World Athletics Awards: Noah Lyles Criticises Criteria Used to Select 2023 Winners

• Noah Lyles has faulted World Athletics for changing its annual awards criteria
• The governing body introduced new categories during the 2023 awards event
• Lyles was feted with the Best Male Athlete of the Year award for track events

Noah Lyles has broken his silence on the uproar surrounding the 2023 World Athletics Awards.

The world governing body surprised many people when it subdivided its two main awards into three for each gender during the end-of-year award ceremony in Monaco on December 11.

While everyone was waiting for one male and one female athlete to walk away with the World Athlete of the Year, the federation opted instead to introduce new separate awards for track, field, and out-of-stadia disciplines, as captured on its website.

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Lyles was awarded the Male Athlete of the Year for track events, joining the other winners who included Armand Duplantis (men's field), Kelvin Kiptum (men's out of stadia), Faith Kipyegon (women's track), Yulimar Rojas (women's field), and Tigist Assefa (women's out of stadia).

The American has now criticised World Athletics for failing to notify the athletes of these changes beforehand.

"When they decided to split the award without telling any of us, including the fans that voted, it made me feel that none of our achievements were good enough," he stated on his account on X (formerly Twitter).

The 26-year-old admitted to understanding World Athletics' thought process but faulted them for omitting the grand award.

"I'm guessing that was not World Athletics's goal, but that is how it made me feel. I believe there should be more awards included in the event but not with the exclusion of the Athlete of the Year award."

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Lyles to World Athletics: 'Involve athletes'

The triple world champion from Budapest has asked the federation to involve athletes before making such decisions in future.

"I wish they would have waited until next year to change the awards format or not change it in the middle of the process. I also wish World Athletics would have had conversations with the athletes so we could develop a more structured plan."

Kenya's President honours Kipyegon

Meanwhile, as Sports Brief previously reported, President William Ruto has conferred Kipyegon with Kenya's highest civilian order for her achievements.

The Kenyan leader posted on social media that the Elder of the Golden Heart was given to the world-beating athlete for 'illuminating the path of success'.

The 29-year-old Kipyegon will be going for a third successive Olympic medal at the Paris Games next year as she builds on her impressive resume.