Lol. World Athletics track athlete of the year finalist are SML and Femke Bol. What a joke. Where is Beatrice Chebet or MJW?

Kenyans and Africans are more active on X/FB and they vastly dominated support for their two athletes there. You’re looking just at IG (more popular in Europe).

It's actually not - it's for track running. "Athletics" would also include field events which this particular award doesn't.

I guess short sprints aren't part of athletics then because how Jefferson-Wooden isn't above both Bol and SML is absurd in itself.

MJW ran the 4th fastest time ever over 100m and added another 2 performances inside the world all-time top 20. Only SAFP has recorded more top 20 performances in a single season (2022). She ran a World Championships CR, was unbeaten over 100m and only lost twice over 200m back in GST when it's doubtful she gave a sh-t.

But the kicker should be that she won the 100-200 double in Tokyo which isn't as common as you think in the womens 100m at the World Championships. It's only been done twice before - in '91 by Katrin Krabbe (a year before she served a doping ban) and in '13 by SAFP. It's just hard to win both at the same WC's and she did.

She is honestly the number one contender - those Instagram fan votes are quite depressing in how lowly she was rated. I think you can then make solid cases for Chebet, Kipyegon and SML (I still find it hard to not have at least one of the world record performances elevate above what she did but that's just my opinion).

Bol? I mean she went unbeaten in an event where the best athlete in the event decided it for all intents and purposes it wasn't competitive or compelling enough to keep running it. No disrespect intended but it is what it is. There is no way her season was better than either MJW, Chebet or FK. I'm still trying to figure out the agenda at play here.

They know Chebet and MJW are to the gills. Their only mistake is not giving SML the same treatment.

Femke wrote a children's book. That may have been the tipping point

I don't know why people keep thinking this is an award for the best athlete ... it's not and never has been. The nominations are considered the best athletes, sure, but after the nominations it's just a popularity contest. Again, this is nothing new and I am truly baffled by the amount of people that don't seem to know this.

Just because you agreed with some of the previous winners (because you liked them or they were from your country) doesn't mean they were objectively the best performing that year.

WA has a yearly convention of thousand of federations in Monaco and pass out the awards. Seb has to make the federation do-nothings feel important since they have votes for Seb's office.

Seb has to pick darlings SML from LA and Femke from someplace in Europe to attract sponsors to pay for his convention and re-election as prez. That's the game WA plays at each meeting too. The bids have to include the week prior to the races, a convention center rental, fullly catered for 10,000 WA delegates from over 200 counties. Hope this helps.

Ah, yes! White girl clean, black/brown girls dirty. Of course.

What did Femke Bol even do this season? Beatrice Chebet and MJW robbed in broad daylight.

She spent all year not being from a country where every athlete dopes, which automatically puts her in front of Chebet.

A bit harsh, but yes, I am sure many voters shy away from declaring a Kenyan the Athlete of the Year. Doping is too likely, and it would be very embarrassing if that athlete gets caught after winning that award.

Have to agree.

Melissa Jefferson and Beatrice Chebet

Cant be because she is kenyan because they didnt seem to shy away from voting and crowning Faith kipyegon and kelvin kiptum as athletes of the year in 2023. Also Faith Cherotich and Emmanuel Wanyonyi were crowned rising world athletics stars of 2023.

And even if you argue for Rosa, Tebogo is also under Rosa management and he was the world athletics athlete of the year 2024.

So her country or management had nothing to do with it. They just realllllly wanted to award Femke Bol against sydney Levrone or whatever their agenda was

Come on, little man! Stuck in your grey English city, shouting at Kenyan clouds. You never disappoint. 😂

2023 ?
You must be new to this sport.

In 2011, Vivian Cheruiyot won both the 5K and the 10K at the world championships. She won the world cross country championships. She won the Diamond League. And the award was instead given to Sally Pearson.

I am not convinced. "many voters shy away..." does not mean it's impossible for a Kenyan to get nominated, if they are clearly better. It's just a handicap, which you also see it a bit here in this thread.

I'd also argue that the Kenyan reputation got worse in the last two years, including bans for four (!) world record holders, with Chepngetich the most spectacular one.

I watched the awards ceremony. When Sally Pearson was announced as the winner, even she had a look of shame because she knew Vivian deserved it. It looked like she wanted to give the award back to the organizers

I think if youre up against world record holders you should immediately be withdrawn and then double gold medalists at the biggest tournament of the year should take special consideration. I get it Bol is a DEI dan favorite

Stop being a bad mama Kenny. You already posted in the thread, you don't need to hide behind an unregistered name.