2008 T&FN Men's Athlete Of The Year: Usain Bolt

’08 T&FN Men's Athlete Of The Year: Usain Bolt

Mountain View, California, December 22—OK, maybe somewhere in a distant galaxy, far far away, there's someone who might be surprised to learn that Usain Bolt has been chosen as 2008 Athlete Of The Year by Track & Field News.

Most notably, the Jamaican Jet became only the third man in the 50-year history of the magazine's AOY choices to receive a perfect score from our international panel. The trick was previously turned by Kenya's Henry Rono in 1978 and Texan Michael Johnson in 1996. But even in year where there were other World Record setters and Olympic champions were crowned in every event, Bolt stood tallest.

The 18 athletes who received votes (on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scoring system) for 2008, and their totals:

1. Usain Bolt (Jamaica—sprints) 380

2. Kenenisa Bekele (Ethiopia—distances) 330

3. Dayron Robles (Cuba—110 hurdles) 313

4. Bryan Clay (USA—decathlon) 205

5. LaShawn Merritt (USA—400 meters) 171

6. Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia—distances) 144

7. Gerd Kanter (Estonia—discus) 128

8. Irving Saladino (Panama—long jump) 121

9. Sammy Wanjiru (Kenya—marathon) 81

10. Andrey Silnov (Russia—high jump) 53

11. Andreas Thorkildsen (Norway—javelin) 41

12. Nelson Évora (Portugal—triple jump) 38

13. Primož Kozmus (Slovenia—hammer) 36

14. Paul Koech (Kenya—steeplechase) 20

15. Angelo Taylor (USA—400 hurdles) 14

16. Tomasz Majewski (Poland—shot) 9

17. Kerron Clement (USA—400, 400 hurdles) 5

18. Asafa Powell (Jamaica—100 meters) 1