by Stuart Weir
European Athletes of the Year
Femke Bol from the Netherlands and Sweden’s Armand Duplantis were chosen as
European Athletes of the Year once again at the Golden Tracks award night in Batumi,
Georgia. This was the third time Bol and Duplantis have been crowned European Athlete
of the Year, a feat which has only previously been achieved by Great Britain’s Mo Farah.
Bol also won this accolade in 2022 and 2023 while Duplantis shared the men’s award with
Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen in 2022 before winning the award outright in 2024.
Bol and Duplantis amassed unbeaten seasons in their respective events in 2025. Bol
crowned her season by defending her 400m hurdles title at the World Athletics
Championships in Tokyo in a championship record of 51.54 while Duplantis achieved his
fourth world record of 2025 – and the 14th of his career – in Tokyo with a 6.30m clearance
to win his third world pole vault title. Neither Bol nor Duplantis were present at the
ceremony.
Both Bol and Duplantis are also former recipients of the Rising Star trophy, winning this
trophy in 2021 and 2018 respectively. This year’s Rising Star winners were Switzerland’s
Audrey Werro and Poland’s Hubert Trościanka, the latter presented with his trophy by
European Athletics President Dobromir Karamarinov.
Bol was one of three finalists for the women’s European Athlete of the Year trophy
alongside fellow world champions Ditaji Kambundji from Switzerland and Maria Pérez from
Spain. Duplantis was shortlisted for the men’s accolade alongside fellow world indoor and
outdoor long jump champion Mattia Furlani from Italy and France’s world 10,000m
champion Jimmy Gressier.
Switzerland’s Audrey Werro and Poland’s Hubert Trościanka received awards as 2025
women’s and men’s Rising Stars in Batumi.
Werro, who received her trophy from European Athletics CEO Christian Milz, stepped up to
win 800m gold at the European Athletics U23 Championships in a championship record of
1:57.42. She went on to win the Diamond League title in Zürich in a national record of
1:55.91 before finishing sixth in a highly competitive 800m at the World Athletics
Championships in Tokyo.
Troscianka was one of the breakthrough performers at the European Athletics U20
Championships in Tampere where he won the decathlon title with a world U20 record of
8514 points, improving the mark of 8435 points set by Germany’s Niklas Kaul – the 2019
men’s Rising Star – at the 2017 European Athletics U20 Championships.
2025 Golden Tracks winners
Women’s European Athlete of the Year winner – Femke Bol (NED)
Men’s European Athlete of the Year winner – Armand Duplantis (SWE)
Women’s Rising Star winner – Audrey Werro (SUI)
Men’s Rising Star winner – Hubert Trościanka (POL)
Lifetime Achievement award winner – Robert Emmiyan (ARM)
Coaching Award winners – Marina Kotrikadze (GEO) and Zigmund Zilbershtein (GEO)
Referees of the Year – Anna Palmerius (SWE) and Niels van der Aar (NED)
