VOTING BY OUR 32-member international panel in this annual exercise — our 49th year of choosing a Women’s Athlete Of The Year — was scored on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis…
Only three times, and not in the past quarter-century, has the winner bettered Faith Kipyegon’s 99.7% approval rating. Thirty-one No. 1 votes went to the Kenyan star. Femke Bol captured the single dissenting vote…
Three women — Kipyegon, Shericka Jackson and Yulimar Rojas — return from the ’22 Top 10. Kipyegon & Rojas are now at 3 in a row, and TJer Rojas is, in fact, at 4 straight. Sifan Hassan has earned Top 10 honors in 3 of the last 4 editions.
Sha’Carri Richardson scored the USA’s only Top 10 slot in a very competitive year…
The ’23 Women’s Top 10 (the detailed voting chart appears at the end of the article):
1. Faith Kipyegon (Kenya)
With 31 of 32 possible 1st-place votes, one can safely call 29-year-old Kipyegon an overwhelming choice as AOY. She did it all at 1500/Mile, going undefeated, winning the Budapest gold, taking 4 DL wins including the final and demolishing both World Records (3:49.11/4:07.64). She also jumped into the 5000 pool for the first time in 8 years and scored a World Record 14:05.20, then added a Budapest gold there too. It’s her fourth time in the Top 10; she‘s the first Kenyan No. 1 since Vivian Cheruiyot in ’11.
2. Shericka Jackson (Jamaica)
Last year she was No. 4. Now the Caribbean sprinter has jumped up two spots thanks to an undefeated season in the 200 plus a solid 100 campaign. At Worlds, she took 100 silver in 10.72 and came back with the No. 2 furlong ever, her 21.41 scorcher giving her gold. Clockings of 21.48 and 21.57 (to win the DL Final) also made the all-time top 10. Over 100, she won 3 of 9 races and scored 3 of the top 5 times of the year, moving to a tie for No. 5 ever with her 10.65.
3. Femke Bol (Netherlands)
If it weren’t for Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s campaign last year, we would be hailing Femke Bol as the greatest 400 hurdler of all-time. In an epic undefeated season, she met all-comers, taking 6 Diamond League wins including the Final. In Budapest, her 51.70 won by over a second as she recorded the top 8 performances of the year, with 3 races under 52.00. Her fastest, 51.45, makes the 23-year-old No. 2 in history. It is her first appearance in the Top 10; she joins Sifan Hassan as the only Dutchwoman to make the cut.
4. Gudaf Tsegay (Ethiopia)
The 26-year-old Ranked in three distance races, but the…
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