It was special.
Bruce McAvaney’s outstanding lifetime of work, and Nicola Olyslagers’ outstanding year, has delivered the Australians two of World Athletics’ highest accolades.
High jumper Olyslagers was declared the best field athlete in the world by the sport’s governing body at a prestigious ceremony in Monaco.
Nicola Olyslagers at the awards ceremony in Monaco.Credit: Chiara Montesano for World Athletics
And Bruce? Well, the rest of the world now reveres him with the affection Australians have long held him in, winning the president’s medal for a lifetime of work and philanthropy in athletics.
The award recognised Olyslagers’ formidable year, in which she won both the world indoor and outdoor championships gold medals, set a new Oceania record (2.04 metres), won the prestigious Diamond League and finished the year as world leader.
Olyslager’s best field athlete award was the second-highest honour possible for a female athlete. American 400m runner Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won best track athlete of the year and the overall best female athlete gong, a title anyone would struggle to quibble with given she has not been beaten over the distance in two years.
Olyslagers and Mondo Duplantis show off their awards.Credit: Chiara Montesano for World Athletics
Sally Pearson, the only other Australian woman to win a world best award, also won best overall female athlete of the year in 2011. Sprinter Usain Bolt, the sport’s greatest ever athlete, was the best male athlete that year.
“When we were flying over to Monaco, I reflected in my journal of when I was 20 years of age. I was working in a cafe, washing dishes in the back, saving money to try and get some flights to compete internationally and I was so far away from being competitive, but in the back of that cafe, I would dream,” Olyslagers said.
The 2025 best male athlete was Armand (who is only ever known as Mondo, including by his parents) Du Plantis.
Again, asking if Du Plantis deserved to win the award is like asking if Bolt ran fast. There could be no other athlete to deny the Swede, who set four world pole vault records, including when he won the world title in Tokyo. The 26-year-old was undefeated in 16 competitions, including winning both the indoor and outdoor world championships, and became the first male pole vaulter in modern history to be unbeaten for two successive years.
World Athletics president Seb Coe spoke glowingly of McAvaney’s contribution to world sport as he became only the second Australian ever to receive the honour. Peter Norman posthumously received the award in 2020.
McAvaney was not stuck for words but was slightly abashed to receive such recognition in the sport he loves.
“I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work across many major events, but nothing compares to athletics at the highest level,” McAvaney said.
“The opportunity to call those defining, once-in-a-lifetime moments is what fuels my passion and makes my job as a broadcaster so special.”
Indeed. So special.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
