2015 TRACK & FIELD NEWS
WOMEN’S ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
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Dibaba Wins Battle Of WR Setters
Sometimes a World Record is a “guarantee” of an Athlete Of The Year honors; other times it is not. But it wasn’t just her 3:50.07 in the 1500 that earned Genzebe Dibaba T&FN’s women’s AOY title for 2015, in no small part because she was up against another WR setter.
The 24-year-old Ethiopian also dominated the metric mile all year and added a World Champs 5000 medal as she narrowly–make that very narrowly–edged hammer thrower Anita WÅ‚odarczyk for the magazine’s top honor, making her the latest in a long list of superstars dating back to 1977 to be so honored.
Defending No. 1 WÅ‚odarczyk actually got more No. 1 votes from our international panel than did Dibaba, 17-16, but the Ethiopian distance star edged the Pole in backup votes by just enough to eke out a 3-point win.
Nobody else earned a nod as No. 1, with Dutch sprinter Dafne Schippers ending up No. 3 overall, not remotely close to the top 2.
Overall, 16 women received votes in our international panel’s voting.
Here’s the Top 10 (with events in which they made the Top 10 in our World Rankings):
To see the top ten list, click here: http://trackandfieldnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2692
Editor’s Note: The Bible of the sport, Track & Field News, annointed Genzebe Dibaba as the 2015 Women Athlete of the Year. This was a tough year to pick the top athletes, but the team at TFN did their job! If you do not have a subscription to TFN and you consider yourself an athletics fan, well, you are not a fan yet then, are you?