WORLD WOMEN'S AOY
Marion Back On Top

In being named Athlete Of The Year for the third time in four years, Marion Jones is becoming so dominant that in that quadrennium she has racked up a record 39 points in AOY placings (1-1-2-1). The previous best was 32, shared by Marita Koch (1982-85) and Jackie Joyner-Kersee (1985-88). And so good is Jones that her 4-year total is better than Koch's 5-year standard of 34.

The double Olympic sprint champion rated as No. 1 in both the 100 and 200, going undefeated on the year in the dashes. It was her fourth straight No. 1 in each event, becoming the first woman ever to rate No. 1 four straight years in the 100 and only the second to do so in the 200. The American superstar also rated as No. 4 in the long jump, where he earned Olympic bronze. (For the purpose of our AOY voting, we only consider individual achievements, so her Olympic gold and bronze medals in the relays played no part in her selection.)

Our international panel made Jones an almost-unanimous choice as the top athlete of 2000, awarding her 37 of 38 votes for 1st:

 

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	%
1. Marion Jones	37	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	379	99.7%
2. Stacy Dragila	1	12	10	3	2	8	-	1	-	1	275	72.4%
3. Cathy Freeman	-	11	5	12	5	-	3	1	-	1	269	70.8%
4. Trine Hattestad	-	7	10	5	8	5	2	-	1	-	261	68.7%
5. Naoko Takahashi	-	2	2	7	6	4	4	4	2	3	174	45.8%
6. Derartu Tulu	-	2	5	3	6	5	2	4	5	2	172	45.3%
7. Gabriela Szabo	-	2	4	2	2	2	3	6	3	4	126	33.2%
8. Irina Privalova	-	-	1	2	3	6	3	8	4	5	119	31.3%
9. Maria Mutola	-	-	-	1	3	1	13	2	5	5	103	27.1%
10. Gail Devers	-	1	1	2	3	4	1	1	4	3	87	22.9%
11. Denise Lewis 58; 12. Tereza Marinova 36; 13. Heike Drechsler 28; 14. Wang Liping 2; 15. Tatyana Lebedyeva 1.