At this past weekend's IAAF Athletic Awards, the international governing body of track and field named Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar and Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium as the 2017 male and female World Athletes of the Year.

Although they aren't as immediately recognizable as six-time IAAF Athlete of the Year Usain Bolt, both Thiam and Barshim were utterly dominant in their events this year. 

. @thiam_nafi wins Female Athlete of the Year Award at the #AthleticsAwards

The heptathlete broke 7000pts in Gotzis, then waltzed to world championships gold in London to add to her Olympic title

Well done, Nafi! pic.twitter.com/jVgtu5tlgY

— IAAF (@iaaforg) November 24, 2017

Thiam followed her 2016 Rio Olympic gold in the heptathlon with a World Championships gold this summer, plus moved to No. 3 on the all-time list with a 7,013-point performance in Gotzis.

. @mutazbarshim wins the Male Athlete of the Year Award

The Qatar high jumper went unbeaten all season, clinched world championship gold in London and romped to the Diamond League crown

Well done, Mutaz!#AthleticsAwards pic.twitter.com/mVXqfk7w3m

— IAAF (@iaaforg) November 24, 2017

Barshim was undefeated in all 11 of his high jump competitions this year, including the World Championships, and tallied nine of the best 11 jumps in the world for 2017.

This summer's underdog-themed World Championships, in which hardly any favorites retained their titles and upsets reigned supreme, helped hoist these fresh faces above the rest to earn IAAF Athlete of the Year.

A few specific moments come to mind.



Usain Bolt, the eight-time Olympic champion and 11-time world champion, managed just bronze in the 100m at this summer's World Championships before not finishing the anchor leg of Jamaica's 4x100m relay due to injury. The moment was a major bummer for what was supposed to be a going-out party for track's biggest star.

(Kenyan newspaper The Nation also ludicrously posited that Barshim is "touted as Bolt's successor" by the world at large, a notion that Barshim quickly deflected). 

Wayde van Niekerk's attempt to become the first man since Michael Johnson to sweep the 200m and 400m at a World Championships was derailed by Turkey's Ramil Guliyev, who shocked the quarter mile world record holder with a 200m win.

The only man pundits had previously dreamed could truly challenge van Niekerk's double was Botswana's Isaac Makwala, the 2017 world leader, who contracted a highly infectious case of norovirus that prompted IAAF officials to ban him from the 400m final, before proving his fitness with a 20.2 solo 200m and a set of push-ups (kidding, sort of) and ultimately placing sixth in the 200m finals.

Elaine Thompson, the double Olympic champion for Jamaica just a year ago in the 100m and 200m, entered worlds with a 6-0 season record in 100m finals. After dominating her prelim and semi-final, the Jamaican could manage only fifth in the final -- out of the medals entirely as Tori Bowie took gold. But Bowie, the American, gave up her shot at AOY status in deciding to skip the 200m double.



Ethiopia's Genzebe Dibaba, who floated down the track two years ago to set the 1500m world record, was DFL in the world 1500m final and did not start the 5K final due to illness.

Great Britain's hometown hero Mo Farah won his fifth consecutive global title with a win in the 10K to open competition at worlds but found his streak broken in the 5K, where he managed just silver behind Ethiopia's Muktar Edris.

Keni Harrison, the 100m hurdles world record holder, missed the medals completely one year after missing the Olympics. She finished fourth in her first global final as Australia's Sally Pearson won gold.

A 21-year-old decathlete named Karsten Warholm took down defending Olympic champion Kerron Clement in the 400m hurdles. (Warholm was also named the IAAF's Rising Star at the Athletic Awards, the same honor bestowed to Thiam last year).

Allyson Felix, the most decorated female Olympic track and field athlete in American history, returned for one more World Championships to take back what Shaunae Miller-Uibo had won at Rio in 2016: the 400m gold. But Felix didn't win and neither did Miller-Uibo (who also failed in her 200m/400m attempt); instead, unheralded American Phyllis Francis earned the gold.



None of the men's 800m medalists from Rio competed in London, so Olympic fourth-placer Pierre-Ambroise Bosse got his first global medal.

Olympic 1500m champion Matthew Centrowitz was knocked out in the first round.

Americans Emma Coburn and Courtney Frerichs entered the 3K steeplechase with PBs of 9:07 and 9:19, yet defied all odds to win gold and silver ahead of four women who had run 9:00 or faster on the year, including world record holder and defending Olympic champion Ruth Jebet.

By the end of London 2017, there was hardly a well-known athlete left who had not suffered some massive upset. We could go on with this list. But instead, let's say congratulations to Thiam and Barshim for their breakout years.

It seems to be much tougher to stay at the top.