European Athlete of the Year

Pole vaulter Armand Duplantis was the men's Rising Star of the Year in 2018 and men's Athlete of the Year in 2022 and 2024.

High jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh was the women's Rising Star of the Year in 2019 and women's Athlete of the Year in 2024.

The European Athlete of the Year award is an annual prize for sportspeople from Europe participating in athletics, including track and field, road running, and cross country running competitions. The election has been organised by the European Athletic Association (EAA), the European governing body for the sport of athletics, since 1993.

Each year, a shortlist is created by selecting the top European athlete in each event, based upon performances at the year's major championships. Only in exceptional circumstances will more than one athlete be shortlisted per event. Athletes who have served a doping ban of two years or more are ineligible.^[1] Via the EAA website, fans, media, and members of the EAA federations are allowed to vote for five male and five female athletes on the list, with athletes receiving one to five points based on their ranking. A panel of experts also cast their votes. The votes of each of the four groups comprises 25% of the athletes' total scores, and the male and female athletes with the highest combined points totals win.^[2][3]

In 2007, a separate European Athletics Rising Star of the Year award was established for athletes under 23 years of age as a way of acknowledging young competitors' achievements on their way to becoming senior athletes.^[4]

Both awards are presented during the annual Golden Tracks gala of the EEA. Waterford Crystal sponsored the event from 2002–2008 and Mondo, a manufacturer of track and field equipment and facilities, sponsored the 2009 presentation.^[5][6]

Winner statistics

Long-distance runner Mo Farah is the only athlete to win the main award three times, in 2011, 2012, and 2016.

Long-distance runner Mo Farah of Great Britain is the only athlete, male or female, to win the main award three times. Czech javelin legend Jan Železný, British triple jumper Jonathan Edwards with his Swedish rival Christian Olsson, Norwegian hurdler Karsten Warholm, Norwegian middle/long-distance runner Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis have won the men's award twice, while Sweden's heptathlete Carolina Klüft, Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlašić, Dutch sprinter Dafne Schippers, and Dutch sprinter/hurdler Femke Bol have won the women's award twice each.

Warholm, Ingebrigtsen, Duplantis and Bol have each completed the triple of the Rising Star award, followed by two senior awards. Three athletes have completed the double of the Rising Star trophy followed by the senior award: sprinter Christophe Lemaitre of France, Great Britain's heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill and Ukrainian's high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh.

For the first time in award history, the men’s European Athlete of the Year trophy in 2022 was awarded jointly to Duplantis and Ingebrigtsen who both won three major gold medals and revised the record books in 2022.^[7] Duplantis and Ingebrigtsen were also jointly named men’s Rising Star in 2018, a first in the award history too.

Carolina Klüft and Christophe Lemaitre were the youngest European Athletes of the Year so far. They were only 20 when winning this accolade in 2003 and 2010 respectively.^[8]

Athlete of the Year winners

European Athlete of the Year winners

Year	Men	Women	Ref.
1993	Linford Christie	Sally Gunnell	[9][10]
1994	Colin Jackson	Irina Privalova	[9][10]
1995	Jonathan Edwards (1/2)	Sonia O'Sullivan	[9][10]
1996	Jan Železný (1/2)	Svetlana Masterkova	[9][10]
1997	Wilson Kipketer	Astrid Kumbernuss	[9][10]
1998	Jonathan Edwards (2/2)	Christine Arron	[9][10]
1999	Tomáš Dvořák	Gabriela Szabo	[9][10]
2000	Jan Železný (2/2)	Trine Hattestad	[9][10]
2001	André Bucher	Stephanie Graf	[9][10]
2002	Dwain Chambers	Süreyya Ayhan	[9][10]
2003	Christian Olsson (1/2)	Carolina Klüft (1/2)	[9][10]
2004	Christian Olsson (2/2)	Kelly Holmes	[9][10]
2005	Virgilijus Alekna	Yelena Isinbayeva (1/2)	[9][10]
2006	Francis Obikwelu	Carolina Klüft (2/2)	[9][10]
2007	Tero Pitkämäki	Blanka Vlašić (1/2)	[9][10]
2008	Andreas Thorkildsen	Yelena Isinbayeva (2/2)	[9][10]
2009	Phillips Idowu	Marta Domínguez	[11]
2010	Christophe Lemaitre	Blanka Vlašić (2/2)	[9][10]
2011	Mo Farah (1/3)	Mariya Savinova	[12]
2012	Mo Farah (2/3)	Jessica Ennis	[9][10]
2013	Bohdan Bondarenko	Zuzana Hejnová	[13]
2014	Renaud Lavillenie	Dafne Schippers (1/2)	[14]
2015	Greg Rutherford	Dafne Schippers (2/2)	[15]
2016	Mo Farah (3/3)	Ruth Beitia	[16]
2017	Johannes Vetter	Katerina Stefanidi	[17]
2018	Kevin Mayer	Dina Asher-Smith	[18]
2019	Karsten Warholm (1/2)	Mariya Lasitskene	[19]
2020	not awarded[note 1]
2021	Karsten Warholm (2/2)	Sifan Hassan	[20]
2022	Armand Duplantis(1/2)	Femke Bol (1/2)	[7]
	Jakob Ingebrigtsen (1/2)
2023	Jakob Ingebrigtsen (2/2)	Femke Bol (2/2)	[21]
2024	Armand Duplantis (2/2)	Yaroslava Mahuchikh	[22]

