Olympic champions Armand Duplantis (Sweden) in the shepherd's jump and Yaroslava Maguchych (Ukraine) in the high jump were announced as Male and Female Athletes of Europe at the traditional "Golden Tracks" ceremony of European athletics, which took place in Skopje (Republic of North Macedonia), BTA reports.
Both athletes won Olympic and European titles in 2024 and set world records.
Both were winners of the "Rising Stars" in previous years at the same ceremony. Nils Laros (Netherlands) was selected in this category for the youth and Adriana Vilagos (Serbia) for the girls. Laros finished sixth in the 1,500 meters at the Paris Olympics and Villagos was second in the javelin at the European Women's Championships.
Maguchich, who received the distinction "Athlete of Europe" for the first time, overcame the competition of Femke Ball (Netherlands, Athlete of Europe for 2022 and 2023) and 800m specialist Kelly Hodgkinson (Great Britain).< /p>
Maguchich's award was presented by the president of European Athletics, Dobromir Karamarinov. At only 22 years old, Maguchich already has all the titles in her career, and on July 7 she improved the world record in the high jump to 210 cm, which broke Stefka Kostadinova's 37-year-old achievement of 209 cm, set at the world championships in Rome 1987.
Duplantis is also the first individual winner of the "Athlete of Europe", after being number one in 2022 together with Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Norway). In 2024, the Swede overcame competition from Ingebrigtsen (5000m Olympic champion) and Miltiadis Tentoglou (Greece), who won all possible long jump titles in 2024.
The Swede, who lives in the USA, produced one of the greatest seasons in the history of athletics with titles at the World Indoor Championships, the European Championships and the Olympic Games, as well as three corrections to his own world record - 624, 625 and 626 centimeters . He participated in the ceremony via video link with the USA, and the award was received by the Swedish Athletics Federation.
A special prize for team spirit was awarded to the Italian team, and European under-18 girls' 100m champion Radina Velichkova featured in the clips that featured the activities of European Athletics this year.
Bulgarian Athletics Federation was represented at the ceremony in Skopje by President Ivan Kolev.