The “Best of 2018” continues today. This time, we look at the top women’s professional athletes of the year. 

5. Mariya Lasitskene: High Jump

Perhaps it's because she competes in the field, or that she is still required to compete as an “authorized neutral athlete,” but Lasitskene's dominance should have been a bigger story over the past two seasons. 

Yes, she lost this year (her first defeat since 2016), but she went 25-1 in 2018 with victories at the World Indoor Championships, European Championships and the Diamond League finals. Lasitskene also recorded the best four jumps of the year. 

4. Caterine Ibarguen: Long Jump/Triple Jump

Ibarguen’s season in the horizontal jumps nabbed her the IAAF Athlete of the Year. She swept the Diamond League finals and went undefeated in the triple jump. So why don’t I have her higher?

First, it’s tough to separate the top athletes across all the disciplines in track and field (see the 25-1 high jumper who only is ranked fifth). You have to make distinctions somewhere. Ibarguen lost two of her three Diamond League long jump competitions and her best triple jump wasn’t in the top 100 all-time. 

3. Beatrice Chepkoech: 3000m Steeplechase

Chepkoech smashed the world record by an astonishing eight seconds when she ran 8:44.32 in Monaco. That alone would have been enough, but Chepkoech also ran 8:59.36 in Paris and 8:55.10 at the Diamond League final, giving her three of the top-seven marks in the event all-time (and four of the top 11). 

2. Shaunae Miller-Uibo: 200m/400m

The 24-year-old went undefeated across the sprints this year, going 7-0 in the 200m and 3-0 in the 200m where she won the Diamond League title. Although she didn’t race the Diamond League final in the 400m, her 48.97 in Monaco was a clear indication that she was the tops in the world. That mark was the first sub-49-second clocking since 2009.

1. Caster Semenya: 400m/800m/1500m

I’ve already spelled out my thoughts on why Semenya didn’t get the IAAF Athlete of the Year so I won’t rehash that here. Instead, I will just repeat her accolades from 2018. 

She had a top-10 mark in three different distances. In her best event, the 800m, she went 9-0 and ran the fourth-, sixth- and eighth-fastest times in history (and ran her personal best without pacemakers). There was no safer bet for victory on the track in 2018 than Caster Semenya.