World athlete of the year a title that represents Excellence consistency and the ability to compete at the highest level of track and field since 1988 when this award was first put into practice a total of 76 athletes have managed to win this title and you probably recognize many of these names there's Carl Lewis and flojo back in 1988 there's Michael Johnson in the mid 1990s there's the legend himself of the javelin John jesn and of course there's Usain bold who won this title more than anyone else in history with six total World athlete of the Year titles winning this award is not easy but what exactly does it take to win World athlete of the Year some say this title goes to the person who reaches the highest peak during any given season an Olympic title or World Championship gold are almost required here some say that this title is earned through sheer consistency showing up meet after meat and continuing your dominance at the highest level you can even argue that this title comes from the impact that a person has from maybe one or just two performances from a given season and we saw this from Kelvin kiptum last year who won the road racer of the year for his two performances in the London marathon and the Chicago marathon no matter which way you analyze the requirements for this title you simply have to be one of the greatest athletes in the world and you have to show up when it matters the most and having this on your resume pretty much guarantees your spot in track and field history hist earlier today we saw World Athletics officially release their picks for the track athlete of the year on both the women's and men's sides now on the women's side we have many incredible names we've got the Olympic champion Mar lady Pino in the 400 there's the world recordbreaker city mclin levrone in the 400 hurdles there's the St Lucian Legend and the 100 meter Olympic champion Julian Alfred there's the 200 meter Olympic champion Gabby Thomas there's the greatest 1500 and Miler of all time on the women's side Faith Kon and there's the woman who pulled off the 5,000 and 10,000 m double this year in Paris beatric chabet from Kenya this list is highly competitive and through a combination of online votes and World Athletics chair votes one woman will be selected at the end of the year as the winner for 2024 and as the upload of this video Mar lady Pino from the Dominican Republic currently holds the lead with just over 40,000 total votes however on the men's side we currently have a much closer race here are the six selections from World Athletics for the men's track athlete of the year and these are some real Superstars we've got the 800 meter Olympic champion Emanuel wanon from Kenya there's the 400 hurdles champion from the United States Ry Benjamin we have the world record breaker and the 5,000 Olympic champion yakam Binga brixon there's the 110 hurdles champ and the new sub 13 second goat Grant Holloway from the the US and then there are the two sprinters that currently hold the number one and number two positions in total votes it's no all from the US and let C TBO from batswana now currently too has more votes than Noah ly as he currently has just over 27,000 and Noah has just over 20,000 this is still a sizable lead from toboo but considering that yaking brickson follows in third with just over 10,000 these numbers put both toboo and ly well ahead of everyone else what I find really interesting about this portion of the voting process is the interactions that take place in the comment section and specifically for let tooo the entire continent of Africa appears to be supporting this man through this voting process which is just awesome fan interaction and it proves that tobo's 2024 really was that influential for this season alone toboo broke the world record in the 300 he won the Olympic gold in the 200 MERS with the time of 19. 4 6 and he absolutely showed up for the 4x4 finals in the Olympics running the second fastest 4x4 split of all time at 43. 3 seconds tobo's talents as a 21-year-old really are some Next Level abilities and I personally have never seen anyone quite like him at this age in track history but what about Noah ly what about his 2024 season and can it hold up to the record breaking year of tooo now first off let's get this disclaimer out of the way early both athletes had incredible 2024's both are Olympic Champions and I think there are many great talking points that could bring both athletes as the athlete of the year for 2024 so this breakdown is not trying to convince you to go one way or the other it's more just a comparison of how they raced and what their honors looked like this year so with that in mind let's move on first let's break down exactly what Noah did this year in 2024 and unlike toboo he had a solid indoor season and up until I started doing research for this video I had actually completely forgotten about his indoor campaign during his indoor season lyes won the US Nationals in the 60 M at 6.
43 he won the world silver medal in the 60 M Dash as well and he also played a role in the 4x4s during the world indoor Champs in Glasgow Scotland running a third leg split of 45. 6 eight for this year's indoor season ly also managed to take down Christian Coleman in the US Nationals in the 60 a feat which very few athletes ever get to put on their resume and while this indoor season was quite the Breakthrough year for Noah his outdoor season brought even more success for this year's outdoor campaign he won the US Nationals in the 100 in the 200 M he anchored the US team in the Bahamas at the world Athletics relays in the 4x1 taking taking the win with a final leg split of 8. 88 he won the Olympic finals in the 100 in 9.
79 just barely out leaning Keane Thompson from Jamaica and he also earned the bronze in the 200 at 19. 7 altogether both indoors and Outdoors ly earned a total of five Global medals this season including the world Athletics relay championship in the Bahamas and when we compare this season to toboo we actually see a very similar story as we previously mentioned his season was truly otherworldly he broke the world record in the 300 he lowered his National Record in the 100 at 9. 86 seconds he won the Olympic gold with a stellar 200 clocking of 19.
4 6 and he also ran a 43. 0 4 in the 4x4 in Paris but we also need to mention that he ran in this year's World Athletics relays in the 4x400 M where along with his batswana teammates they won the gold medal in 2 9. 11 and for his second leg he ran the fastest split of this entire competition at 43.
72 altogether toboo earned three Global medals this season two in the Olympic Games and one in the world Athletics relays and notably tobo's 200 time of 19. 4 6 was actually the highest scoring moment for either Noah or toboo in 2024 so this gold medal in 1946 was most definitely a gold medal worth remembering the similarities between Noah and letel this season are numerous both competed very well in the 100 and the 200 both earned a diamond League win this year both ran solid relays in the 4x4 both set personal records and both athletes grew to new heights during this year's Olympic Games for some Noah's 100 title in the Olympic Games in 9.
