Alfred misses out on World Athletics Track Athlete of the Year

St. Lucia’s Olympic gold medalist Julien Alfred missed out on being named World Athletics Track Athlete of the Year, losing out to the United States’ Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone at the ceremony.

Alfred had an excellent year, winning gold in the women’s 100 meters and silver in the 200 meters at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She also won the 60-meter title at the World Indoor Championships and the 100-meter title at the Wanda Diamond League.

Her stellar performances won awards from the Association of National Olympic Committees, the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees, and Athletics Weekly.

However, it was still not enough to give her the victory over McLaughlin-Levrone, who had an unbeaten season, which included setting two World records and an Olympic record.

She won two gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, including the 400m hurdles, with a world-record time of 50.37 seconds, and has set a world record in the 400m hurdles six times in the last five years.

McLaughlin-Levrone was also voted World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year in 2022.

Meanwhile, Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands was named Female Athlete of the Year and Out Of Stadium Female Athlete of the Year.
Hassan’s triple medal at the Olympics in Paris was completed by her winning the final athletics gold medal of the Games with her success in the marathon in an Olympic record of 2:22:55.

Her stellar performance came just after she claimed bronze in the 10,000m and bronze in the 5,000 m, six days after her first medal.

Hassan became the first woman to win medals in the 5000m, 10,000m, and marathon at the same Games and the first athlete since Emil Zatopek, who won all three men’s titles in Helsinki in 1952.

Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine was declared Field Events Female Athlete of the Year.