From world record breakers to world champions, the best athletes on the planet kickstart their 2026 Diamond League campaigns in Keqiao this Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There, they will start one of the most challenging journeys in world sport. A journey that will take them to 15 cities on four different continents and be watched by millions of fans across the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a journey where the very best go head to head, week in, week out, in the most iconic sporting arenas on the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is athletics\u2019 biggest global series. This is where champions are made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For almost two decades, the Diamond League has been the backbone of the global athletics calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is where the world\u2019s best cut their teeth ahead of the major championships and where the rising stars of the sport make their first steps on the global stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2025 was another historic season, with three official world records and two world bests as the likes of Karsten Warholm, Faith Kipyegon, Beatrice Chebet and Mondo Duplantis continued to rewrite the athletics history books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It also saw the emergence of new heroes, with first-time world champions such as Jamaica\u2019s Oblique Seville and the USA\u2019s Melissa Jefferson-Wooden claiming multiple Diamond League wins on their road to 100m glory at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2026 promises more of the same, as the sport\u2019s biggest stars prepare to lock horns once again on the elite global stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Athletes will compete for points across 14 series meetings from May to August, as they bid to qualify for theWanda Diamond League Final in Brussels on September 4-5 and a shot at the iconic Diamond Trophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With no Olympic Games or World Championships in 2026, the Diamond League title will be one of the biggest prizes on offer in elite athletics this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the beating heart of the track and field season, the series will also provide the perfect run-up to the first ever World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWith competitors from around 100 countries and an ever growing fanbase on all seven continents, the Wanda Diamond League is a truly global series which delivers reliable, championship-level track and field competitions to athletes and fans across the world,\u201d said Diamond League CEO Petr Stastny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the coming years, the series will remain on the cutting edge of innovation in athlete services and fan engagement, while continuing to provide a crucial foundation for the sustainable growth of the sport as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now as ever, no other series delivers such reliably high levels of competition and prize money for athletes across the diversity of track and field disciplines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the past 15 years, the Diamond League has invested more than USD 300 million in its athletes, with USD 18 million a year spent on prize money and promotional fees, and a further USD 6 million on athlete services such as transport, accommodation and medical care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2025, the total prize money pool increased to USD 9.24 million \u2013 the highest level in the series history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That pool will remain the same this season, as the series consolidates its financial sustainability with new commercial partnerships in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2026, an adjusted prize money structure will allow even more athletes to win higher top prizes, while also ensuring full gender equality and a fair distribution among all track and field disciplines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, the Diamond League also continues to develop off the track, bringing its athletes and partners in front of a huge global audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2025, the series welcomed 400,000 spectators to some of the world\u2019s most iconic stadiums, and was broadcast on television in 170 different countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It also reached an online fanbase of five million social media followers worldwide, notching up more than one billion impressions and more than 900 million video views across all platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This season, that audience will only continue to grow as sports fans across the world once again tune in to the greatest track and field series on Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the series which delivers only the very best: in all four corners of the world, throughout the outdoor season and for all the biggest superstars of global athletics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
World record-holders Faith Kipyegon, Mondo Duplantis and Karsten Warholm will be joined by fellow global gold medallists such as Shericka Jackson, Cordell Tinch, Letsile Tebogo, Ditaji Kambundji and Daniel St\u00e5hl as the sport\u2019s leading stars look to make some early season statements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sprint showdowns, distance duels and fierce field clashes will set the tone for the season, which features 14 Diamond League meetings before the two-day final in Brussels in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Multiple global medallists will collide in the women\u2019s 200m. Jamaica\u2019s two-time world 200m champion Jackson and USA\u2019s world and Olympic 100m medallist Sha’Carri Richardson both contest their first half-lap races of the year, lining up alongside world 200m silver medallist Amy Hunt, two-time Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo, last year\u2019s winner Anavia Battle and Jenna Prandini, who