Ogunleye battles Bol, Mahuchikh, Hassan, 7 others for Women’s European Athlete of the Year
Nigeria-born German, Yemisi Ogunleye is among the 10 nominees for the 2024 Women’s European Athlete of the Year.
Ogunleye made history as the first German in 28 years to win an Olympic Shot Put gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics, five months after she won a silver medal at the World Indoor Championships and just one of six athletes to hit the 20m mark this year.
The German will be challenged amongst nine others by Femke Bol of the Netherlands who helped her country to the Mixed 4x400m relay gold and 4x400m silver as well as an individual bronze medal in the 400m hurdles at the Olympics.
Also listed is another triple Paris 2024 Olympics medalist, Sifa Hasaan who achieved the incredible by winning the marathon gold and bronze in the 5000m and 10,000m.
Benin Republic born Nafissatou Thiam is also a challenger and will bank on her Heptathlon victory in Paris to stake a claim.
The win was her third straight in the event in the history of the Games.
Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine will have a strong say on who wins after breaking a 37-year-old world record in the high jump (2.09m) held by Bulgaria’s Stefka Kostadinova.
The Ukrainian cleared 2.10m at the Meeting de Paris Diamond League to set a new world mark before returning to Paris, this time at the stade de France to win her first Olympic gold, a year after she also won her first world title in Budapest.
Also nominated are former World and Olympic long jump champion, Malaika Mihambo of Germany, Paris Olympics 100m hurdles medalist, Cyrena Samba-Mayela, Keely Hodgkinson of Britain, Nadia Battocletti and Natalia Kaczmarek of Polan, 400m bronze medal winner in Paris.
