When World Athletics revealed the Athlete of the Year finalists, controversy was inevitable, because when has the sport ever been free of it? Femke Bol and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone stood as the year’s defining rivals, each staking a claim to the crown. But once again, history chose its familiar side. Here’s a look at the final list of winners.

After Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s remarkable run, competing through adversity, winning the World Championships, and clocking the second-fastest time in 400m flat history, her Athlete of the Year honor felt inevitable. On the men’s side, Sweden’s pole vault phenom Mondo Duplantis, who raised the bar with four new world records this season, secured the title with equal authority.

Both Duplantis and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone went undefeated this ye

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