving athlete, considering they all had an iconic year, which makes Pulse Sports carefully review Chebet's exploits this season as a standout for the prestigious award.
Beatrice Chebet's monumental 2024 Olympic year
The long-distance queen is the most decorated Kenyan athlete ( Male or Female) this year, with her medal collections and record-breaking performances backing this effect.
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Chebet's first collections of the season came at the 45th World Athletics Cross Country Championships, where she won two gold medals in the individual and team events.
The 24-year-old would later on become the first woman to run the 10,000m under 29 minutes, after setting a new WR of 28:54.14 at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League in Eugene, back in May.
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This will set her season rolling for more record-breaking performances at the Paris Olympic Games, where she defeated a stacked field for the women's 5000m gold medal in a blistering time of 14:28.56, thus defeating defending champion Sifan Hassan, reigning world champion Faith Kipyegon, and WR holder Gudaf Tsegay.
In addition, she claimed a second gold medal in the 10,000m finishing in 30:43.25. Her successful double titles made her the third woman in history to win both events at the same Olympic games.
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To cap off her monumental season, Chebet attempted to break the 5000m WR of 14:00.21 set by Tsegay in 2023 to become the first woman under the 14-minute barrier. However, with pacing only to 2000m and the weather conditions proving to be too poor for a record attempt, she was unable to achieve this feat but her personal best of 14:05.92 to win the race was a world-leading and a new meeting record.
On September 14, she won the 5000m Diamond League final in Brussels, to crown her iconic season as the undisputed queen of the long-distance events.
Beatrice Chebet's journey to global stardom as a long-distance runner
In 2016, a neighbour noticed her talent and persuaded her grandmother, who she was living with, to let her join Paul Kemei's Lemotit Athletics Camp in Londiani.
Less than a year later, Chebet earned her first national selection for the 2017 World U18 Championships in Nairobi, where she finished fourth in the 3000m. The following year at the 2018 World U20 Championships, she won the 5000m title and the 2019 Cross Country junior title.
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Year 2022 marked her path to greatness as she became the African and Commonwealth Games 5000m champion, as well as world championships silver medallist.
Chebet claimed the Cross Country title in 2023, won the 10000m bronze medal at the world championships in Budapest, became the World Road Running 5km champion, clocked the third-fastest 5000m in history (14:05.92) at the Diamond League final in September, and set a 5km Road WR of 14:13 on 31 December in Barcelona, before her record-breaking Olympic 2024 season.
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