Mondo Duplantis & Beatrice Chebet Crowned 2024 LetsRun.com Athletes of the Year

We kicked off our 2024 end-of-year coverage earlier this week by handing out awards in a number of categories, from Coach of the Year and Breakthrough of the Year to Most Surreal Moment of the Year and even Pop Anthem of the Year. Today we continue by honoring the very best of the best in the sport of track & field in 2024.

Technically, we’re handing out six awards today, as decided by the LetsRun.com braintrust of Robert Johnson and Jonathan Gault, with Weldon Johnson having playing devil’s advocate to ensure confidence in the final picks: male and female Athlete of the Year, Runner of the Year, and Distance Runner of the Year.

On the women’s side, however, Kenyan superstar Beatrice Chebet swept all three honors.

On the men’s side, we had three different winners. Pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis of Sweden takes top honors as overall Athlete of the Year, hurdle ace Grant Holloway is our Runner of the Year, and Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen is our Distance Runner of the Year.

Below, a tribute to all of our winners and our rationale for selecting them.

Want more LRC awards? Check out our first year-end awards article from Tuesday: LRC And The 2024 LetsRun.com Awards Go To…… Are you enjoying this year end talk? Then check out our year-in-review podcast: LRC What a Crazy Year of Track and Field: Highlights, Lowlights, Trivia

Female Athlete of the Year (and Runner/Distance Runner of the Year): Beatrice Chebet

This was a tough call between Chebet, 24, who emerged as the world’s best female distance runner in 2024, and American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, 25, who offered further proof that she is the greatest female hurdler to ever live. Either would be a deserving winner of our Athlete of the Year award.

Chebet’s 2024 accomplishments:

-World cross country champion
-10,000m world record of 28:54.14 — the first woman ever under 29:00 on the track
-Double Olympic gold in 5,000 and 10,000
-Diamond League 5,000m champion
-World leader in 5,000m (14:09.52)
-5k road world record of 13:54 — the first woman ever under 14:00 on any surface
-11-2 record (losses at Kenyan XC champs and Kenyan Olympic trials)

SML’s 2024 accomplishments:

-Broke 400m hurdles world record twice (50.65 at US Olympic Trials, 50.37 at Olympics)
-Olympic gold in 400m hurdles
-Split 47.7 at Olympics as part of USA’s gold-medal-winning 4×400; fastest relay split since 1984
-4th-fastest 400m runner of 2024 (48.75 sb) and 8th-fastest 200m (22.07; beat Olympic champ Gabby Thomas head-to-head at LA Grand Prix)
-9-0 record

The case for Chebet is that she took on all comers and beat them all, all year long. Chebet began 2024 by winning the Juan Muguerza cross country race in Spain on January 7 and closed it out with her 5k road world record on December 31. She showed up and won at World XC in March, then won two individual golds at the Olympics, and capped her track campaign by winning the Diamond League final. By contrast, SML skipped World Indoors, only ran one individual event at the Olympics (granted, the schedule made the 400/400 hurdles double tougher than the 5k/10k double), and did not run a single Diamond League race all year (those two races in Brussels in September were not official DL races).

Plus Chebet did it all in what is arguably the most competitive era ever of women’s distance running. She outkicked the 1500m GOAT (and reigning world champion) Faith Kipyegon to win a tactical Olympic 5,000, and defeated perhaps the greatest female distance runner ever, Sifan Hassan, in both the 5,000 and 10,000.

The case for McLaughlin-Levrone is one based on pure dominance. Chebet may have set the world record in the 10,000, but she had to dig all the way to hold off Nadia Battocletti for gold in Paris. Meanwhile McLaughlin set two world records in her main event in 2024, and the gulf between SML and every other 400m hurdler in history is enormous. Her winning margin in the 400m hurdles in Paris was 1.50 seconds — larger than Chebet’s winning margin in both the 5,000 and 10,000. SML ran so fast in that race that Femke Bol, the second-fastest 400m hurdler ever, fell apart in the second half and faded to bronze simply because she had tried to keep up with SML through 200m.

Bol’s pb of 50.95 is 1.15% slower than SML’s world record of 50.37. Not only is that gap larger than the gap between Chebet’s 28:54.14 and Letesenbet Gidey‘s 29:01.03 (0.40%), it is easily the largest gap between the all-time #1 and #2 performer in any women’s track event. And if anything, that understates SML’s dominance considering Bol’s time was run at elevation at La Chaux-de-Fonds. Sub in Bol’s sea-level pb of 51.30 and the gap balloons to 1.85%. That’s even larger than Ruth Chepngetich‘s gap in the marathon (1.50%).

Plus McLaughlin-Levrone excelled in other events when she ran them. She beat Olympic champ Gabby Thomas in a 200 at the LA Grand Prix on May 18 and just missed the American record in the 400m by running 48.75 at the NYC Grand Prix — a time that could have been even faster if not for the wind buffeting the stadium.

It’s a tough call, but we’re going with Chebet. SML is more dominant in her chosen event, and her 50.37 world record in Paris was one of the greatest performances in the history of the sport. But we value athletes who compete a lot and challenge themselves. Sydney didn’t run World Indoors, she didn’t run a second individual event in Paris and her decision not to run the mixed 4 x 400 in Paris likely cost the US a gold medal.

We’re rewarding Chebet for running World XC and the Diamond League and doubling up at the Olympics and her two world records.

