World Athletics announced its annual award winners in Monaco two nights ago, with Armand Duplantis and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone taking home male and female World Athlete of the Year honors.
This is the fourth time Duplantis has won the award, giving him the second most wins since the award’s inauguration in 1988, behind only Usain Bolt, who has won six times.
Along with winning the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo (Duplantis’ third consecutive World Championship gold), he also broke his own world record four times this season.
McLaughlin-Levrone won the award for the second time and the first time in three years. The World Record holder in the 400-meter hurdles gave up the event to focus on the 400-meter flat this year. Her time of 47.78 seconds from the semi-finals of the World Championships is the second-fastest in the event’s history and only 0.18 seconds off the world record.
After watching the award ceremony this weekend, we started thinking about who might be giving their acceptance speeches in 2026. Here are our early predictions for next year’s track, field, and overall athlete of the year awards. For the sake of this exercise, we’ll assume that the 2025 winners can’t win again in 2026.
Women’s Track Athlete of the Year
Our Pick: Nadia Battocletti
Nadia Battocletti is the silver medalist from the 2025 Tokyo World Athletics Championships and the 2024 Paris Olympics in the 10,000-meter. She also picked up a bronze medal in the 5,000-meter at the World Championships.
The Defending European Champion in both events is continuing to improve, having lowered her 5,000-meter personal best in each of the past three seasons and her 10,000-meter best every year since 2023, when she started running the event.
We’re predicting that 2026 will be the year she finally stands on the top of a world podium and that she’ll cap her season with a 5,000-meter victory at the World Athletics Ultimate Championships in September. The 10,000-meter won’t be contested at these championships.
Men’s Track Athlete of the Year
Our Pick: Kishane Thompson
Like Battocletti, Kishane Thompson finished second at the 2024 Olympics and 2025 World Championships in his event. The 100-meter specialist has now run the fastest time in the world in both 2024 and 2025 and sits sixth all-time in the event with a personal best of 9.75 seconds, set at this year’s Jamaican Championships.
We’re predicting that Thompson will finally put it all together at the World Ultimate Athletic Championships this summer in his age-25 season and become the event’s inaugural champion as well as World Athletics Track Athlete of the Year.
Thompson may need to run a time that really wows us to take home the honor since he hasn’t run the 200-meter since 2022. A time under 9.69 seconds would help, since it would make him the fastest man of all time not named Usain Bolt.
Female Field Athlete of the Year
Our Pick: Tara Davis-Woodhall
Tara Davis-Woodhall was the runner-up this year at the World Athletics Awards ceremony, finishing second to only Nicola Olyslagers.
There’s little more that Davis-Woodhall could have done this season to make herself a compelling case for the award. She went undefeated, set the three longest jumps of the year, and won the World Championships.
Perhaps winning the Diamond League Final would have been enough to give her the edge this year, but she elected to only compete at the Diamond League meetings in Eugene and Stockholm.
We predict that she’ll once again be on top of the podium at the World Ultimate Championships, as well as the Diamond League Final in Brussels, if she chooses to compete.
Male Field Athlete of the Year
Our Pick: Ethan Katzberg
Despite being 23 years old, Ethan Katzberg is already a two-time world champion in the hammer throw and the defending Olympic champion. He currently sits number five on the all-time list and has the farthest throw in the world in over 20 years.
Seemingly, the last milestone remaining for him is the world record. Assuming the Duplantis will break his own world record again next year, which seems like a fair guess, Katzberg will likely need to break the hammer record to edge him out.
Katzberg now been over the 84-meter mark three times and holds three of the top 29 marks of all time in the event. His best of 84.70 meters puts him a little over 2 meters behind Yuriy Sedykh’s world record of 86.74 meters. We predict that he’ll hit this mark at some point in 2025, likely at a circuit meeting mid-season. Perhaps the Kip Keino Classic?
Women’s World Athlete of the Year
Our Pick: Nadia Battocletti
We’re predicting that Battocletti’s victory in the 5,000-meter at the World Ultimate Championships will earn her the honor of athlete of the year. Although the 10,000-meter isn’t contested at the World Ultimate Championships, she’ll likely be near the top of the rankings by the end of the year.
Men’s World Athlete of the Year
Our Pick: Ethan Katzberg
We predict that Ethan Katzberg will have a career year in 2026, breaking the world record and winning World Athlete of the Year. Breaking the world record will be enough to edge out Kishane Thompson for the honor.