Olympic stars Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Gabby Thomas are among the athletes named in Anderson Emerole’s highly anticipated ‘Top 10 Women Track & Field Athletes’ for the 2024 season. This list celebrates the remarkable talent and achievements of female athletes who created waves in the sport throughout a successful campaign.
During an episode of The Final Leg Podcast, Emerole clarified that this list represented his “personal opinions” regarding athletes he deemed worthy based on their performances.
He acknowledged the diverse array of athletes who competed during the season, including those participating in indoor events, world record setters, multi-class competitors, and various other factors influencing their rankings.
Emerole emphasized that this ranking considered the athletes’ consistency in results rather than isolated performances in major events such as the Olympic Games.
The top ten list of 2024 female track and field athletes reads as follows:
- Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone
- Yaroslava Mahuchikh
- Julien Alfred
- Tara Davis-Woodhall
- Marileidy Paulino
- Femke Bol
- Gabby Thomas
- Nina Kennedy
- Thea Lafond
- Jasmine Camacho-Quinn
Emerole underscored Thomas’ remarkable achievement of securing three Olympic gold medals in a single Game. Her individual gold medal performance included a world-leading time of 21.78 seconds in the women’s 200 meters. Thomas’s impressive record of winning five out of seven events in 2024 solidified her status as a formidable competitor.
In addition to the top ten, Emerole offered an honorable mention, commending Sha’Carri Richardson for her individual Olympic silver medal in the 100 meters and gold medal in the women’s 4×100-meter relays.
Shifting focus from sprinters, Emerole highlighted the long jump category, specifically mentioning Davis-Woodhall. He emphasized her gold medal victories in outdoor (Olympic Games) and indoor (Glasgow World Indoor Championships) competitions.
Emerole then drew attention to Davis-Woodhall’s exceptional feat: ranking second globally in women’s long jump with a leap of 7.18 meters and achieving ten jumps surpassing 7 meters this year.
Emerole awarded McLaughlin-Levrone the top position on the list, deeming her “impossible” to overlook. He outlined her accomplishments, noting her individual Olympic gold medal in the women’s 400-meter hurdles and two world records in the category: 50.65 at the US Olympic Trials and 50.37 at the Paris Olympics.
Aside from her hurdle accomplishments, he also mentioned the American athlete’s participation in the women’s 4×400-meter relays in Paris, where she recorded a split of 47.71 seconds, the third-fastest relay split in history.
Emerole further emphasized McLaughlin-Levrone’s versatility, highlighting her impressive rankings in individual races: fourth in the 400 meters flat with a time of 48.75 seconds and eighth in the 200 meters flat with a time of 22.07 in the 2024 rankings, despite primarily being a hurdler.
These exceptional women athletes demonstrated remarkable prowess throughout the 2024 season, leaving the track and field community eagerly anticipating their performances in the upcoming campaign.
