2022 Women's World Athlete of the Year: Here are the five finalists
The winner of the World Athletics award will be unveiled in December.
Athletics
Three-time Olympic champion Shelly-Anne Fraser-Pryce headlines the finalists for the 2022 Women's World Athlete of Year.
The 35-year-old Jamaican is one of the five world champions making the final shortlist for the World Athletics award. The other four are Venezuelan triple jump world record holder Yulimar Rojas, USA’s 400m hurdles gold medallist Sydney McLaughlin, Peruvian race walk double champion Kimberly Garcia and Nigerian 100m hurdles gold medallist Tobi Amusan.
The shortlist followed the conclusion of the voting process that closed on Monday 3 October. Fans voted online via the World Athletics social media platforms where 1.3 million were registered.
The fan vote comprised 25% of the total, with the World Athletics Council vote making 50% and the World Athletics Family counting for the other 25%.
The winner will be announced on 5 December.
The finalists for the Women’s 2022 World Athlete of the Year (in alphabetical order):
Tobi Amusan, Nigeria
Amusan is the world 100m hurdles champion, and the Diamond League, Commonwealth and African 100m hurdles champion. Amusan also dashed to the 100m hurdles world record of 12.12 seconds in Oregon.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Jamaica
The fastest woman in the world this year won her fifth women's 100m gold medal at the Championships. Fraser-Pryce then ran a huge world-leading 10.62 seconds at the Monaco Diamond League. Even more impressive is that the Jamaican, who is also the Diamond League 100m champion, became the first woman in history to break 10.70 races seven times in the same season. She also picked up world silvers in the 200m and 4x100m relays.
READ MORE: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce: “Motherhood doesn’t diminish your capabilities”
Sydney McLaughlin, USA
McLaughlin ended her season with double gold in the 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay. She bettered her own world 400m hurdles record twice this season. The American track star sped to 51.41 at the U.S. championships and further improved the world record to 50.68 on her way to gold in Oregon.
READ MORE: Sydney McLaughlin: Most asked questions about 400m hurdles Olympic champion and world record holder
Kimberly Garcia, Peru
Garcia put Peru on the World Athletics map with double race walk gold medals at the World Athletics Championships.
She won her nation’s first-ever World Athletics Championships medal in the women’s 20km race walk. Then the 29-year-old added the 35km race walk title in a South American record to complete an amazing double. She also helped her team to bronze at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships.
Yulimar Rojas, Venezuela
Rojas improved her world triple jump record to 15.74m in Belgrade where she retained the world indoor title before dominating at the World Championships, where she won her third global outdoor title. She wrapped up the season as the Diamond League triple jump champion.
READ MORE: Yulimar Rojas: Top things to know about the world champion triple jumper