Photo: Matthew Quine
Over the last few months, the world's best have been competing week in, week out on the Wanda Diamond League circuit as they work towards the biggest stage of all: the Olympic Games.
So as the track and field action gets underway in Paris this weekend, we take a look at the in-form performers, the rising stars and the key battles of the 2024 season so far.
All eyes will be on the men's and women's 100m this weekend, as US stars Noah Lyles and Sha'Carri Richardson look to win Olympic gold for the first time in their careers. Lyles' Paris preparations turned out perfectly when he ran a new personal best of 9.81 in London last month in his only Diamond League appearance of the season. Richardson also has just one Diamond League win under her belt this year - a 10.83 in Eugene after disappointment at the season openers in Xiamen and Suzhou.
Richardson's major rival Shericka Jackson has had a tricky season after sweeping to both the 100m and 200m Diamond League titles in 2023. The Jamaican star, who has struggled to hit full fitness, took 200m victories in Marrakech and Stockholm, but slumped to a surprise fifth-place defeat in the same event in Oslo. Her struggles have dampened the usual Jamaican dominance in the women's sprints, allowing others chance to shine ahead of the Olympics. Britain's Daryll Neita claimed 100m and 200m wins in Doha and Suzhou early in the season, while St. Lucia's world indoor champion Julien Alfred raced to her first ever Diamond League win in Monaco last month.
Lyles, meanwhile, heads to the Olympics knowing that his competition is also in fine shape. It has been the year of the Africans in the men's sprints so far, with Emmanuel Eseme (Cameroon), Akani Simbine (South Africa) and Letsile Tebogo (Botswana) claiming five Diamond League wins between them. Americans Christian Coleman and Kenny Bednarek also notched up two early-season wins each in the 100m and 200m respectively.
After last year saw a record eight world records broken in the Wanda Diamond League, few believed it could get any better in 2024. Yet halfway through the season, the historic marks have already been falling thick and fast.
Mondo Duplantis kicked things off with an astonishing 6.24m jump in the men's pole vault at the season opener in Xiamen. It was an eighth world record for the Swedish star, who also became the first athlete ever to break the same world record in back-to-back Diamond League meetings after his 6.23m at last year's final in Eugene. He has since been chasing the next high at 6.25m, a mark he will no doubt hope to break in the Olympic final on Monday.
Kenyan distance star Faith Kipyegon was also back to her record breaking best last month. A year after she rampaged to three world records in two months in the 1500m, mile and 5000m, Kipyegon immediately broke her own 1500m record again when she returned to Wanda Diamond League action in July. Her 3:49.04 in Paris was the perfect dress rehearsal for an Olympic challenge in the same city, and proof if any was needed that she remains firm favourite for the gold medal on Saturday, August 10th.
The third and final world record to be broken this season came also came in Paris, but this time in the women's high jump. At the Stade Charléty, Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh cleared 2.10m to break a 37-year-old record previously held by Bulgaria's Stefka Kostadinova. With back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023, Mahuchikh has dominated the Diamond League in her discipline in recent years. The world record only cemented her status as the woman to beat at the Olympics.
Another freshly crowned world record holder in action in Paris is Mykolas Alekna. The Lithuanian raced to the top of the rankings when he set a new historic best of 74.35 in Oklahoma earlier this year, and has since backed that up with three successive wins in the Wanda Diamond League.
Alekna is not the only rising star whose Olympic dreams have been fuelled by Diamond League success this year. Australia's Torrie Lewis burst onto the international scene with her victory in the season opener in Xiamen, beating the likes of Sha'Carri Richardson with a meeting record of 22.96 in the 200m to claim her first ever Diamond League win. The first half of the season also saw first-time Diamond League wins for South Africa's Prudence Sekgodiso in the women's 800m and Australia's Georgia Griffith in the women's 5000m. Sekgodiso set a stunning world lead of 1:57.26 in Marrakech, while Griffith set a new Oceanian record of 8:24.20 in Oslo.
British pole vaulter Molly Caudery also picked up her first Diamond League win in Doha, just two months after securing a sensational gold at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow. With reigning Olympic champion Katie Moon out of sorts this season, she will surely fancy her chances of mixing it up in Paris next Wednesday.
Perhaps the most impressive first-time win this season, however, came from Nickisha Pryce in the women's 400m in London. The 23-year-old Jamaican was already national champion when she arrived in Britain for her Diamond League debut on July 20th, and she promptly showed why, clocking a world lead and Diamond League record of 48.57 to put herself firmly into contention for both the Diamond Trophy and Olympic gold.
The stakes are always higher in an Olympic year, and the Diamond League has rarely seen quite so many fierce rivalries as it has in 2024. As well as Lyles' war of the words with his fellow sprinters and Richardson's face-off with the Jamaican running royalty, there are several other showdowns which are set to reach their climax in Paris after bubbling away all season.
Arguably the most striking showdown this season came in the men's 400m hurdles in Monaco, where the three fastest men in history locked horns in a rare Diamond League head-to-head. It was the USA's Rai Benjamin who triumphed at the Stade Louis II, but world record holder Karsten Warholm and 2022 Diamond League champion Alison Dos Santos will still fancy their chances of beating him in Paris. Dos Santos in particular has shown remarkable consistency this season, winning five of seven Diamond League races.
The women's 400m hurdles has also delivered a rivalry for the ages, as three-time Diamond League champion Femke Bol edges ever closer to the world record currently held by US rival Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. Bol came closer than ever with 50.95 in early July, a performance she followed up with a ferocious Diamond League record of 51.30 in London. Regardless of which woman triumphs in Paris, it seems more likely than ever that they will need to break the world record to do so.
There were also some thrilling battles in the men's distance events this season. The men's 800m race in Paris will go down as one of the greatest in Diamond League history, as three men went under 1:42 in a dramatic photo finish. Algeria's Djamel Sedjati emerged the winner in that fight, claiming one of his three Diamond League wins so far this season, but Kenya's Emmanuel Wanyonyi and France's freshly crowned European champion Gabriel Tual will also have taken heart ahead of their return to Paris this week.
In the men's 1500m, meanwhile, all eyes will be on Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Josh Kerr during Tuesday's final. Ingebrigtsen remains favourite after breaking the European record once again in Monaco last month, but he has suffered defeat to British rivals Kerr and Jake Wightman at both of his last major championship finals. He will have needed no reminding of that fact going into this season, but Kerr gave him one anyway, snatching another surprise victory against the Norwegian in Eugene in the Diamond League in May, on the same track where Ingebrigtsen had lost to Wightman in 2022.
