Olympic champion Sifan Hassan has made history by becoming the first person from the Netherlands to be named as one of the World Athletes of the Year. Sharing the title with Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo, Hassan received the honour at the World Athletics Awards for 2024 in Monaco.
The awards, based on votes by fans, crowned global athletes in six different sports categories before naming the overall winners as World Athletes of the Year. The categories included track, field and out-of-stadium sporting events for both men and women.
Sifan Hassan came out on top in the women’s out-of-stadium category and then went on to be crowned the best athlete in the world for 2024. Letsile Tebogo from Botswana was named the fellow World Athlete of the Year after being confirmed as the men’s best track athlete.
At the Paris Olympics in 2024, Hassan won a gold medal and set an Olympic record for her time in the marathon, within a week of earning two bronze medals in the 5.000 and 10.000-metre track events. This made Hassan the first woman to compete and win medals in all three events at the same Olympic Games.
Hassan had previously been nominated for the World Athlete of the Year title in 2019 and 2021. However, thanks to her contributions to the Dutch Olympic team’s record number of medals, she finally cinched the title this year.
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