Chopra most written about athlete, displaces Bolt

Chopra became only the second Indian to win a World Championship medal, and the first to win the Diamond League final.

Usain Bolt has failed to top the list of the most written about athletes for the first time in years in a sign that track and field is emerging from the hold the retired Jamaican sprint legend had over the sport.

World Athletics said that in 2022, Indian javelin star Neeraj Chopra displaced the charismatic Bolt, who is still the world record holder in the 100m and 200m despite retiring in 2017. Chopra had a terrific year, finishing runner-up in the world championships in Eugene, Oregon – only the second Indian to win a global medal after Anju Bobby George's bronze in the women's long jump in 2003 – and became the first athlete from his country to win the Diamond League final in the men's javelin event.

That followed up his Olympic gold medal in Tokyo last year.

Chopra leads the way with 812 articles ahead of a troika of Jamaican women sprint stars, Elaine Thompson-Herah, with 751 articles, world 100m champion Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce (698) and world 200m champion Shericka Jackson (679), with Bolt still featuring in 574 articles.

World Athletics quoted figures from media analysis company Unicepta. The federation's president Sebastian Coe said 2022 "looks and feels very different to me". "It is an interesting one. For the first time this year Usain Bolt has not led the list of the most written about athletes of the year," Coe said in a briefing with international news agencies.

He said the discussion had moved on from 2021 and talk of Caster Semenya and Christine Mboma, two athletes who have had to change events because they have elevated testosterone levels.

"The year before it was pretty self-evident why some of those athletes were on the list: Caster Semenya, Christine Mboma," he said.

"This year looks and feels very different to me."