Here are the articles that grabbed your attention most on our website in the past year

With athletics largely back in business following the pandemic-hit 2020 season, the AW website has enjoyed a busy year. From the Olympic and Paralympic Games down to humble grassroots athletics, athleticsweekly.com has tried to bring you the best news, features and events coverage.

With our background linked to the publication of a British-based print magazine, most of our website viewers are from the UK. Yet these pages have also been visited by millions of people from the United States in particular and beyond during 2021.

We have even had website visitors from places like Tokelau, St Barthélemy and Equatorial Guinea. Athletics fans, it seems, are in every corner of the globe.

So what did you enjoy the best?

One thing’s for sure, you love previews. Our ‘who, what and when guides’ are forever popular especially when they give you information on big events like the British Olympic trials in Manchester and marathon and race walks trials in Kew Gardens.

Naturally, you lap up our definitive events coverage too. For the Olympics and Paralympics, for example, we had coverage of every track and field event on the programme in Tokyo, as you can see here.

You also love quirky stories. Jake Smith’s marathon victory in Cheshire in April despite starting as a pacemaker captured your imagination. Similarly, our exclusive on Jonny Mellor pulling out of the Olympic trials marathon due to gout caused by a compression socks getting wrinkled as he slept caught your eye.

Athletics fans despise doping but they also can’t resist reading about it either. Our pieces on shamed sprinters Alex Wilson and Blessing Okagbare, for example, got lots of hits.

Like doping, you crave controversy too. There is never a dull moment in athletics so there were plenty of these stories on our site during 2021, such as Andy Butchart’s brush with athletics authorities after Covid-related podcast comments, or Sha’Carri Richardson’s cannabis positive.

You also love your stats and a page on race walking performances went a little viral during the Olympics and is one of the surprise ‘hits’ of the year.

A few old favourites managed to make an impact in our most popular stories of 2021 as well. These included a piece about how to avoid getting a stitch and the fastest and slowest parkruns.

Most of all you simply enjoy hearing from athletes – both current and retired. Our in-depth piece with the British 4x400m winners from Tokyo 1991, for example, proved a predictable hit with you. More recently, our interview with the British 4x100m champions from Athens 2004 has proved similarly popular this month.

It doesn’t always have to be traditional athletes, however. Our website aside, the most popular social media post of the year involved Wrinkle the duck waddling along in the New York City Marathon!

A duck ran the New York Marathon at the weekend ?

Yes, you read that right. pic.twitter.com/mY0pPc9r5F

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) November 9, 2021

Meanwhile our Ask the Athlete series – where you, the readers, get to quiz current and former athletes, got plenty of interest with the interview with Steve Cram in particular getting lots of views.

Top 12 articles from 2021

In no particular order, here are the top 12 articles on our website in 2021.

Brussels sprint showdown

Our look ahead to the Diamond League women’s 200m clash where Christine Mboma subsequently beat Shericka Jackson, Dina Asher-Smith and Sha’Carri Richardson drew an enormous amount of interest – CLICK HERE

Athletes of the year

The voting page for the AW readers’ choice athletes of the year received a lot of clicks and our results page HERE was pretty popular too.

You went potty for Potter

Beth Potter’s surprise ‘world’s fastest 5km’ went viral in April. To read more CLICK HERE

Vintage Bolt

Our nostalgia piece on Usain Bolt’s first 100m world record was well received. CLICK HERE to revisit it.

Keely makes her mark

The most popular piece on Keely Hodgkinson wasn’t during the summer but instead when she ran a world under-20 indoor record in the early part of 2021. CLICK HERE for more.

Charlie Purdue’s selection woes

The marathon runner famously said she felt like she’d been run over by a bus when selectors left her out of the team for Tokyo. CLICK HERE for the original story.

Thommo’s trials victory

Chris Thompson’s inspirational performance at the British Olympic selection race for Tokyo was one of our most popular pieces in 2021 and will live long in the memory too. CLICK HERE for more.

Cross-country legends on the distance debate

Our exclusive on Paula Radcliffe’s and Zola Pieterse’s thoughts on the gender equality issue was a hot topic at the beginning of the year. To look back at it, CLICK HERE

Olympic predictions for Tokyo

We put our reputation on the line with some bold picks and you clearly enjoyed reading them. CLICK HERE to find out who we tipped for the medals.

How to run faster

Our series on ‘how to master the art of…’ focused on sprinting and was definitely a winner. CLICK HERE to read our advice.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen wins in Toruń

During the entire year you were slightly more interested in the Norwegian’s controversial European indoor 1500m win than his Olympic or Diamond League victories. CLICK HERE to find out why.

Ingebrigtsen was not only popular on our website either. He proved a hit in our monthly print magazine and YouTube page.

World U20 Champs preview 

You generally flock to our articles that set the scene for a big event and our look ahead to the big junior event of the year in Nairobi was particularly popular. CLICK HERE to revisit it, with our later coverage found HERE.