All three of them struck gold in Beijing at the World Championships, and now they’ll face each other in a competition of an entirely different kind— the 2015 IAAF World Athlete of the Year award. 

 

Considering that these three will never face each other in international competition, this scenario represents the only time that we’ll get to see Ashton Eaton, Usain Bolt, and Christian Taylor go head-to-head-to-head. Given their superhuman athletic ability, that fact is truly a shame, but this will have to do while I wait for a Bolt v. Eaton 400m race. Hey, a guy can dream. 

 

Yesterday, the three women’s finalists were announced, and today the men took center stage as the three World Champions were recognized for their outstanding performances at this year’s championships in Beijing, China. 

 

The ceremony to name the winner and celebrate the athletes’ achievements was originally scheduled for November 28th, but in the wake of former IAAF president Lamine Diack’s arrest on November 4th on charges of accepting bribes to cover up doping results, the gala was cancelled as the governing body attempts to mend the situation. 

 

The investigation into Diack and the IAAF centers around bribes he allegedly accepted from Russian athletes to negate positive doping tests, and just last week an independent WADA commission revealed substantial evidence of “state-sponsored” cheating in Russia that could result in the country being suspended from the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Diack was not implicated in the commission’s report, but he remains under investigation for his corruption charges. 

 

On Friday, current IAAF president Sebastian Coe, as a part of a 24-member council, provisionally suspended the Russian Athletics Federation from competition. 

 

So yeah, it didn’t exactly seem appropriate to host a party while this other nastiness was going on, but here’s a short summary on the nominees' 2015 resumes:

 

Usain Bolt 

The 29-year-old Jamaican has won this award a record five times, including three straight years from 2011-2013, and his 2015 nomination comes after he won triple gold in Beijing— 100m, 200m, and 4x100m. It was the third time in Bolt’s career that he swept top honors in all three of his events at the World Championships, and was particularly notable this season considering his struggles with injury during the early part of the summer. 

 

Bolt defeated controversial American Justin Gatlin by the slimmest of margins—.01 seconds— to win the 100m title in 9.79, his third career 100m World title. The Jamaican added his fourth straight 200m gold, and his sixth consecutive global 200m title, four days later, dominating in a world-leading 19.55 to once again defeat Gatlin. Finally, Bolt anchored the Jamaicans to another relay title, his sixth straight global victory as a part of the 4x100m team. 

 

Ashton Eaton

The 27-year-old American has been the world’s best athlete ever since he broke the decathlon world record at the 2012 Olympic Trials, and remarkably Eaton improved his personal best in the brutal event at Beijing despite not completing a full dec in two years. 

 

His 9045 points at the 2015 World Championships bettered his previous record by a slim six points, and his gold medal marked his third such global honor in a row. Eaton won gold by a monstrous 350 points over Canada’s Damian Warner.

 

Perhaps most memorable for fans was Eaton’s ridiculous 45.00 400m performance to wrap up day one of competition in Beijing, which marked more than a half-second improvement on his personal best and was the fastest time ever run in the decathlon by .68 seconds. 

 

Christian Taylor

The 25-year-old American was a part of a heated, season-long triple jump competition with Cuba’s Pedro Pablo Pichardo in 2015, but ultimately Taylor would separate himself with a massive 18.21m jump in the World Championship final that stands as the second-furthest in history. Now, only Jonathan Edwards' 20-year-old 18.29m world record stands in his way from owning the event entirely.

 

Taylor switched take-off legs in 2015— from his left leg to his right— and that clearly paid its dividends. The two-time World champion and 2012 Olympic champion had never crossed the 18m barrier before this season, and now he’s well on his way to becoming the best of all-time. 

 

The award winners will still be announced in a small gathering despite the cancellation of the gala.