© Copyright – 2025 – Athletics Illustrated
This year, 2025, has been a year to remember. It has also been a year to forget. Let’s not get into the geopolitical news; you need a break from the cacophony.
Where do we begin? For simplicity’s sake, we will make it chronological, starting with January 1, 2025 and running through the year to December 31, 2025. Let’s examine the newsmaking stories of the year in a few categories. Let us also examine some statistical information around reader interest at Athletics Illustrated. What are the subjects, and who are the personalities that drive readers to search out stories at Athletics Illustrated?
Organic Google searches
While there are several search engines readers can use to navigate the World Wide Web (remember that nomenclature?), such as Edge, Firefox, and Chrome, Chrome is the big one. There are a number of search engines too, for example, Bing, Duck Duck Go, among others. Google is the beast in the room. Now with AI, direct referencing of specialty subject matter has driven traffic to Athletics Illustrated. It helps to have been at this game since 2010, to have published (with quality and warts) between 1000 and 1200 interviews. Thank you for reading.
Top-20 Google search terms per 2025
| Search term (spelling corrected) | Number of searches per term |
| Keely Hodgkinson | 90,512 |
| Frederico Rosa | 67,631 |
| Fred Kerley | 61,918 |
| Mark Carney Marathon | 53,591 |
| Faith Kipyegon | 53,583 |
| Grand Slam Track | 50,012 |
| Tony Sach | 47,568 |
| Athletics Illustrated | 47,002 |
| Mark Carney Trail Race | 31,927 |
| Mark Carney Marathon time | 30,009 |
| Jacob Ingebrigsten | 28,354 |
| Mary Cain | 26,013 |
| The Purple Runner | 18,556 |
| Frederico Rosa athletes | 16,014 |
| World Athletics Championships 2025 | 15,756 |
| Beatrice Chebet | 15,754 |
| Frederico Rosa doping | 15,087 |
| Diana Chepkorir | 11,560 |
| Jane Hedengren | 9,251 |
| Geordie Beamish | 9,002 |
Other popular searches of note include “Camille Herron,” “Sebastian Coe,” “Faith Kipyegon drugs,” “Valencia Marathon,” and “Ruth Chepngetich.”
Google search results drive approximately half of the overall traffic to Athletics Illustrated. Other popular referers include Let’s Run, Track and Field News, and queries via Bing, Duck Duck Go and links from such sources as Wikipedia and cohort publications.
Most read stories of 2025 (all posts: articles, podcasts, videos)
Interesting stats and facts
The most often interviewed athlete has been Canadian marathon record holder Natasha Wodak of North Vancouver. She has run the marathon as fast as 2:23:12. Wodak formerly held the national 10,000m and half-marathon records. She continues to hold the masters and the open 8K road Best Known Time in Canadian history at 25:28 and 25:55, from the Harriers Pioneer 8K in Victoria, BC.
Convenience is the reason for the plethora of interviews with Wodak. She races on Vancouver Island and in Greater Vancouver often. She also makes herself available around major competitions.
While the Ruth Chepngetich story of doping and setting the world record during the 2024 Chicago Marathon continues to get traffic, surprisingly, interest in the subject has waned. Upon further review, compiling the Kenyan doping stories would add up to the biggest driver of traffic to the website. Since 2016, between 400 and 500 Kenyan athletes have been suspended for doping-related offences. This includes tampering, doping, and blood values anomalies, among other reasons.
Traffic to Athletics Illustrated comes primarily from three nations: the United Kingdom, the USA and Canada. Also, Kenya, Australia, and various European countries. Traffic appears to be driven in part by athletes and spectators in particular cities where events take place, around the time of the events. For example, during the Diamond League meets in London, Oslo, Paris, Rome, and Eugene, Oregon. Additionally, traffic is driven by global championships such as the Tokyo World Athletics Championships and in 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
While doping and performances drive most of the traffic, there is great interest in one-off stories of note. Stories that have nothing to do with doping and performance. Also of great interest is training information. While Athletics Illustrated refuses to conjure articles that sell ideas, novel approaches that are unproven and appear to be written to drive traffic, it is sound, practical and science-based and proven methods that are indeed shared. Hence, the very popular Five Principles of Lydiard training article.
Athletics Illustrated is not known for product or book, or movie reviews; they do happen from time to time. Much more to come from this in 2026.
