Femke Bol to battle Hodgkinson and Mahuchikh for women’s European Athlete of the Year award
European Athletics has named the Netherland’s Femke Bol, Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain and Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh as finalists for the women’s European Athlete of the Year award.
The trio won gold medals outdoors at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships and Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Bol won three medals at the Paris Olympics. She anchored her country’s 4x400m mixed relay team to gold in a dramatic finish, also helped the 4x400m team to a silver medal win and came third in the 400m hurdles.
It was also a record-breaking year for Bol who improved her world indoor 400m record to 49.17 to win world indoor gold in Glasgow.
Mahuchikh was not distracted by the war between her country and Russia as she flew highest to break Stefka Kostadinova’s legendary world high jump record of 2.09m with a 2.10m clearance at the Meeting De Paris Diamond League meeting just before the Olympics.
Hodgkinson improved from silver in 2021 to gold in 2024 at the Paris Olympics to win her first global title. She also won her second European title as she moved to sixth on the world all-time 800m list with 1:54.61, the fastest time by a European since Jarmila Kratochvilova set the world record of 1:53.28 in 1983.
It is also the fastest time in the world since Caster Semenya ran 1:54.25 in 2018.
