December 01, (THEWILL) — Swedish pole vault champion, Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis, and American sprinter, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, received the athlete of the year awards from World Athletics at a ceremony in Monaco on Sunday.
Duplantis achieved four pole vault records in 2025 whilst winning world titles both indoors and outdoors. The 26-year-old Swedish star remained unbeaten across 16 competitions and became the first men’s pole vaulter in modern history to go undefeated for two consecutive years.
At the world championships in Tokyo, he cleared 6.30 metres after retaining his title, breaking the world record for the 14th time in his career. This marks the third occasion Duplantis has claimed the overall prize, having previously won in 2020 and 2022.
McLaughlin-Levrone recorded the second fastest time in history on her way to claiming the world 400m title. The 26-year-old American became the first woman since 1985 to break the 48-second barrier in Tokyo after fully transitioning to the flat race. Her time of 47.78 seconds trails only the 47.60 seconds run by Marita Koch four decades ago, a record widely viewed with suspicion because of a state-sponsored doping programme at the time.
McLaughlin-Levrone has remained unbeaten in either the 400m or 400m version with barriers for two years. Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi won the men’s track award after adding the 800m world title to his Olympic gold. Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers joined Duplantis in being named field athlete of the year after winning high jump titles indoors and outdoors.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
