Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah is the World Female Athlete of the Year for 2021. Thompson-Herah, the five-time Olympic champion, represented Jamaica at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and won gold in the 100-meter, 200-meter, and 4×100-meter competitions. The World Female Athlete of the Year for 2021 title winner was 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.
Thompson-Herah, beat out the following finalists for the World Female Athlete of the Year award:
Sifan Hassan, NED
– Olympic 5000m and 10,000m champion
– Olympic 1500m bronze medallist
– Broke the world 10,000m record
Faith Kipyegon, KEN
– Olympic 1500m champion
– Diamond League 1500m champion
– Kenyan 1500m record
Sydney McLaughlin, USA
– Olympic 400m hurdles champion
– Olympic 4x400m champion
– Set two world 400m hurdles records
Yulimar Rojas, VEN
– Olympic triple jump champion
– Diamond League triple jump champion
– World triple jump record
Norway’s Karsten Warholm won the World Athletics Male Athlete of the Year Award
The finalists were selected through a three-way voting process in which members of the World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family cast votes via email; fans were able to cast online votes through the social media platforms of World Athletics. A graphic of each nominee was 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 counted as one vote. The vote from the World Athletics Council accounted for 50 percent of the result. The votes by the World Athletics Family and the public accounted for 25 percent. The voting ended on November 6, 2021, at midnight, and the five finalists were announced. The award will be presented at the World Athletics Awards ceremony in December of 2021.
