Sports and athletics observers rank the world-record performances of Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan, United States’ Sydney McLaughlin, and Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas as major determinants of who wins the 2022 Women’s World Athlete of the year award.
They also believe one of the three record-breakers is in line to become the best athlete of 2022.
The trio did not just smash the world’s best performance in their respective events but were also ranked number one in those events. Amusan, in particular, established herself as the world’s number-one sprint hurdler in 2022.
The 25-year-old Nigerian did not just end her season as the fastest 100m hurdler of the year; she became the fastest woman in history for the event following her stunning world record run of 12.12s at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, USA.
She followed that up by winning the gold medal in the competition, the biggest of the four major titles she won in 2022.
She had retained her African crown earlier and added the Commonwealth and the Diamond League titles following her breezy triumph in Oregon.
McLaughlin broke the world record twice this year, with her most recent barrier-breaking performance coming in Eugene in 50.68 seconds, arguably one of the greatest performances in the history of the sport.
Sydney McLaughlin, moments following breaking her world record in 400m hurdles
She achieved the feat on her way to winning the world 400m hurdles title, her only major honor of the year.
For the Venezuelan Rojas, coached by the great Ivan Pedroso, the standout moment of her year came at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, where she won her third successive title in an outright world record of 15.74m, adding seven centimeters to the world record she set when winning Olympic gold in Tokyo, Japan last year.
Yulimar Rojas, while making her historical jump.
She also won the World outdoor title in Oregon and the Diamond League trophy in Zurich.
