INDIANAPOLIS, IN -- World Athletics has announced the list of 10 nominees for Male World Athlete of the Year who were selected by an international panel of athletics experts, comprising representatives from all six continental areas of World Athletics. Among them are three Americans - Donavan Brazier, Ryan Crouser and Noah Lyles - that dominated the year in their respective events despite the challenges that the global Covid-19 pandemic presented. The U.S. nominees for 2020 Male World Athlete of the Year are (in alphabetical order):
Donavan Brazier (Portland, Oregon) - ran world-leading 800m times indoors (1:44.22, North American indoor record) and outdoors (1:43.15) and won all seven of his races over all distances. In all three of his outdoor 800s he ran faster than 1:44.
Ryan Crouser (Boring, Oregon) - undefeated in 10 shot put competitions and his 22.91m world-leading performance moved him to equal third on the world all-time list. He had 36 throws of 22m/72-2.5 or better, with 14 of those better than 22.56m/74-0, the highest total ever in a single year.
World Athletics will conduct a three-way voting process to determine the finalists. The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family will cast their votes by email, while fans can vote online via the World Athletics' social media platforms. Individual graphics for each nominee will be posted on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram this week; a 'like' on Facebook and Instagram or a retweet on Twitter will count as one vote. The World Athletics Council’s vote will count for 50% of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes will each count for 25% of the final result. Voting for the World Athletes of the Year closes at midnight on Sunday 15 November. At the conclusion of the voting process, five men and five women finalists will be announced by World Athletics. The male and female World Athletes of the Year will be announced live at the World Athletics Awards 2020 on Saturday 5 December. The female nominees will be announced tomorrow, Tuesday 3 November.