Cast your vote: Who is men's T&F athlete of the year?

Eaton has to be it, he has won multiple events and some in world class fashion. Mo, had a great year and never lost, Merritt overcame quite a bit, and Rudisha set a WR. All of that being set, we are talking about "athlete" of the year, and not who did well at an individual event (or Mo and Bolt two events). Eaton would have to be the overall best athlete IMO, did really well in multi events and won the decathlon going away.

Eaton and Merrit for sure. Rudisha ran an incredible 800 (at the right time, too), but he lost right after the Olympics. So I can't say that he was the athlete of the year. Eaton and Merrit had incredible seasons (not to take anything away from Rudisha's incredible Olympic 800).

Its obvious David Rudisha was going to win this poll, flotrack is a heavily distance runner dominated site.

It's athlete of the YEAR not of the olympics, just because Bolt and Farah performed big at the Olympics where were they the rest of the year?

This is was defiently a hard choice. They all have something to bring to plate for being male athlete of they year.

I voted for Eaton based upon the top comment here, NOT because he's my favorite of the choices. I was actually leaning towards Aries Merritt or David Rudisha(Gold medal and new WR in the same Olympics)

Ashton Eaton holds more than one world record. Also at the Olympic Trials, if I remember correctly, he broke two individual event world records among the ten he was competing in. He's a multiple NCAA champion, won the Bowerman Trophy, and he's marrying a multiple NCAA national champion and Canadian Olympian next July, Brianne Theisen (I had to throw that in there because they are both world class athletes and a super couple).

Mo Farah probably did do the most physically and mentally challenging double in the London games...winning the 10,000m-5,000m double is ridiculously hard to do, but Rudisha did front run himself to the Olympic gold and world record. But it's tough when Ashton Eaten is literally the greatest all around athlete in history. And Bolt becoming the first man ever to defend both sprint titles and now has 6 Olympic gold medals. And Aries Merritt was the most consistent hurdler this year and dominated almost every race and eventually did get the world record...this is extremely hard to call.

my gut says rudisha or merritt first. this is an incredible list. You have to give it to Bolt though. repeats all golds and sets a world record. that's never been done. that's amazing that we got to see it with the pressure on and i think it will be years before anyone truly understands how monumental this is. Rudisha's run is splendid, but his only event and clearly favored from the get go. Bolt ran so many heats and still was pretty close to the world record

Aires merritt has lost against liu xiang in Shanghai this year , Usain bolt is te athlete of the year !

Usain Bolt again is the athlete of the year. The first ever to repeat the sprint double and also broke a world record on the 4x1. Just because he did not run prs in winning events does not take away from his accomplishments. He also faced more difficult competition in his event from country man Yohan Blake who is the second best sprinter of all time. All of these athletes will have to lower their records considerably and repeat as Olympic champions before their names are even worthy of being on this ballot with Usain. According to iaaf scoring tables his 9.63 in the 100m blows any of the performances by the other athletes nominated out of the water.

I would have to give it to Ashton. All the events in the decathlon, every meet he dominated this season. He has to be regarded as the BEST all around athlete this year
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Front running to a world record on the Olympic Stage? Seems like an easy choice.