As we end the year that was 2025, the “powers that be” attempt to tell us who the best athletes of the year were. Unfortunately however, many people believe that they typically fail in their assessments, and I tend to agree. Personally, I’m not fond of trying to take a year’s worth of competition from several extremely elite individuals, and condense it all down to a single athlete, as it serves only to attempt to diminish the work of so many others. That said, it is what happens, so I’m going to give my two cents as my way of bringing balance to the conversation.
Before I give that two cents, let me say that the term, “of the year”, has meaning to me. It means the entire year needs to be evaluated. I’m looking at, who had impact throughout the year, and what was that impact. How much did you compete? Who did you compete against? What were your level of results. Single great efforts should be treated as such in my opinion. Those efforts should be given their just due, but those “moments” are more, “performances of the year”, as opposed to making the individual the, “athlete of the year”! Having a great moment, isn’t a great season. I think that much too often, World Athletics and others conflate the two. So, with that understanding, let’s take a look at 2025.
Mens Overall Athlete of the Year – Mondo Duplantis – Mondo’s season makes this an easy selection. Mondo puts himself out there competing often, and does so against the best in the world when he does. He’s the target that everyone wants to take down, but can’t. Mondo competes both indoors and outdoors, performing at a high level from day one. He clears 6m with regularity, and is often taking WR shots. In 2025 he broke the WR in three competitions, including the World Championships. In ’25, he faced a new threat in Kara is, who himself began clearing 6m to put pressure on Mondo, who responded by simply going higher! Mondo did it all, and is my choice for men’s overall athlete of the year.
Women’s Overall Athlete of the Year – Melissa Jefferson Wooden – I know that many, including World Athletics, have given this award to Sydney Mclaughlin Levrone, I haven’t, and here’s why. Sydney is an outstanding athlete, and her 47.89 was historical – though people seem to ignore that Marileidy Paulino also broke 48 sec with her 47.98. However, while Sydney may have had the performance of the year, she rarely competes, which nullifies her from being the athlete of the year, for me. Melissa on the other hand competed often and against the best of the best when she did. She went head to head with her main rival and Olympic champion, Julian Alfred, and won, both in general competition and at Worlds. She became #4 all time in the 100m and #8 in the 200m and was double World Champion in both, even though the 200m was a new endeavor for her. Like Mondo, she put herself out there repeatedly and defeated all challenges, and did so at a high level. A bronze medalist in one event in ’24, she became a double gold medalist in ’25. An outstanding journey. Melissa had a long, season with outstanding marks and victories, making her an easy choice for me.
Men’s Track Athlete of the Year – Emmanuel Wanyonyi – This was a bit closer to call, but easy at the same time. Wanyonyi was the dominant athlete in arguably the deepest running event on the men’s side. He had six finals under 1:43.00 with three of those being under 1:42.00, including his World Championships victory. He’s constantly competing against some of the best in history, and turning them back. In the process, he defeated every top half Miler in the world, while only losing a pair of close Diamond League races, loses that he avenged. The World Champion and world leader on the clock, he’s an easy winner for me. Shout out to my runner up, Rai Benjamin who also had a solid, but shorter season, and followed up his Olympic win with a world title.
Women’s Track Athlete of the Year – Melissa Jefferson Wooden – The overall athlete of the year is also my track athlete of the year. My runner up being Faith Kipyegon. Faith dominated the mile/1500m yet again and has no peer. She competes often and defeats everyone at that distance. The difference between her and Melissa this year, is that Melissa dominated in two events. Otherwise Faith was as dominant in the mile as ever. Frankly she’s become so great, that I think most people take her for granted! So, shout out to Faith.
Mens Field Athlete of the Year – Mondo Duplantis – The overall athlete is the field athlete of the year as well. It wasn’t even close. My runner up is discus thrower Mykolos Alekna. Alekna set the WR in his event, breaking a record that had stood since 1986! Unfortunately, he had a couple of losses, including Worlds, so can not rate above Mondo. I also want to give a shout out to, shot putter Ryan Crouser. He spent all year rehabbing, then without any competition as preparation, he showed up to Worlds and defended his title. THAT was the ultimate flex! He can’t contend for athlete of the year because he didn’t compete, but to overcome injury and win at Worlds needs to be noted.
Women’s Field Athlete of the Year – Anna Hall, Camryn Roger’s, Valerie Allman – Yes, I’m going with a three way tie! I can do that, because it’s my award. How do you take three women, that all had undefeated seasons; all won World titles; all had significant historical marks; and say that one had a better season than the others? You can, but you shouldn’t! So I’m not going to do that, I’m not going to attempt to “split hairs”. Anna moved to equal #2 all time in the heptathlon, trailing only JJK! Valerie moved to #6 all time in the discus, trailing only throwers from the 1980’s. Camryn moved to #2 all time in the Hammer. These women all had tremendous seasons and should be recognized as such. As I said at the beginning, we often try too hard to reduce athlete’s seasons and accomplishments in order to select, one. These women were simply outstanding as a collective! Thus I’m awarding all three. Congratulations ladies.
These are my rankings for 2025. I’m sure they’re a bit controversial for some, but nonetheless how I saw 2025, the entire year! It was another outstanding season, as so far every season of the 2020’s has been. If the pattern holds, we’ll have yet another fantastic season in 2026. Especially since it will be the first “off season” of the decade! With a bit more freedom for athletes to experiment a bit, and race with more discretion, look for some surprising results. I’ll be watching for things to heat up after the holidays.