Mondo Duplantis, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone Win World Athlete Of The Year Honors

The Ballon d’Or of global track and field, World Athletics’ annual World Athlete of the Year recognitions, was announced on Sunday at the Athletics Awards in Monaco as Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis and American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone earned top honors for men and women.

The recognition was Duplantis’ third overall World Athlete of the Year win, following top honors in 2020 and 2022, while the top prize went to McLaughlin-Levrone for the second time since 2022. Both athletes also won athlete of the year honors in the men’s field and women’s track categories. Previously, they also won Rising Star honors in 2018, well before their emergence on the global stage.

Elsewhere, Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi, the world champion at 800 meters, won Athlete of the Year in men’s track, while Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers won Athlete of the Year in the women’s field category after her gold in the high jump in Tokyo.

McLaughlin-Levrone was up against her rival, the Netherlands’ Femke Bol, in the final voting for best year on the track. That ultimately left American Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, who won the triple crown at worlds (claiming wins in the 100m, 200m and 4×100), out of the conversation, along with Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet, who set a world record in the 5,000 meters in July and won the distance double at worlds.

How Mondo Duplantis Won His Third World Athlete Of The Year Honor

The 26-year-old Duplantis, the world’s greatest pole vaulter and the winner of the last two Olympic titles in the event, was the overwhelming favorite to take home the crown after he surpassed the 6.30-meter barrier in Tokyo, surpassing his 14th world record in September.

That mark was 0.22 centimeters better than the next-best athlete over the 2025 season and his third outdoor world title in a row, following wins in Budapest and Eugene.
He was undefeated in 16 competitions, earning a world indoor title in March and a world outdoor win in September, while he’s been effectively unbeaten since July 2023, registering 37 straight victories on the scoresheet. No men’s pole vaulter in history has accomplished a two-year unblemished run like Duplantis before–and no one probably ever will again.

“Thank you so much. This is such a huge honor,” Duplantis told World Athletics. “Thank you to the jury and World Athletics for voting me in yet again. I hope to keep pushing it. I hope to keep irritating everyone who has to vote for me for years to come. I’m proud to represent everyone who supports me – my family and my future wife. It’s really important for me to win this for the field eventers. It’s very special, I’m going to really cherish this one.”

His win in September was the fourth world record of the year, following major leaps in February (6.27m), June (6.28m) and August (6.29m). Strategically, Duplantis bases his world-record vying clearances around a notable performance clause: Every time he breaks a world record, he earns another $100,000 from his contract.

How Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone Earned Her Second World Athlete of the Year Recognition

In McLaughlin-Levrone’s case, the American won her first 400 meter world title in Tokyo in September, clocking the globe’s second-fastest time in history at 47.78 seconds–in the fastest 400-meter final in history. She was just 18 hundredths-of-a-second off Marita Koch’s world record of 47.60. It’s a time that set a new World Championship record and was just two-tenths faster than 2024 Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino.

Furthermore, the win was also part of an undefeated run over the 2025 campaign, with the 26-year-old New Jersey native going undefeated in the 400 and 400-meter hurdles over the season. Like Duplantis, she’s on quite the run, too. She’s scored wins in either the 400m or 400-meter hurdles in her last 24 outings.

She also anchored the American team to another world championship gold over the 4×400, earning her third world title in the event since 2019.

“For me, 2025 was a year of stepping outside of the comfort zone and pushing the bounds of what was mentally and physically possible,” McLaughlin-Levrone told World Athletics. “I want to continue pushing boundaries in 2026.”