The Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis has during the season taken home gold at the indoor European Championships, the same denomination at the Olympics and also won the Diamond League.
But that was not enough to be named the male athlete of the year in the world.
The prize was instead won by Karsten Warholm, Norway.
The Norwegian star won not only Olympic gold in Tokyo - but also a world record with a time of 45.94 in the 400 meter hurdles.
- I always go out hard without thinking about what is happening behind me, Warholm says.
The finalists also included long-distance runner Joshua Cheptegei, Uganda, shot putter Ryan Crouser, USA, marathon star Eliud Kipchoge, Kenya.
In October, Warholm was named Athlete of the Year in Europe - for the second year in a row.
ARCHIVE: Duplantis manages 6.06 in the Diamond League final (September 9, 2021)
Javascript is disabled
Javascript must be turned on to play video
Read more about browser support
The browser is not supported
SVT does not support playback in your browser.
We therefore recommend that you switch to a different browser.
Read more about browser support
Armand Duplantis won the first Diamond League final.
Photo: TT