Mahuchikh and Duplantis crowned 2024 European Athletes of the Year
Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Sweden’s Armand Duplantis have been crowned 2024 European Athletes of the Year at the Golden Tracks award night in Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia on Saturday (26) evening.
Mahuchikh and Duplantis both won European and Olympic titles and set world records in their respective events in 2024. Incidentally, both winners are also past winners of the Rising Star trophy, an award which recognises Europe’s most outstanding young athletes.
Duplantis, who has taken the world pole vault record to 6.26m this summer, was shortlisted alongside fellow Olympic and European champions Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Miltiadis Tentoglou while Mahuchikh, who improved the world high jump record to 2.10m, was shortlisted alongside 2022 and 2023 European Athlete of the Year Femke Bol from the Netherlands and European and Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson.
Mahuchikh, who was crowned women’s Rising Star in 2019, received her European Athlete of the Year trophy from European Athletics President Dobromir Karamarinov.
This year’s Rising Star winners are Serbia’s European javelin silver medallist Adriana Vilagos and Olympic 1500m sixth-placer Niels Laros from the Netherlands who set a European U20 record of 3:29.54 in that final.
A special Team Spirit award was won by the Italian team which topped the medal table at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships with 11 gold medals.
The award was received by Antonella Palmisano and Leonardo Fabbri, the 20km race walk and shot put champions respectively, and presented by European Athletics CEO Christian Milz.
The 2024 Golden Tracks awards night was held in the city’s National Opera and Ballet house and attended by the Republic of North Macedonian Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski.
