Who will be the 2024 men’s and women’s European Athletes of the Year? It is a question that will be answered at the prestigious Golden Tracks award night which will be held in Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia on Saturday (26).
This year's Golden Tracks award night starts at 2000 local time (CEST) and will be streamed live of the European Athletics YouTube channel when the winners will be announced and presented with their trophies!
The six finalists have each had incredible years and collectively have broken four world records, won eight Olympic medals (including six gold), won four gold medals at the World Indoor Championships and every one of them triumphed at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships, garnering eight gold medals between them.
Olympic winners in for women's award
In the women’s category, Femke Bol is in contention to win the award for the third successive year following another brilliant year. The Dutch athlete had an electrifying indoor season, setting a world indoor 400m record of 49.17 as she won individual and 4x400m gold at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow.
In Roma 2024, she defended both the 400m hurdles gold and 4x400m title. Then at the Paris Olympics, she took a medal of every colour, producing another last leg for the ages to win gold for the Netherlands in the mixed 4x400m, placing a slightly disappointing third in the 400m hurdles, before bringing the baton home for silver in the women’s 4x400m.
She also broke the European record in La-Chaux-de-Fonds with a stunning 50.95.
It would be churlish to describe 2024 as a breakthrough year for British runner Keely Hodgkinson but it was a year where she took a significant leap in her career. Having won silver at successive World Athletics Championships over 800m and at the last Olympic Games, she took that final step to gold with a glorious victory in Paris.
Having also defending her European crown at Roma 2024 and finishing as world leader with 1:54.61 in London, she completed a perfect and unbeaten summer campaign although a minor knee injury forced the Brit to close down her season after Paris 2024.
Yaroslava Mahuchikh continues to raise the bar in every sense. She won gold in Roma 2024 in June, then broke the 37-year-old world record held by Stefka Kostadinova when she cleared 2.10m at the Paris Diamond League in July before returning to Paris the following month to win Olympic gold.
Men's finalists continued dominance
The men’s finalists have had equally incredible seasons. Armand Duplantis has never won this title outright, having shared the title with fellow finalist Jakob Ingebrigtsen in 2022. But with a monumental season, he has made a great case to be the winner this year.
After defending his world indoor title in Glasgow, the Swede’s record-breaking routine returned. He opened with world record of 6.24m at the Diamond League in Xiamen in April. He delivered one of the iconic moments on the year when won Olympic gold with another world record of 6.25m at the Paris Olympic Games.
Then, he added yet another one centimetre to the world record, clearing 6.26m at the Silesia Diamond League. He also found time to win his third successive European gold at Roma 2024 with a championship record of 6.10m.
Having won shared this award with Duplantis in 2022 and outright in 2023, Jakob Ingebrigtsen is also in contention for his third successive European Athlete of the Year award after defending his European 1500m and 5000m titles at Roma 2024.
He lost his Olympic 1500m title in Paris in one of the most highly anticipated races in years, but showed incredible resilience to win 5000m gold. He then went on to break the long standing world record for the men’s 3000m with 7:17.55 in the Silesia Diamond League.
Miltiadis Tentoglou underlined his reputation as one of the all-time greats of the men’s long jump. The Greek athlete retained his Olympic, European and world indoor titles in another stellar year. At Roma 2024, he also set a new personal best, twice landing at 8.65m, a mark which was also the world lead and an improvement on his championship record. Will this be Tentoglou's year to finally claim the award?
The last 10 women’s European Athlete of the Year winners:
- 2023 - Femke Bol (NED)
- 2022 - Femke Bol (NED)
- 2021 - Sifan Hassan (NED)
- 2020 - not held
- 2019 - Mariya Lasitskene (RUS)
- 2018 - Dina Asher-Smith (GBR)
- 2017 - Katerina Stefanidi (GRE)
- 2016 - Ruth Beitia (ESP)
- 2015 - Dafne Schippers (NED)
- 2014 - Dafne Schippers (NED)
- 2013 - Zuzana Hejnová (CZE)
Last 10 men's European Athlete of the Year winners:
- 2023 - Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR)
- 2022 - Armand Duplantis (SWE)/Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR)
- 2021 - Karsten Warholm (NOR)
- 2020 – not held
- 2019 - Karsten Warholm (NOR)
- 2018 - Kevin Mayer (FRA)
- 2017 - Johannes Vetter (GER)
- 2016 - Mo Farah (GBR)
- 2015 - Greg Rutherford (GBR)
- 2014 - Renaud Lavillenie (FRA)
- 2013 - Bohdan Bondarenko (UKR)
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics