World Athlete of the Year 2026: what the public vote is worth for Africa's four nominees
Assefa, Ngetich, Kebinatshipi and Sawe are among the twenty nominees. Ahead of the 17 October close, here is how the public vote accounts for a quarter of the result.
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File photo: Tigst Assefa, left in yellow, in the leading group at the London Marathon on 21 April 2024. Katie Chan / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped, with SNA logo; adapted photograph released under the same licence.
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World Athletics unveiled its list of 20 nominees, ten women and ten men, on 6 October 2026. The continent has four names on it. They were selected by a panel of eight statisticians: two from World Athletics and one for each of the six continental associations.
Four Africans, four standout seasons
Among the women, Ethiopia's Tigst Assefa ran 2:15:41 in London, a record for a women-only race, then 2:11:04 in Berlin. Kenya's Agnes Ngetich is a double world champion, in cross country and in the half marathon. She also holds the record for a women-only half marathon, in 1:05:15.
Among the men, Botswana's Collen Kebinatshipi ran the 400m in 43 seconds and 39 hundredths at the Ultimate Championship and won the Diamond League. Kenya's Sabastian Sawe finished the London Marathon in 1:59:30. It is the first time under two hours in a record-eligible marathon.
Four voting groups with equal weight
The vote is split between four colleges, each counting for 25% of the result:
1. the public, who vote via an online poll;
2. athletes who took part in the World Athletics-organised global events in 2026;
3. media accredited at those same events;
4. the World Athletics family, which includes federation officials, athlete representatives and organisers.
In practice, the public vote as a whole carries as much weight as each of the other three colleges. An individual fan's ballot joins a mass of voters who together make up a quarter of the calculation. That percentage measures the weight of a college, not the probability of a candidate winning. An athlete backed by the fans can still be beaten if the other three colleges lean elsewhere.
The form asks voters to pick three women and three men, then to enter a first name, a surname, an email address and a country. It is available in English. The link is accessible from World Athletics' official announcement.
Public voting closes on Saturday 17 October at midnight CEST, the Central European Summer Time given by the organiser. Six finalists, three women and three men, will be announced on 10 and 11 November. The winners will be named in Monaco on 29 November.