Femke Bol was awarded the 2023 European Female Athlete of the Year

The Dutch athlete Femke Bol was awarded the 2023 European Female Athlete of the Year for the second year in a row at the annual European Athletics Awards ceremony in Vilnius, Lithuania. She received her award personally from the president of the headquarters, Dobromir Karamarinov.

Femke Bol won two gold medals at the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul as a prelude to her strong outdoor performances and World Athletics Championship titles in Budapest.

After a dramatic fall in the final of the 4x400m medley relay, Femke Bol bounced back to win gold medals in the 400m hurdles and the women’s 4x400m relay, her 16th European Championships gold medal.

Moreover, Femke Bol improved her long-standing world indoor 400m record of 49.26 sec at the Dutch Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, host of the 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships, before also bettering her own European 400m hurdles record of 51.45 sec at the London Diamond League.

Femke Bol was also nominated for the European Athletics Sportsperson of the Year award along with two-time world champion Maria Perez (Spain) and Yaroslava Mahuchikh (Ukraine).

In the “Rising Stars” category were awarded the European under-20 champions Angelina Topic (Serbia) and Mattia Furlani (Italy).