"Different juices in the stomach" - Best Quotes of 2024

Sha'Carri Richardson was in the spotlight once again at the start of the 2024 season, and who better to explain the American sprint phenomenon than her long-time friend and US team mate Christian Coleman? Asked for his opinion on Richardson ahead of the season opener in Xiamen, Coleman wax lyrical about Richardson's impact on the sport's image and female empowerment, before succinctly concluding: "She's a beast."

The other star of the show in Xiamen was Mondo Duplantis, who arrived in China with a point to prove after an uncharacteristic wobble at the World Indoor Championships a few weeks earlier. Asked what he was hoping for at the first Diamond League meeting of the season, Duplantis was his usual bullish self: "There's always a few different juices rumbling in the stomach when it's a season opener."

Duplantis' optimism was well-founded. In Xiamen, he delivered one of the most impressive performances in Diamond League history, smashing the world record at the first meeting of the season with a breathtaking vault of 6.24m. He then delivered a masterclass in the art of the understatement: "I'd never jumped here before, so I didn't know what the track was like," he said. "Obviously it was pretty good."

Neeraj Chopra's quest to conquer the 90-metre mark resumed in Doha last May, with the Indian star arriving as reigning Olympic and Diamond League champion and sporting a snazzy new hairstyle. As he admitted at the press conference however, the longer locks weren't always the most conducive to winning the javelin. "Unless you have a bandana or a cap, it's hard to see the foul line!". 

US hurdles star Grant Holloway was also chasing an elusive mark this season, with questions at almost every press conference about when he would finally break Aries Merritt's world record. Cool as ever, the American star repeatedly rebuffed those enquiries, insisting that he was more interested in medals and the day-to-day than he was in breaking records. Or as he put it in Eugene: "I like the grind, I like the grit."

One of the most thrilling Diamond League rivalries of recent years has been between 400m hurdlers Karsten Warholm and Alison Dos Santos. In Oslo, their ongoing battle resumed in style, with Dos Santos beating Warholm in his own backyard in Oslo. He had warned him it would be a tough fight, however, saying in the press conference that "we are going to war". And yes, Alison Dos Santos is the only man in the world who can say those words with a big, friendly smile across his face. 

When Faith Kipyegon returned to Paris in July, everyone in the French capital was hoping for another world record performance from the 1500m star. They will have been heartened to see British rival Laura Muir on the startlist, then, with the Scot having been present for every single one of Kipyegon's three world records the previous year. "I think I'm her lucky charm," Muir mused. And she wasn't wrong...

Lo and behold, when the 1500m did come around in Paris, Kipyegon raced to yet another world record, clocking 3:49.04 to beat her own mark from the previous year. Yet as normal as Kipyegon world records are becoming, she herself was still left almost speechless by this particular performance. "I'm surprised as well!" she told her interviewer in the mixed zone post-race. 

Kipyegon's was not the only surprise world record in Paris. In the women's high jump, Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh stunned the world as she cleared 2.10m, breaking a world record which had stood for almost four decades in the process. Mahuchikh's comments afterwards betrayed just how much of an extraordinary talent she really is: "I wanted to try (for the world record), because (my jump at) 2.07m felt so easy."

Slightly less impressive than Mahuchikh's jumping was Karsten Warholm's command of French during the press conference ahead of Monaco in July. The Norwegian star is rarely lost for words, and he bravely attempted to contribute to the francophone chatter, before eventually relenting in his own, inimitable style.