Six of the best outdoor athletics performances of 2024
From incredible world records to masterful Olympic performances, the 2024 athletics season has been one for the ages.
The 2024 athletics season is drawing to a close following the culmination of the Diamond League Final in Brussels over the weekend, providing an opportunity to reflect on some truly iconic moments in the sport this year.
From Mondo Duplantis literally raising the bar in pole vaulting, to Sifan Hassan sprinting to Olympic marathon gold in the home straight, here are six of the best outdoor athletics performances of 2024.
Julien Alfred storms to Olympic (and Diamond League) 100m gold
Alfred made history in stunning fashion at Paris 2024, sprinting to gold in the women's 100m to become the first Olympic medal winner from the tiny island nation of Saint Lucia.
Alfred came into the Games having won the 60m title at the World Indoor Championships back in March (as well as a Diamond League victory in the event in July), but the expectation was for reigning world champion Sha'Carri Richardson to earn her first Olympic 100m crown.
Yet no one told Alfred how the race was supposed to play out; instead the 23-year-old exploded out of the blocks and strode away from the rest of the field in assured fashion to claim gold in 10.72 seconds, creating one of the defining moments of the Paris Olympics.
Alfred was unable to repeat her heroics in the 200m three days later, but still claimed an impressive silver behind the dominant Gabby Thomas.
The Saint Lucian capped off her season in style by winning the women's 100m title at the Diamond League Final in Brussels on Friday (13 September) in 10.88 seconds.
With her stunning performances in both competitions, Alfred now deservedly moves from 'underdog' to 'favourite' for the upcoming world championships in 2025.
Mondo Duplantis sets pole vault world record just 20 days after winning Olympic gold
With multiple world, Olympic, European and Diamond League gold medals to his name, it seems there is nothing left for Duplantis to conquer save a new world record - though he's got plenty of those, too.
At the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Duplantis won his second Olympic gold by clearing a height of 6.25m, setting a world record in the process.
Almost three weeks later, the 24-year-old raised the world record for the 10th time, scaling a height of 6.26m at the Silesia Diamond League meeting in Poland on 25 August. The Swede had already won the competition at a height of 6.00m before he asked the bar to be raised to 6.26m. He failed on his first attempt but made no mistake on his second, collapsing to the track in joy in front of a delirious crowd at the Silesian Stadium.
Duplantis collected his fourth Diamond League trophy this past weekend (14 September), clearing 6.11m to extend his winning streak in international competition to over a year.
Nafi Thiam becomes the first athlete with three mutli-event gold medals at the Olympic Games
Thiam's Olympic victory in Paris was a tightly-contested affair, but the Belgian's tally of 6,880 points placed her just ahead of silver medallist Katrina Johnson-Thompson's score of 6,844.
Thiam displayed her versatality throughout the seven athletic events that make up the heptathlon, seizing the lead for good in the penultimate event thanks to a superior performance in the javelin throw with a heave of 54.04m. That, coupled with a personal best throw of 15.54m in the shot put and season best in the 200m, was key in giving the 30-year-old her third successive Olympic gold medal - her eighth from the last nine major championships she's compete in since 2016.
Thiam now moves into select company as one of only two women to finish atop the podium in the same track and field event thrice. But while Anita Wlodarczyk won the hammer throw in 2012, 2016 and 2020, Thiam stands alone as the only person to have won a combined event three times at the Olympic Games.
Arshad Nadeem breaks Olympic javelin record to win gold
At Paris 2024, Nadeem made history prior to making a single throw in the final of the men's javelin at Paris 2024.
By simply reaching that stage of the competition, he became the first athlete from Pakistan to qualify for the final of any track and field event in Olympics history.
But the 27-year-old would go one step further, launching an absolute bolt into the Parisian night sky that soared to an Olympic record of 92.97m - the sixth-longest throw in the history of the sport.
That attempt would give the Nadeem the disctinction of becoming the first Pakistani to win an Olympic medal since 1992, the first athlete from Pakistan to win an Olympic gold since 1984 - and the first-ever medalliast from the country to win Olympic gold in an individual sport.
It was a wonderful moment for Nadeem, who once trained in a home-made gym where he lifted oil-filled canisters to gain strength and pitching iron-tipped eucalyptus branches to practise his throws.
Sifan Hassan wins Olympic marathon to complete long-distance hat-trick
Hassan secured the fourth and fifth Olympic medals of her career with bronze in the women's 5000m (5 August) followed by bronze in the 10,000m (9 August), but it was what happened on 11 August that etched her name in the history books.
The Paris 2024 marathon course was infamously daunting, thanks in large part to sections of steep climbs and soaring temperatures that saw many competitors withdraw from the race (including two-time Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge). So for Hassan to win the women's race in the manner she did, just two days after the 10,000m and six days after the 5000m, was almost unbelievable.
And yet the 31-year-old did win, unleasing a sprint attack in the final 150m to surge past Tigst Assefa and cross the line first in an Olympic record 2:22:55.
Hassan's marathon gold, in addition to the medals she won in the 5,000m and 10,000m, means she became the first woman in Olympic history to medal in that unique combination of distance events at the same edition of the Games, with only the great Czechia runner Emil Zatopek matching the feat with the three golds he won all the way back at Helsinki 1952.
Militiadis Tentoglou completes treble-winning year
Tentoglou may be an unfamiliar name to those who don't follow athletics regularly, but the Greek left no doubt as to his status as a long jump legend by successfully defending his Olympic title in Paris.
The 26-year-old hit a mark of 8.48m to become the first athlete to repeat as Olympic long jump champion in the 21st century.
Tentoglou's victory in Paris was his third major international gold of 2024, following on from successes at the European Championships in Rome and World Indoor Championships in Glasgow.
In total, Tentoglou now has 15 medals (including 13 gold) across the Olympic Games, world championships, world indoor championships, Diamond League, European Championships, European Indoor Championships, European Games, and Continental Cup. That is some record.