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Kenyans Faith Kipyegon, Beatrice Chebet and American Gabby Thomas did not come out on top in the social media vote for the World Athlete of the Year Award but who was the surprise winner?
Olympics 100m champion Julien Alfred may be coming from St Lucia, a country whose population is just over 179,000, but she is among the athletes who topped the social media vote for the Female Athlete of the Year Award.
Social media voting for the World Athletics Athlete of the Year Award closed on Sunday October 27 and according to the St Lucia Times, Alfred finished second behind American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the Olympics 400m hurdles champion, who topped the poll, while Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon was third.
Fans of the six nominees for Female Athlete of the Year Track, were to cast their vote with a like on Facebook and Instagram and a retweet on X, and after the vote closed, McLaughlin-Levrone had amassed a total of over 190,000 from the three platforms, with Alfred second with 126,906 votes while Kipyegon had 98,000 in third place.
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05:20 - 30.10.2024
Why Sabastian Sawe deserves World Athletics Out of Stadium Athlete of the Year nomination
World Athletics has nominated five athletes for the Men’s Out of Stadium Athlete of the Year award, sparking controversy over the omission of consistent road runner Sabastian Sawe, despite his impressive season.
Three-time Olympics champion Gabby Thomas was fourth with just over 92,000 votes from the social media poll.
McLaughlin-Levrone was pushed to the summit by her huge Instagram following, with 180,000 of her total votes coming from the platform, while Alfred collected the most Facebook votes, garnering over 37,000 followed by Kipyegon, who had 35,000 from the platform.
Kenyans on Twitter (KOT), or now Kenyans on X, played a major part in Kipyegon, topping the X (formerly Twitter) vote where she led after polling over 15,000 votes from the platform, followed by her Kenyan compatriot Beatrice Chebet, who had just over 5,000 votes, as Alfred was third with 2,500.
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10:30 - 25.10.2024
World Athlete of the Year Award: What Faith Kipyegon, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Noah Lyles & Co stand to earn
Bumper rewards are in the offing for athletes who will be crowned overall winners at the World Athletics Awards gala with Faith Kipyegon, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Noah Lyles among the nominees.
Instagram also helped push the numbers for Thomas, the Olympics 200m champion, who garnered over 80,000 votes from the platform, same as Marileidy Paulino, the Olympics 400m hurdles champion, from the Dominican Republic.
The social media vote alone will, however, not determine the winner of the prestigious award but will play a role in settling on the two finalists in each category.
The World Athletics Council’s vote will count for 50 percent of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and social media votes will each count for 25 percent of the result.
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15:29 - 24.10.2024
Smiling assassin Faith Kipyegon reacts to 2024 World Athletics awards nomination
Faith Kipyegon has expressed her gratitude after being nominated for the 2024 World Athletics Women’s Track Athlete of the Year, following a record-breaking season and her third Olympic 1500m
Once the finalists have been established, a fan vote will open – for all registered users of Inside Track – to help determine the overall World Athletes of the Year.
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