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Gidey, Hassan among Female World Athlete of the Year nominees

Of the 10 nominees for the World Athletics top female athlete of 2020, nine are runners

November 4, 2020
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On Tuesday, World Athletics announced the nominees for Female World Athlete of the Year, and nine of the 10 women listed are runners. These women have all had incredible 2020 seasons, and even with the months off from competition, they each managed to record many amazing achievements in the few opportunities they did get to race. With so many accomplishments across the board, any one of these women could win Athlete of the Year honours. Here are the nine runners with a shot at that title, plus the reasons they each deserve to win Female World Athlete of the Year. 

Elaine Thompson-Herah

Country: Jamaica

Specialty: 100m/200m 

Why she deserves to win: After winning gold in the 100m and 200m at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, Thompson-Herah hasn’t had the best few years, missing the podium at the world championships in both 2017 and 2019. One could hardly say she has performed poorly, but her expectations had to have been high following double Olympic gold. She turned that around in 2020, winning Diamond League races in Rome and Doha and closing her season with a perfect record in the 100m and just one loss in the 200m. She also ran the world-leading 100m time of 10.85 seconds, and she is one of only four women to have run sub-11 in 2020. 

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Femke Bol

Country: Netherlands

Specialty: 400m hurdles 

Why she deserves to win: At just 20 years old, Bol dominated the 400mH circuit this year. With her world-leading time of 53.79 seconds, she was the only woman to break 54 seconds in the event in 2020, and it was a Dutch record by almost a full second. In addition to her 400mH national record, Bol also ran to the Dutch 300mH best of 38.55 at a meet in the Czech Republic. Finally, she was undefeated in her six 400mH races in 2020, two of which were on the Diamond League stage.

Faith Kipyegon

Country: Kenya

Specialty: 1,500m 

Why she deserves to win: Kipyegon is an Olympic and world champion in the 1,500m, but in 2020, she focused on shorter events. Of her five races this year, three were in the 1,000m and the other two were over 800m and 1,500m. She was undefeated in all five races, and she posted world-leading results in the 800m and 1,000m, with times of 1:57.68 and 2:29.15. She came extremely close to beating the 24-year-old 1,000m world record of 2:28.98, but ultimately fell just short. Her dive into 800m racing was also a surprise, as it was her first time running the event since 2015, but she looked like a seasoned veteran of the two-lap race.

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Laura Muir

Country: Great Britain

Specialty: 1,500m 

Why she deserves to win: Muir had a tremendous season, breaking the British record in the 1,000m with a time of 2:30.82 and running the 1,500m world-leading time of 3:57.40. She made the podium in all 11 races she entered this season, and she was undefeated in the 1,500m. Muir finished in fifth place in the 1,500m at the 2019 world championships, and with her impressive season this year, she’s proven to be one of the top middle-distance runners in the world right now, less than a year out from the Tokyo Olympics. 

Hellen Obiri

Country: Kenya

Specialty: 5,000m 

Why she deserves to win: Obiri only raced four times in 2020, and she had three wins. Her one loss wasn’t pretty, and she ran to an 11th-place finish in the 1,500m at the Stockholm Diamond League, but her other runs in the 3,000m and 5,000m were stellar. She ran the world-leading time in the 3,000m with a 8:22.54 showing in Doha, and she also owned the world lead in the 5,000m until Letesenbet Gidey posted a world record in the event in October.  

RELATED: Letesenbet Gidey breaks 15K world record

Letesenbet Gidey

Country: Ethiopia

Specialty: 5,000m 

Why she deserves to win: As previously mentioned, Gidey broke the 5,000m world record earlier this year. Running at the NN Valencia World Record Day event — a race created specifically to break world records — Gidey posted an incredible 14:06.62, smashing the 12-year-old mark of 14:11.15. She also took a massive chunk out of her own PB at the distance, shaving more than 16 seconds off her previous best time. In addition to her historical run in Valencia, Gidey ran to a second-place finish in the 5,000m at the Monaco Diamond League event, which was her only other race of the year. 

Sifan Hassan

Country: Netherlands

Specialty: 1,500m/10,000m 

Why she deserves to win: In 2019, Hassan won gold in the 1,500m and 10,000m at the world championships, proving she’s one of the most versatile athletes competing right now. This year, she continued to show off her range, winning 5,000m, 10,000m and one-hour races. Hassan set two big records in 2020, starting with the one-hour world record in Brussels. After battling marathon world record-holder Brigid Kosgei for almost the entire race, Hassan pulled away to win with a total distance of 18,930m. A month later, she ran to a European 10,000m record in the Netherlands, where she ran 29:36.67 to smash Paula Radcliffe‘s 18-year-old mark of 30:01.09. 

RELATED: Hassan falls hard, still finishes second at Valencia Half-Marathon

Peres Jepchirchir

Country: Kenya

Specialty: Half-marathon 

Why she deserves to win: Jepchirchir only raced three times in 2020, but on two of those occasions, she set the women-only half-marathon world record. She first set the record at the Prague Half-Marathon in early September, where she posted a time of 1:05:34, beating the second-place finisher by more than a minute and a half. A little over a month later, she was on the start line of another half-marathon, this time at the world championships in Poland. This race was much closer, and the top three spots were only separated by three seconds. In the end, Jepchirchir won again, running 1:05:16 and winning her second world title. 

Ababel Yeshaneh

Country: Ethiopia

Specialty: Half-marathon  

Why she deserves to win: Yeshaneh finished in fifth place at the World Athletics Half-Marathon Championships, running an impressive time of 1:05:41, but her biggest result of 2020 (and only other run of the year) came in February at the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon in the United Arab Emirates. There, she ran a world-record time of 1:04:31, beating pre-race favourite Kosgei by 18 seconds to take the win.

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