Photo: Marta Gorczynska
The 2024 Wanda Diamond League came to a close last weekend in a final dramatic flourish the series final in Brussels.
All 32 Wanda Diamond League champions were crowned over the course of two days at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme, with some surprise winners joining the big names on the podium.
Here's an overview of all the athletes who took home a Diamond Trophy in 2024.
There were plenty of familiar faces on the winners' podium in Brussels, as a number of Diamond League legends extended their dominant runs in the series.
Mondo Duplantis wrapped up a fourth straight title in the men's pole vault, moving to within just three of the seven-title record jointly held by his friend and rival Renaud Lavillenie. Femke Bol also won a fourth straight Diamond Trophy in the 400m hurdles, while Faith Kipyegon's meeting record in the 1500m means she now has five trophies on her mantlepiece. Her male opposite number Jakob Ingebrigtsen also defended his 1500m title in style, taking his title tally to four.
Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh (high jump), the Dominican Republic's Marileidy Paulino (400m) and the USA's Valarie Allman (discus) all secured their third titles, while Emmanuel Wanyonyi successfully defended his 2023 crown with a late surge to defeat Marco Arop and Djamel Sedjati in the men's 800m.
Australian discus thrower Matthew Denny and Japanese javelin star Haruka Kitaguchi both successfully defended their Diamond Trophies, having won the series for the first time in 2023.
It wouldn't be a Diamond League Final without a few major upsets, and Brussels also delivered some of the biggest surprises in the series' history.
Chief among them was the triumph of Britain's Charlie Dobson in the men's 400m: having seen his compatriot and Olympic silver medallist Matthew Hudson-Smith pull up injured earlier in the race, the 24-year-old delivered the performance of a lifetime to overtake Kirani James and Muzala Samukonga on the home straight.
Dobson was one of several athletes who won the trophy despite having never before won a Diamond League meeting. In the men's and women's 3000m steeplechase, favourites Soufiane El Bakkali and Winfred Yavi fell to Kenyan's Amos Serem and Faith Cherotich respectively. In the men's 100m, Jamaica's Ackeem Blake broke his Diamond League duck at the best possible moment with victory over US rivals and former Diamond League champions Christian Coleman and Fred Kerley.
Blake's compatriot Tajay Gayle delivered another big shock as he defeated Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou in the men's long jump, the Greek slumping to a surprise Diamond League Final defeat for the second year in a row.
Yet the biggest surprise of all arguably came in the men's 200m, where Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo lost his winning streak at the worst possible moment and was outrun by Paris silver medallist Kenny Bednarek.
It was a good year for first-time winners in general, with 14 of the 32 champions in 2024 having never won the Diamond Trophy before.
As well as surprise winners like Dobson and Gayle, they also included seasoned campaigners such as Anderson Peters (javelin) and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (100m hurdles), who had won numerous Diamond League competitions over the years without ever getting their hands on the ultimate prize.
St. Lucia's Julien Alfred also crowned her breakthrough season by adding the Diamond Trophy to her Olympic gold in the women's 100m thanks to a narrow win over training partner Dina Asher-Smith.
France's Sasha Zhoya also claimed his first title in the men's 110m hurdles, just months after he took his first ever victory in the Diamond League on home soil in Paris.
Cuba's Leyanis Perez-Hernandez ended a dominant season in the women's triple jump with a deserved Diamond Trophy, while Brittany Brown (200m) and Larissa Iapichino (long jump) built on their mid-season wins with a first title in Brussels.
There were two first-time winners in the shot put, as Sarah Mitton stunned reigning champion Chase Jackson in the women's event and Leonardo Fabbri celebrated his second win of the season against Olympic champion Ryan Crouser.
While the 14 first-timers savoured their first taste of Diamond league glory, a number of big names returned to the podium in 2024 having been knocked off their perch in previous years.
Nina Kennedy regained her pole vault crown in the women's pole vault, while her fellow 2022 champions Beatrice Chebet (5000m), Berihu Aregawi (5000m) and Mary Moraa (800m) also managed to reclaim the prize they last won two years ago.
Brazil's Alison Dos Santos claimed his second career title with a consummate victory in the 400m hurdles, and Pedro Pichardo returned to the podium for the third time in his career, having previously won the triple jump title in 2018 and 2021.
In one of the more emotional victories of the night, Italian high jump star Gianmarco Tamberi put his Olympic disappointment behind him with a stunning 2.34m jump to win a third Diamond League title.