Rising Star of the Year winners

European Athletics Rising Star of the Year winners

Year	Men	Women	Ref.
2007	Andrew Howe	Jessica Ennis	[23]
2008	Raphael Holzdeppe	Stephanie Twell	[23]
2009	Christophe Lemaitre	Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal	[23]
2010	Teddy Tamgho	Sandra Perković	[23]
2011	David Storl	Jodie Williams	[12]
2012	Pavel Maslák	Angelica Bengtsson	[23]
2013	Emir Bekrić	Aníta Hinriksdóttir	[13]
2014	Adam Gemili	Mariya Kuchina	[14]
2015	Konrad Bukowiecki	Noemi Zbären	[15]
2016	Max Heß	Nafissatou Thiam	[16]
2017	Karsten Warholm	Yuliya Levchenko	[17]
2018	Armand Duplantis	Elvira Herman	[18]
	Jakob Ingebrigtsen
2019	Niklas Kaul	Yaroslava Mahuchikh	[19]
2020	not awarded[note 1]
2021	Sasha Zhoya	Femke Bol	[20]
2022	Mykolas Alekna	Elina Tzengko	[24]
2023	Mattia Furlani	Angelina Topić	[21]
2024	Niels Laros	Adriana Vilagoš	[22]

See also

• European Athlete of the Month

Notes

1. Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic

References

1. European Athlete of the Year Award nominations for 2009 Archived 25 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine. European Athletics (14 September 2009). Retrieved on 2 October 2009.
2. European Athletics Rising Star Awards nominations for 2009. European Athletics (2009). Retrieved on 2 October 2009.
3. Idowu and Domínguez win European Athlete of the Year Awards. IAAF (2 October 2009). Retrieved on 2 October 2009.
4. Jessica Ennis wins European Athletics Rising Star Award Archived 13 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine. UK Athletics (26 September 2007). Retrieved on 2 October 2009.
5. MONDO becomes presenting partner for European Athletics Awards Night ^{[dead link‍]}. European Athletics (1 September 2009). Retrieved on 2 October 2009.
6. Update EAA – Newsletter of the European Athletics Association. European Athletics (October 2002). Retrieved on 2 October 2009.
7. "Bol, Duplantis, Ingebrigtsen crowned 2022 European Athletes of the Year", European Athletic Association, 22 October 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
8. "From Arron to Zelezny | The A-Z of the Golden Tracks". European Athletics. 20 October 2022. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
9. "Farah voted 2012 European Athlete of the Year", World Athletics, 5 October 2012. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
10. "Ennis voted 2012 European Athlete of the Year", World Athletics, 4 October 2012. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
11. "Idowu named top European athlete", BBC News, 2 October 2009. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
12. "World Championships star Mo Farah named European athlete of the year", The Guardian, 5 October 2011. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
13. "Bondarenko, Hejnová, Bekrić, Hinriksdottir crowned at European Athletics Awards Night", European Athletic Association, 12 October 2013. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
14. "Lavillenie, Schippers, Gemili, Kuchina crowned at Golden Tracks ceremony", European Athletic Association, 11 October 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
15. "Golden Tracks glory for Rutherford and Schippers", European Athletic Association, 17 October 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
16. "Golden Tracks winners revealed", European Athletic Association, 15 October 2016. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
17. "Vetter and Stefanidi crowned European Athletes of the Year", World Athletics, 15 October 2017. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
18. "Mayer and Asher-Smith crowned European Athletes of the Year in Lausanne", European Athletic Association, 26 October 2018. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
19. "Warholm and Lasitskene crowned 2019 European Athletes of the Year", European Athletic Association, 26 October 2019. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
20. "Hassan and Warholm crowned 2021 European Athletes of the Year", European Athletic Association, 16 October 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
21. "Bol and Ingebrigtsen crowned 2023 European Athletes of the Year in Vilnius", European Athletics, 21 October 2023. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
22. "Mahuchikh and Duplantis crowned 2024 European Athletes of the Year in Skopje". European Athletics. 26 October 2024. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
23. "From Ennis-Hill to Warholm: a look back at past Rising Stars winners", European Athletic Association, 24 October 2018. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
24. "In focus | A closer look at Rising Stars Tzengko and Alekna", European Athletic Association, 25 October 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2023.