VOTING BY OUR 32-member international panel in this annual exercise — our 64th year of choosing a Men’s Athlete Of The Year — was scored on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis…
Half of the top 10 — Mondo Duplantis, Noah Lyles, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Ryan Crouser, Soufiane El Bakkali — repeated from the “class of ’22”… AOY Crouser, Duplantis, Lyles and Ingebrigtsen are each at 3 consecutive Top 10s in a row and Lyles has appeared 4 of the last 5 AOY years (there was no AOY vote in pandemic ’20)… ’22’s 4-man U.S. contingent was halved this year to just Crouser and Lyles. The Team USA record is a half-dozen, most recently achieved in ’19…
1. Ryan Crouser (USA)
In a 1-point squeaker, the self-coached Crouser topped last year’s No. 1 by authoring one of the finest shot campaigns in history. In his second AOY season (he won in ’21) and fourth appearance in the top 10, the 30-year old broke the World Record with 77-3¾ (23.56) and then used the No. 2 toss ever (77-1¾/23.51) to capture his fourth global title. In all he produced 4 of the 7 farthest throws ever. With 15 of the 16 best throws of the year, he would have gone undefeated but for a 2cm loss to Joe Kovacs at the Diamond League Final.
2. Mondo Duplantis (Sweden)
Just like last year, the ’22 AOY pole vault überstar won every meet but one, took the World gold and the Diamond League Final, cleared 6.00 (19-8¼) in every meet but 4, and broke the World Record. In ’22, he broke the WR thrice. This season the 23-year-old had to settle for twice, topped by his 20-5¼ (6.23) in his last leap of the season to claim the DL Final. For all that he still fell a single vote short of being the first repeater at the top since David Rudisha in ’12.
3. Kelvin Kiptum (Kenya)
It only took two races to propel the 23-year-old marathoner to No. 3 in his first-ever appearance in the Top 10, but what races they were! In April he won London in 2:01:25, the No. 2 performance in history and missing the WR by just 16 seconds. Then in Chicago in October, he slashed 23 seconds from Eliud Kipchoge’s standard and scared the 2:00 barrier with his 2:00:35. The most sobering statistic of all is that it was only his second year in the event.
4. Noah Lyles (USA)
Last year’s all-dominating 200 star added earnest 100 sprinting to his repertoire in ’23, clocking world-leading times of 9.83 and 19.47 and winning WC golds in both. Over 100, he won 4 of 7 finals and moved to a tie for No. 15 on the…
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