Armand Duplantis and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone Named World Athletes of the Year

Sweden's pole vault star Armand Duplantis and American sprinter Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone were named World Athletes of the Year at the 2025 World Athletics Awards Ceremony. Duplantis, in 2025, broke the men's pole vault world record four times and remained undefeated in all 16 of his competitions, which included both indoor and outdoor world titles. According to World Athletics, the 26-year-old Duplantis became the first male pole vaulter in modern athletics history to remain undefeated in the same event for two consecutive years.

McLaughlin-Levrone won the women’s 400m title in Tokyo with a time of 47.78 seconds, breaking a 42-year-old World Championship record. She became the first athlete in history to win world titles in both the 400m flat and 400m hurdles. According to Xinhua, she also helped Team USA win gold in the 4x400m relay at the Tokyo Worlds.

Duplantis was named the Men’s Field Athlete of the Year, while McLaughlin-Levrone was declared the Women’s Track Athlete of the Year. Spanish racewalker María Pérez and Kenya's long-distance runner, Sebastian Sawe, were confirmed as the Year’s Out-of-Stadium Athletes. Kenya’s 800m runner Emmanuel Wanyonyi was named Men’s Track Athlete of the Year, while Australia’s high jumper Nicola Olyslagers was awarded Women’s Field Athlete of the Year.

This year’s Rising Stars were World Medalists Kenya's Edmund Serem and China’s Zhang Jiale. Zhang improved the World U20 hammer record to 77.24m at the Chinese Championship in Quzhou and won a bronze medal at the Tokyo World Championships. Serem also won a bronze in the 3,000m steeplechase at the Tokyo Worlds, was the runner-up at the Diamond League Final, and finished in the top four at four other Diamond League meetings during the season.