Usain Bolt is not surprisingly the International Association of Athletics Federations male athlete of the year.
The Jamaican sprinter took the award as well as $100,000 at a ceremony in Monaco for his superb Olympic displays.
Bolt, 22, became the first man in history to break world records in all three sprint events at a single Games.
He broke the 100m world record of 9.74 seconds held by compatriot Asafa Powell earlier in the season but he again eclipsed the new mark by clocking 9.69 in Beijing.
He then broke Michael Johnson’s world record of 19.32 in the final of the 200m by lowering it to 19.30 before leading Jamaica’s 4x100m sprint relay to Olympic victory in a record time of 37.10.
‘I have a motto that anything is possible, but this really is such an honour,’ said Bolt, who became Jamaica’s first Olympic 100m champion.
‘Just to be included with every great name in the sport is wonderful. I’ll try to do it year after year.’
Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva is the woman athlete of the year. She too got an award and $100,000 for raising the world record to 5.05m to retain her Olympic title.
Isinbayeva, who took athlete of the year honours in 2004 and 2005, said: ‘I’m very proud. It feels like the first time.’
During the season she raised her own world record in the pole vault three times, first to 5.03 metres in Rome and 5.04 in Monaco in June and then at Beijing – her 24th world best mark.
Isinbayeva just edged out Ethiopian distance runner Tirunesh Dibaba, who produced an unprecedented Olympic double victory in the 5000 and 10,000 metres in Beijing.
Cuban 110m hurdler Dayron Robles won the male performance of the year award after setting a new world record of 12.87secs as well as claiming the Olympic title.
Dibaba and Barbora Spotakova, of the Czech Republic, who set a new world record after claiming the Olympic javelin title, took the women’s equivalent.
Pamela Jelimo, who won the 800m Olympic title at the age of 18, was given the revelation of the year award.
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