Disagree with us? Have your say on the LetsRun.com messageboard: MB TFN’s women’s AOY is Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone – Should it have been Beatrice Chebet?

Male Athlete of the Year: Mondo Duplantis

Duplantis has been king of the pole vault for five years now, and 2024 was his best season yet. Undefeated? Check. Olympic gold? Check. World record? Check times three. He cleared six meters 17 times in 2024 (at 12 separate meets) — worth noting considering the rest of the world, combined, managed it just four times all year. Hell, he even beat Karsten Warholm in a 100m match race.

When someone is as dominant as Mondo, all those wins and records can blend together. But Duplantis often saves something special for the biggest moments: of his 10 world records, three have come in global finals, including a 6.25m clearance on his final attempt at this summer’s Olympics that sent the Stade de France into rapture. Mondo is just 25, so he should be around for a while longer, but it’s worth savoring every moment. Because breaking the world three times per year is not normal — no matter how much he makes it seem that way.

Male Runner of the Year: Grant Holloway

Crowning Mondo as overall Athlete of the Year was an easy decision. Deciding on a Runner of the Year? Much harder.

Noah Lyles enjoyed a terrific season and was one of only two male runners to claim two individual medals at the Olympics (Grant Fisher was the other). He also earned a silver at World Indoors. But his times weren’t historically fast — he didn’t finish as the world leader in either the 100 or the 200, and while he set a pb of 9.79 in the 100, his 200 sb of 19.53 was his slowest since the COVID year of 2020.

Letsile Tebogo bounced back remarkably well from the death of his mother in May and caught fire at the end of the season. He won Olympic gold in the 200 (in a world-leading 19.46) and claimed five Diamond League victories down the stretch. He also set a world best of 30.69 in the 300 in February and ran a heroic anchor leg of 43.04 on Botswana’s 4×400 to nab Olympic silver. But he also had a glaring six defeats on his resume, and that disqualifies him from being our Runner of the Year (even though he was World Athletics Athlete of the Year).

Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi was sensational in the 800 meters, breaking 1:42 four times (the most ever in a single year), winning Olympic gold and the Diamond League final, and moving into a tie for #2 on the all-time list with his 1:41.11 pb in Lausanne. His four fastest times this year rank #4, #6, #15, and #18 on the all-time performance list. He also set a road mile world record of 3:54 in April (since broken), though he didn’t race indoors and was beaten twice in 800m races in Paris and Silesia.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen was incredible all year and took down a historic world record by smashing (7:17.55) Daniel Komen‘s 7:20.67 for 3,000m from the record books in August. He also won Olympic gold in the 5,000 and five Diamond Leagues (against two defeats), including a 3:26.73 in Monaco in July that moved him to #4 on the all-time 1500 list. And yet in the event Ingebrigtsen values most, the 1500, Ingebrigtsen was not just beaten at the Olympics; he failed to medal. Even though Ingebrigtsen ran well in that race, it’s a major stain on his resume.

While strong arguments can be made for both Wanyonyi and Ingebrigtsen as Runner of the Year, ultimately for LetsRun.com, this award came down to two American hurdlers: Grant Holloway and Rai Benjamin. Holloway won nine of his 11 races in the 110m hurdles and set a career record with his 12th sub-13.00 clocking. Half of those clockings came in 2024, the second-most ever in a single year behind only Aries Merritt in 2012 (8). He also won Olympic gold and his 12.86 winning time at the Olympic Trials was the fourth-fastest time ever run. Indoors, Holloway remained undefeated for his life in the 60m hurdles (42″ barriers), running 7.27 to break his own world record and winning World Indoor gold.

Benjamin raced far less frequently — just four times in the 400 hurdles, plus one open 400 and one relay leg — but he won them all. He broke 47 seconds in all four of his 400 hurdle finals, clocking the #5, #5, #12, and #13 times in history, and split 43.18 in anchoring Team USA to 4×400 gold, the seventh-fastest split in history.

Historically, Benjamin’s times were faster than Holloway’s (whose best four times ranked #4, #15, #48, and #68 on the all-time list), but he just did not compete as often. Benjamin didn’t run World Indoors and ran only one Diamond League; meanwhile Holloway dominated indoors and won three Diamond Leagues (though he didn’t run the final). Those extra races and world indoor record were enough to convince us to give Holloway the nod.

Male Distance Runner of the Year: Jakob Ingebrigtsen

There is a debate to be had over who deserves to end 2024 ranked #1 in the world in the men’s 1500 meters between Cole Hocker and Jakob Ingebrigtsen (we lean toward Ingebrigtsen given his 4-1 head-to-head record). But when you take into account every distance event (1500 through marathon), there is no debate over which distance runner had the best 2024 season. Though Ingebrigtsen famously did not win his biggest race of the year, the Olympic 1500m final, he still ran well in that race (his 3:28.24 was faster than the previous Olympic record) and had the fastest time of the year in the men’s 1500 meters (3:26.73, #4 all-time). He also crushed a 28-year-old world record by running 7:17.55 in the 3,000 meters, and won the Olympic 5,000-meter title by 1.38 seconds — the largest margin of victory since Kenenisa Bekele in 2008. Add to that a 1500/5000 double at Europeans and five Diamond League victories and no distance runner had a better year overall than Ingebrigtsen.

Did we get it right? Let us know who you think should have won Athlete of the Year below: