Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah is among 10 nominees for the Female World Athlete of the Year 2021 award following her tremendous performance at the pandemic postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics and her dominance in the 100 metre Diamond League competition.

This morning, World Athletics announced that voting for the 2021 World Athletes of the Year is open, ahead of the World Athletics Awards 2021 to be held in December.  

Other female nominees include Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo from the Bahamas, and Olympic 800m and 4x400m champion Athing Mu from the United States of America.  

“The nominations reflect the remarkable range of exceptional performances that the sport has witnessed this year, at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, one-day meeting circuits, and other events around the world,” the release stated.

Commenting on the Awards, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said, “As always, the World Athletics Awards will recognise athletes who have performed at the highest level across the year, taking into account not only the Olympic Games, but the one-day meeting circuits. We do recognise that athletes in some parts of the world faced greater challenges than others in accessing international competition this year, which complicated the nomination process. However, we saw some impressive breakthroughs at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and we look forward to those athletes having more opportunities to shine next year, with five World Athletics Series events and a full schedule of one-day meetings on the calendar.”

The release went on to state that 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.

It further added that the World Athletics Council’s vote will count for 50 per cent of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes will each count for 25 per cent of the final result.

Voting for the World Athletes of the Year closes at midnight on Saturday, November 6.

After the voting process, five women and five men finalists will be announced by World Athletics.

The female and male World Athletes of the Year will be announced live at the World Athletics Awards 2021 in December.