The gold medal winner in Tokyo2020, who also triumphed in the Diamond League and the European indoor track title earned Pichardo the choice for the list that will now be voted on until November 6.

Among those chosen are the Norwegian Karsten Warholm (Olympic champion, world record holder and winner of the Diamond League in 400 meters), the American Ryan Crouser (Olympic champion, absolute world record and indoor track and winner of the Diamond League in weight) , and Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge (Olympic marathon champion).

The Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei (Olympic champion of 5,000 meters and runner-up of 10,000 and leader of the 'double mile' ranking) and the Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Olympic and European 'indoor' champion of 1,500 meters, European record holder of 1,500 and 5,000) are the others nominated by race events.

The list is completed by Swede Armand Duplantis (Olympic and European indoor pole vault champion, Diamond League winner), Greek Miltiadis Tentoglou (Olympic and European indoor long jump champion, world leader of the year ), Canadian Damian Warner (Olympic Decathlon champion, Götzis winner, national and Olympic record holder) and Swede Daniel Stahl (Olympic Disc Champion, Diamond League winner and leader of the annual ranking).

Voting will now be done through a triple panel, with segments from the World Athletics Board (50% of the weight), members of the 'World Athletics family' (25%) and the general public (25%), who are called to vote online.

The five finalists will then be announced, with the announcement of the final winner taking place in December at the annual World Athletics gala.