American legend Michael Johnson left puzzled by World Athletics’ Awards decision

Johnson is puzzled by the decision to name six different individuals as World Athletes of the Year for the first time in history.

American sprint legend Michael Johnson has criticised World Athletics’ decision to hand the Athlete of the Year award to six different individuals terming it “a bad idea”.

The organisation made an odd decision to have six different categories, rather than the usual holistic award given to the best athlete of the year in both the male and female categories regardless of specialty.

The adaptation of the World Athlete of the Year honours awarded this year follows feedback received during the voting process. 

When it came to compiling the votes, athletes, fans and World Athletics Family members commented that it was incredibly hard to limit the vote to just one athlete, because of the various disciplines and the vast differences in skill sets required.

As a result, the 2023 World Athlete of the Year awards have been divided into three event categories: track, field, and out of stadia.

This has generated plenty of debate and division of opinions among many track and field runners, and Johnson, a four-time Olympic champion and eight-time world champion, remains puzzled by the decision.

“Am I the only person who thinks having six athletes of the year is a bad idea? Am I missing something?” Johnson wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

The 56-year-old has however admitted that there is some sense behind the decision having seen that the award recognises different categories.

“Just saw it is track, field, and out of stadia categories. So maybe it makes sense.”

Tigist Assefa, Mondo Duplantis, Kelvin Kiptum, Faith Kipyegon, Noah Lyles and Yulimar Rojas were the six individuals announced as World Athletes of the Year for 2023.

Assefa, Duplantis, Kiptum and Kipyegon set world records in their respective events in 2023, while all six World Athletes of the Year secured world titles or major marathon wins.

posted Wednesday December 13th
by Mark Kinyanjui