has already clocked 10.97 for 100m and 22.36 for 200m this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Olympic 200m champion Tebogo races the 100m, fresh from forming part of Botswana\u2019s victorious 4x400m team on home soil at the World Athletics Relays. The field is stacked with sub-10.00 sprinters including two-time Olympic and world 200m medallist Kenny Bednarek, two-time world 100m bronze medallist Trayvon Bromell, South African record-holder Akani Simbine and Lachlan Kennedy, who ran 9.96 to win the Australian title last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The women\u2019s 100m hurdles stars a clash between the past four global outdoor champions \u2013 Kambundji, Masai Russell, Danielle Williams and world record-holder Tobi Amusan \u2013 and the athlete who has won the past three world indoor 60m hurdles titles: Devynne Charlton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tinch stormed into the spotlight in Shanghai last year, clocking 12.87 to move to fourth on the world 110m hurdles all-time list. He returns as the world champion and Diamond League champion, ready for a rematch against Olympic silver medallist Orlando Bennett and Japanese record-holder Rachid Muratake, who clocked 12.92 in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After winning the 400m hurdles in Shanghai last year, three-time world gold medallist Warholm returns to race the 300m hurdles \u2013 an event for which he owns the world best of 32.67. He races for the first time since the World Championships in Tokyo, where he finished fifth, and he\u2019s not easing himself in gently as he faces 2022 world champion Alison dos Santos, 2023 world silver medallist Kyron McMaster and 2022 world bronze medallist Trevor Bassitt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Swedish pole vault superstar Mondo Duplantis competed three times during the indoor season \u2013 his performances including another world record \u2013 6.31m \u2013 and another world indoor title win. Now he opens his outdoor season \u2013 the start of a campaign that he hopes will end with another crown from the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He might not have things all his own way this year, however. In Shanghai he faces Emmanouil Karalis, who moved to second on the world all-time list with a 6.17m clearance in February, as well as two-time world champion Sam Kendricks and two-time world bronze medallist Kurtis Marschall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kenya\u2019s Faith Kipyegon makes her season opener in the non-Diamond League 5000m \u2013 the event in which she won world gold in 2023 as part of a 1500m and 5000m double. Since then, she has added another world 1500m title and another Olympic 1500m crown to her haul, which now stands at three Olympic and five world titles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She ran a world 1500m record of 3:48.68 during the Diamond League meeting in Eugene last year and will want to make her mark in the 5000m again after running 14:05.20 \u2013 a since-improved world record \u2013 in Paris in 2023. Her competition this time includes two-time world U20 champion Medina Eisa, two-time world U20 cross-country champion Marta Alemayo and Hirut Meshesha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jess Hull got Olympic silver and world bronze behind Kipyegon in Paris and Tokyo, and the Australian races that distance in Shanghai against the athlete who got world silver between them \u2013 Dorcus Ewoi. Olympic 800m silver medallist Tsige Duguma makes her outdoor 1500m debut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kenya\u2019s 2019 world 1500m champion Timothy Cheruiyot steps up to contest the 3000m against his compatriots Jacob Krop, Edwin Kurgat and Reynold Cheruiyot, the world 1500m bronze medallist. World 10,000m bronze medallist Andreas Almgren adds further strength to the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The men\u2019s 800m includes three sub-1:43 runners in Wycliffe Kinyamal, Ben Pattison and Peter Bol, while the women\u2019s 400m pits Salwa Eid Naser against Nickisha Pryce and two-time world bronze medallist Sada Williams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three global gold medallist race in the 3000m steeplechase as world champion Faith Cherotich faces 2022 world champion Norah Jeruto and Tokyo Olympic champion Peruth Chemutai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There will be a clash of titans in the men\u2019s discus as the in-form Matt Denny and Steven Richter go up against three-time world champion Daniel St\u00e5hl, Olympic champion Roj\u00e9 Stona, 2022 world champion Kristjan \u010ceh and world bronze medallist Alex Rose. Denny and Richter both threw 74 metres in Ramona last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A host of global gold medallists are in shot put action, too. Two-time world outdoor champion Chase Jackson won her first world indoor title in Poland in March ahead of two-time champion Sarah Mitton and they renew their rivalry against world champion Jessica Schilder and Olympic champion Yemisi Mabry (n\u00e9e Ogunleye).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lex Brown will want to continue her strong form in the long jump after leaping 7.07m last month \u2013 one centimetre farther than the PB Larissa Iapichino set last year. They both compete in Shanghai against world bronze medallist Natalia Linares and 2025 world indoor champion Claire Bryant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
World champion Mattia Furlani leads the non-Diamond League men\u2019s long jump field as he takes on world indoor bronze medallist Bozhidar Sar\u00e2boyukov, Tajay Gayle, Wayne Pinnock and home favourite Shi Yuhao, world bronze medallist last year in Tokyo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From world record breakers to world champions, the best athletes on the planet kickstart their 2026 Diamond League<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-12843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-athletics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t