The two athletes will compete against five other world champions in the Japanese capital: Sweden's Armand Duplantis in the pole vault, with a world record; Daniel Stahl in the discus throw; Italy's Mattia Furlani in the long jump; Germany's Leo Neugebauer in the decathlon; and France's Jimmy Gressier in the 10,000 meters and bronze in the 5,000 meters.

In addition to these champions, also candidates for the title of best athlete of the year are the world discus throw runner-up, Lithuanian Mykolas Alkekna, and Norwegians Jakob Ingebrigtsen, European champion in the 1,500 meters and 3,000 meters in short track, and Sander Skotheim, European and world indoor champion in the heptathlon who was disqualified in the decathlon at Tokyo 2025.

Voting takes place on the website of the European Athletics governing body, with a quarter of the points counted, as well as the votes of federation members, the media, and the European Athletics expert panel.

Duplantis won this award in 2024, succeeding Ingebrigtsen, with whom he shared the title in 2022.

Simultaneously, the vote for the best female athlete of the year will take place, with the nominees including Italy's Nadia Battocletti, the Netherlands' Femke Bol, Jessica Schilder, and Jorinde Van Klinken, Great Britain's Georgia Hunter-Bell, Switzerland's Ditaji Kambundji, Ireland's Kate O'Connor, Spain's María Pérez, Slovenia's Tina Sutej, and Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh, the 2024 winner after Bol's two consecutive triumphs.

European Athletics will also honour the year's rising stars, including Spain's Joan Querol, Germany's Owe Fischer-Breiholz, Norway's Hakon Moe Berg, France's Elijah Pasquier, the Czech Republic's Michal Rada, and Bulgaria's Bozhidar Saraboyukov, Italian Matteo Sioli, Hungarian Armin Szabados, Polish Hubert Troscianka, and Dutch Jarno Van Daalen are the hopefuls.

Italians Kelly Doualla and Erika Saraceni, Spanish Sofia Santacreu and Jil Sánchez, British Innes FitzGerald, Norwegian Henriette Jaeger, Croatian Jana Koscak, Estonian Allika Inkeri Moser, Romanian Alexandra Tefania Ua, and Swiss Audrey Werro are the candidates for this award for the most promising young people of 2025.