The success of several athletes determined the World Athletics category winners announced before the overall Athletes of The Year, Mondo Duplantis of Sweden and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the USA.
Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya was namedMen’s Track Athlete of The Year for winning World and Diamond League titles in the 800m. He achieved four of the top six performances in 2025, including a world lead of 1:41.44 in Monaco.
Nicola Olyslagers of Australia took theWomen’s Field Athlete of The Year title for her world high jump victories indoors and outdoors and for becoming the Diamond League champion and world leader with an Oceanian record of 2.04m.
Maria Perez of Spain was namedWomen’s Out-of-Stadium Athlete of the Year for her unbeaten streak in 2025. Her victories included World titles in both the 20km race walk and the 35km race walk at the World Championships in Tokyo.
Sabastian Sawe of Kenya was theMen’s Out-of-Stadium Athlete of the Year. Unbeaten in 2025, he won the London Marathon and the Berlin Marathon, setting a world lead of 2:02:16 at the latter.
The exceptional performances of younger athletes were also recognized with World medalists Edmund Serem of Kenya and Zhang Jiale of China being celebrated as the Rising Stars of the Year. Jiale clinched bronze at the World Championships in Tokyo and improved the World U20 hammer record to 77.24m. Serem also became a World bronze medalist in the 3000m steeplechase in Tokyo and was runner-up in the Diamond League final.