Dos Santos, Duplantis and Sawe are World Athlete of the Year finalists

Alison dos Santos, Mondo Duplantis and Sabastian Sawe are the three finalists for the men’s World Athlete of the Year 2026 award, with the winner to be announced on Sunday 29 November in Monaco. All three broke world records in their respective disciplines.

World Athletics confirmed the three finalists on 10 November, following a vote by fans, athletes, members of the media and the World Athletics family. The finalists topped an initial list of ten nominees, selected by an international panel of athletics experts.

The finalists’ records and titles

Brazil’s Alison dos Santos set the 400 metres hurdles world record of 45,80 seconds in August at the Zurich Diamond League meeting. He also won the Ultimate title in 45,98, the third-fastest time in history.

His hurdles season included eleven unbeaten races, among them the Diamond League final. Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis, meanwhile, raised his pole vault world record to 6.31 metres at the Mondo Classic in Uppsala, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting.

Duplantis also won the Ultimate, world indoor and European titles. He has previously won the Athlete of the Year award in 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2025; in 2023 he shared it with Noah Lyles and Kelvin Kiptum. Usain Bolt has received it six times.

Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe defended his London Marathon title in April with a world record of 1:59:30. He became the first man to run under two hours in a record-eligible marathon, beating the previous record of 2:00:35 set by Kiptum in 2023. In 2025, Sawe won the men’s Out of Stadia Athlete of the Year award.

A vote among ten nominees

The vote took place in October, with each of the four participating groups carrying a 25% weighting. Behind the three finalists, Josh Kerr finished fourth, followed by Ja’Kobe Tharp, Kenneth Bednarek and Collen Kebinatshipi.

Completing the rankings were Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage in eighth place, Andy Díaz Hernández in ninth and Kristjan Čeh in tenth.

The awards ceremony in Monaco

The three finalists will be invited to the World Athletics Awards, where the winner will be announced live on stage. The ceremony will also include the women’s World Athlete of the Year award.

The men’s and women’s Rising Star awards, Coach of the Year and President’s Award will also be presented at the gala. The Moment of the Year will be awarded for the first time at the ceremony.