On December 5, 2020 Pole Vaulter Mondo Duplantis of Sweden was named as the male World Athletes of the Year(2020) and Triple Jumper Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela as the female World Athletes of the Year(2020) at the World Athletics Awards 2020. The award is annually given by World Athletics, the international governing body for the sport of athletics.
- Mondo Duplantis, who is 21 years old is the youngest athlete ever to be named as the World Athlete of the Year. He is also the first Swedish man or woman to win the award.
- Mondo Duplantis and Yulimar Rojas are world Record Breakers.
Virtual Ceremony
The award winners were named at the virtual ceremony hosted by legendary sprint stars Sanya Richards-Ross and Ato Boldon.
About Mondo Duplantis
i.Armand “Mondo” Duplantis broke the record held by Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie and Ukrainian Sergey Bubka, with the highest pole vault clearances indoors (6.18 meters) and outdoors in (6.15).
ii.He has received many medals including, gold medal at the 2015 World Youth Championships, gold medal at the 2018 European Championships, silver medal at the 2019 World Championships and Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal(2020) among others.
iii.He is the recipient of Rising Star Award in 2018.
About Yulimar Rojas:
i.Yulimar Andrea Rojas Rodríguez with her leap of 15.43m, became the world record holder in women’s triple jump indoor
ii.She is the Olympic silver medallist (2016 Rio de Janeiro), two time World Champion (2017 London and 2019 Doha).
iii.She is also a two time World Indoor Championship (2016 Portland and 2018 Birmingham) in Triple jump.
Other Winners of World Athletics Awards 2020:
i.Member Federations Award– Polski Związek Lekkiej Atletyki (Polish Athletics Association)
ii.Covid Inspiration Award- Ultimate Garden Clash, an original idea by Renaud Lavillenie
iii.President’s Award-Tommie Smith, Peter Norman and John Carlos
iv.Coaching Achievement Award– Helena and Greg Duplantis
v.Athletes Community Award– To All athletics clubs around the world
vi.World Athletics Photograph of the Year– Michael Steele’s photograph of young children competing at the Discovery Cross Country Championships in Eldoret, Kenya
About The World Athlete of the Year:
i.The award is for the athletes participating in events within the sport of athletics organised by World Athletics including track and field, cross country running, road running, and racewalking.
ii.It is annually bestowed for each gender since 1988.
Recent Related News:
i.On August 21, 2020, National Sports Awards 2020 were announced by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. The total of 73 awardees in 7 categories will receive their awards from the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind at a specially organized virtual function from Rashtrapati Bhawan on August, 29 2020 i.e. on National Sports Day.
ii.On 23rd August, 2020 Former players Jacques Kallis (South Africa), Lisa Caprini Sthalekar(Australia) and Syed Zaheer Abbas Kirmani(Pakistan) were inducted into the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Hall of Fame of the class of 2020 in a virtual ceremony.
About World Athletics:
It is formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations, both abbreviated as the IAAF.
HeadQuarters-Monaco
President– Sebastian COE
