05 December, 2023

The Greatest Season Ever: Comeback Kids

Photo: Ed Hall

The 2023 Wanda Diamond League season was arguably the greatest in the series' 14-year history. As well as world records, it also saw superstars like Wayde Van Niekerk, Karsten Warholm and Sydney McLaughlin make their long-awaited Diamond League comebacks.

2023 wasn't just a year of world records, sprint showdowns and shared world titles. It was also the season in which several big names made their long-awaited comebacks on the Wanda Diamond League circuit.

In Paris, all eyes were on US one-lap superstar Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone as she made her first Diamond League appearance since 2019. The American won the 400m hurdles Diamond Trophy that year, cruising to a title-winning 52.85 in Zurich.

It was a win which began her three-year dominance of the 400m hurdles, with McLaughlin-Levrone claiming the world and Olympic titles and breaking the world record on no fewer than four occasions between 2019 and 2022.

This year, though, she returned to Diamond League action hoping to conquer another discipline, lining up in Paris in the 400m flat. As she told reporters ahead of the meeting, she was still learning to master the discipline, but felt confident that she could take her strong early-season form into the World Championships.

"I'm just seeing where I'm at seeing as I haven't raced competitively in so long. I'm excited to see how I've progressed over the last few years in this event, taking away the hurdles," she said.

As it turned out, the 24-year-old finished a respectable second behind Diamond League champion Marileidy Paulino, who went on to defend her Diamond Trophy later that year. McLaughlin-Levrone, meanwhile, forced to pull out of the world championships with injury and Paris remained her only appearance on the Diamond League circuit in 2023.

If McLaughlin-Levrone's comeback in Paris made waves in the women's 400m, then the men's event was about to be hit by sonic boom with the return of South African legend Wayde Van Niekerk after a six-year absence.

Van Niekerk, who had been plagued by injury in recent years, had not appeared on the circuit since 2017, the year he broke the series record in Lausanne. Yet it was worth the wait, as victory in Oslo on June 15th proved to be the perfect comeback in athletics' premier one-day series.

"I don't think people realise just how hard this event is both physicaly and mentally - you can see how long it takes me to recover so that shows I'm still not where I'm meant to be but I'm getting there," he said. "It was a good race and it is great to be back on the circuit ut it is very hard for me right now. I'm just taking it race by race - I try not to think too far ahead but of course, Budapest is a big goal. I'm happy to be back beating these guys, the event is in a good place right now."

Van Niekerk also appeared to be in a good place over the following few weeks, clocking a meeting record of 44.08 in Silesia before making it three wins in four in London.

Oslo also saw the return of Karsten Warholm in the 400m hurdles, and true to his usual bombastic form, the Norwegian star made sure it was an explosive comeback in front of his home crowd.

Warholm had lost his Diamond League and world titles to Brazilian rival Alison dos Santos a year earlier, after suffering a season-ending injury early in the season in Rabat.

Having waited until his home meet to start the 2023 season, he promptly delivered a scintillating Diamond League record of 46.52, an even quicker time than the world record he had posted at the same stadium two years earlier.

"It really sucked to be out injured last year and I wanted to make sure I came back with a big boom - I've worked really hard to get back to this level so I'm really happy. It was a race I will always remember - I felt really good today and knew something special was coming," he said.

The Norwegian also promised there was more to come, even setting his sights on another world record at the World Championships in Budapest. As it turned out, he went on to break the Diamond League record once again in Monaco before sweeping to gold in Hungary to regain his world title.

At that point, he looked the firm favourite to win the Diamond League final in Eugene and regain his Diamond Trophy. But in the Diamond League, you never quite know what is lurking just around the corner.

In the fourth part of our Greatest Season Ever series, we take a look at some of the shocks, upsets and surprises in 2023.