The 2026 World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year finalists are Americans Masai Russell (100m hurdles) and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden (100m, 200m) and Swiss Audrey Werro (800m).

The winner will be announced Nov. 29 at the World Athletics Awards in Monaco.

They were the three highest-ranked athletes out of 10 nominees through a four-way vote in October.

The vote was split 25% each from World Athletics fans in an online survey, athletes, media members and World Athletics family including council and commission members, athlete representatives, local event organizing committee chairs, meet directors, member federation presidents, official partners and World Athletics staff.

World Athletics announced the other seven nominees finished in this order:

4. Tigst Assefa (Ethiopia, marathon)
5. Marileidy Paulino (Dominican Republic, 400m)
6. Agnes Ngetich (Kenya, distance running)
7. Chase Jackson (USA, shot put)
8. Yan Ziyi (China, javelin)
9. Maria Perez (Spain, race walk)
10. Camryn Rogers (Canada, hammer throw)

Russell, whose undefeated season included lowering the 100m hurdles world record to 12.09 seconds, can become the second consecutive American to win Female Athlete of the Year after Sydney Levrone in 2025.

So can Jefferson-Wooden, who swept the 100m and 200m at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship, taking the latter in the fourth-fastest time in history (and into a headwind).

Werro had an undefeated season of her own in the 800m. She was the 33rd-fastest woman in history as of June 6. Then she ran the third-, fourth- and fifth-fastest times in history, all of which are the fastest since the world record of 1:53.28 was set in 1983.

The Male Athlete of the Year finalists were announced Tuesday.

The other awards are women’s and men’s Rising Stars, Coach of the Year, the President’s Award and Moment of the Year.