Usain Bolt is one of 10 men nominated for the IAAF’s Male Athlete of the Year, bidding to win the award for a sixth time after another Olympic triple-gold performance.
Bolt, who won the award after previous Olympics in 2008 and 2012, will go up against a field made up of Rio gold medalists.
That includes South African Wayde van Niekerk, the only man to break a world record in an Olympic event this year, the 400m in Rio.
The American finalists are Ashton Eaton and Christian Taylor, who repeated as Olympic champions in the decathlon and triple jump, respectively. Eaton won the Men’s Athlete of the Year in 2015 after breaking his world record at the world championships.
The 10 Women’s Athlete of the Year nominees include nine Rio gold medalists plus American Keni Harrison, who failed to qualify for the Olympic team but broke the 100m hurdles world record two weeks before the Games.
No women who previously captured the award are among the nominees, such as 2015 winner Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia.
In November, three men’s and three women’s finalists will be announced.
The winners will be announced Dec. 2 in Monaco at the IAAF awards night.
Here are the nominees (italics = broke Olympic event world record in 2016):
Men
Usain Bolt (JAM) — 100m, 200m, 4x100m
Thiago Braz da Silva (BRA) — Pole vault
Ashton Eaton (USA) — Decathlon
Mo Farah (GBR) — 5000m, 10,000m
Eliud Kipchoge (KEN) — Marathon
Conseslus Kipruto (KEN) — 3000m steeplechase
Omar McLeod (JAM) — 110m hurdles
David Rudisha (KEN) — 800m
Christian Taylor (USA) — Triple jump
Wayde van Niekerk (RSA) — 400m.
