Women in sports have truly made their mark this year, delivering exceptional performances that have captured global attention. They dominated global championships and raised the bar in their respective fields, and we started out with Part 1 of the World’s Top 10 Female Athletes of the Year. Curious to see our Top 5 Female Athletes for 2024? Join us as we unveil Part 2 of our countdown.
5. Sifan Hassan
Sifan Hassan is the athlete of a lifetime, possibly of our lifetimes, and the queen of ultrarunning! When she stated her intent to go after the 1500/5000m/10000m treble in Tokyo, many people doubted she could make it.
From that single games, she won Olympic 5000m and 10000m GOLD and 1500m Bronze, becoming the first Dutch Olympic GOLD medallist in Athletics in 29 years, since Ellen van Langen won 800m in 1992. She also became the first athlete in the history of the sport to win medals in the three events at the same Olympic Games.
As if that wasn’t enough, three years down the line, Hassan was entered into the Paris Olympics in four events, eventually declaring for three – 5000m, 10000m and the women’s marathon. At the Paris 2024 Olympics, Sifan Hassan secured the Bronze medal in the women’s 5000m. She followed through with another Bronze in over 10000m.
On the final day of the Olympics, just one day in-between her 10000m Bronze win, Hassan claimed GOLD in the women’s marathon with one of the most thrilling finishes of the entire games. She sprinted the final 200m to beat Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa by three seconds.
With those performances, she became the first woman to have ever won Olympic GOLD medals in the 5000m, 10000m and marathon. She also became the first athlete, male or female, to win medals in all three events at the same Games since 1952.
4. Faith Kipyegon
After Kipyegon smashed her 1500m World Record (WR) at the Paris Diamond League, which happened to be her first major international competition of 2024, there was no doubt that the Kenyan was the overwhelming favourite for the Olympic title in the event.
During the Paris Olympics, she commenced her outing with the 5000m where she was the reigning World Champion but had to settle for Silver after a late charge from her compatriot, Beatrice Chebet. Kipyegon overcame the disappointment to win her third consecutive Olympic GOLD medal in the 1500m with a sensational time of 3:51.29, bettering her previous Olympic Record (OR) in the process and becoming the first athlete (male or female) to win three successive 1500m titles at the Olympic Games, further cementing her place as one of the greatest middle-distance runners of all time.
Kipyegon wasn’t done yet as she extended her winning streak over the 1500m, claiming the trophy at the Brussels Diamond League Final. She wrapped up her season at the Athlos Meet where she once again roared to victory in the 1500m.
3. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone
You can describe Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone as one of the greatest athletes of this generation and you wouldn’t be wrong. She has totally redefined her event, the 400m hurdles and continues to transcend the sport of athletics as a whole.
Before the 2024 season, she had broken the World Record (WR) in the event four times and with her level of talent, it was always a question whether she would ever consider focusing on other events. While she didn’t, she ran a few races on the American professional circuit and never lost a race, even when it wasn’t her event.
Her first individual race of the season was over 100m hurdles, which she won in a time of 12.71s, beating athletes who are event specialists.
As if that was nothing, she took on a women’s 200m field of Olympic quality, storming to a massive Personal Best (PB) of 22.07s! In that race, she beat athletes like Gabby Thomas who would go on to win Olympic 200m GOLD, Brittany Brown who later won Olympic 200m Bronze and Abby Steiner.
She ran her first 400mH race of the season at the Edwin Moses Legends Meet in Atlanta, easily winning in a World Lead (WL) of 52.70s. It was her first race in the event in 22 months, since she was out with injury in 2023.
At the USATF New York Grand Prix, she entered to run the 400m, clocking a WL of 48.75s, taking out the entire field by at least two seconds. At that point in the season, McLaughlin-Levrone was the fastest woman in the world in three different events!
At the US Olympic Trials, she broke her own World Record in the 400m hurdles, clocking a time of 50.65s! She was her own competition, leading two other women in that race to top ten on the all-time list and still winning by about 50 metres.
She even bettered this at the Olympic Games, taking down the record further to 50.37s and bringing her World Records to a total of six. By so doing, she became the first woman in history to successfully defend an Olympic 400mH title.
As a core part of the US women’s 4x400m squad, McLaughlin-Levrone split a blistering 47.70s, the second fastest relay split ever, assisting her country to GOLD in a new American Record of 3:15.27.
She drew the curtains on her season at the Brussels Diamond League where she completed a 200/400m double, featuring in exhibition races. She never lost a race in 2024.
2. Yaroslava Mahuchikh
Yaroslava Mahuchikh’s 2024 season was remarkable. She opened up with a World Leading (WL) 2.04m whilst competing at the at the Internationales Springer-Meeting, setting a Meeting Record (MR). At the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, she earned a Silver medal in the High Jump with 1.97m, and then soared to her second consecutive European Championships GOLD after clearing 2.01m for the win.
In July, the 22-year-old broke the Women’s High Jump World Record (WR) set in 1987, soaring to 2.10m at the Paris Diamond League. At the Paris Olympics, Mahuchikh jumped 1.95m in the qualifiers and secured GOLD with 2.00m, becoming Ukraine’s first individual women’s Olympic champion and the third Ukrainian Olympic champion in Track and Field after Inessa Kravets in 1996 and Nataliya Dobrynska in 2008. She also won the European Athlete of the Year and World Athletics Female Field Athlete of the Year awards.
1. Beatrice Chebet
Before the Paris Games, Beatrice Chebet had never won a global title in the 5000m or 10,000m. She hadn’t raced in the 10,000m until the 2024 season where she announced herself to the world by breaking the World Record (WR) at the Prefontaine Classic, becoming the first woman in history to break the 29-minute barrier (28:54.14).
At the Olympics, Chebet finally claimed her first global 5000m title after winning Silver and Bronze medals respectively in the last two editions of the World Championships, stunning compatriot and former WR holder and reigning World Champion, Faith Kipyegon who settled for Silver. Exactly four days later, the Kenyan returned to the tracks for the 10,000m where she emerged the firm favourite to defeat Sifan Hassan and Gudaf Tsegay who were the reigning Olympic and World Champions respectively.
Chebet charged to GOLD to become the first Kenyan woman to win the event and the third woman in Olympic history to win both the 5000m and 10,000m at a single Games. The Kenyan kept her fine form for the remainder of the season, claiming victories at the Zurich Diamond League and Brussels Diamond League Final in the 5000m.
