Elaine Thompson-Herah, 29, has received a nomination for the title of World Athlete of the Year for 2021 from World Athletics. Sprinter Thompson-Herah represented Jamaica at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and won gold in the 100-meter, 200-meter, and 4×100-meter competitions. She joins nine other nominees from which the title winner will be chosen by a panel of athletics experts.
In addition to winning multiple gold medals in Tokyo, Thompson-Herah is the second-fastest woman in history, running the women’s 100 meters in 10.54 seconds at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon. This is second only to the record of 10.49 seconds set by Florence Griffith-Joyner of the United States in 1988.
In addition to Thompson-Herah, nominees for the World Athlete of the Year award include American discus champion Valarie Allman; Puerto Rico’s 100-meter hurdles champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn; Sifan Hassan, 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter champion from the Netherlands; Kenyan Olympic 1,500-meter champion Faith Kipyegon; Olympic high jump champion from Russia Mariya Lasitskene; Shaunae Miller-Uibo, Olympic 400-meter champion from the Bahamas; Athing Mu, 800-meter and 4×400-meter champion from the United States; and Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas, Olympic triple jump champion.
Finalists for the award are selected through a three-way voting process in which members of the World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family will cast votes via email; fans can cast online votes through the social media platforms of World Athletics. A graphic for each nominee will be posted to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. A “like” posted by a fan to an athlete’s graphic on Facebook or Instagram or a retweet on Twitter will count as one vote. The vote from the World Athletics Council will count for 50 percent of the result. The votes by the World Athletics Family and the public will each count for 25 percent. The voting, which is open now, ends on November 6, 2021, at midnight. World Athletics will announce five finalists at the end of the voting period, and the award will be presented at the World Athletics Awards ceremony in December of 2021.