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The 2026 Diamond League season will begin in Doha on May 8 and finish at the two-day series final in Brussels on September 4-5. The world’s greatest athletes will return to the global stage next year as they embark on another continent-crossing Wanda Diamond League campaign in 2026.Following another record-breaking year in 2025, many of the sport’s biggest names will be hoping to make history once again as athletics’ premier one-day series returns for its 17th season. As in previous years, athletes will compete for points at 14 meetings as they bid to qualify for the series final in Brussels and a shot at the iconic Diamond Trophy.The 2026 Road to the Final will begin in Asia, with Doha hosting the season opener on May 8 before back-to-back Chinese meetings in Shanghai and Xiamen. The African leg of the series will take place in Rabat on May 31, before the first European meeting of the season in Rome the following week.After stops in Stockholm, Oslo and Paris, the world’s biggest stars will head to Eugene on the US west coast for a meeting which has seen five world records in the past three seasons alone. The series then returns to Europe for meetings in Monaco and London, before the Road to the Final enters the home straight in August.Lausanne, Silesia and Zurich will be the last stops before the world’s biggest stars assemble in Brussels for the Wanda Diamond League Final on September 4-5. With meetings on four different continents, the Diamond League is one of the most truly global series in world sport.In 2025, it welcomed 400,000 spectators to some of the planet’s most iconic arenas and was broadcast on television in 170 different countries. It also reached an online fanbase of five million social media followers worldwide, notching up more than one billion impressions and more than 900mn video views across all platforms.In 2026, that global reach will only grow as the sport’s biggest names return to Diamond League action. Swedish pole vault sensation Mondo Duplantis will be out to claim a sixth successive Diamond League title in 2026, as he looks to improve on his latest world record of 6.30m.US sprint star Noah Lyles became the most successful track athlete in Diamond League history with his sixth series title in 2025, and now has the chance to equal or even surpass the overall record of seven Diamond Trophies.For newly crowned world champions such as the USA’s Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Jamaica’s Oblique Seville, the 2026 Diamond League offers the chance to confirm their top-dog status in a season-long struggle for one of the sport’s biggest prizes. With no Olympic Games or World Championships, the Diamond Trophy will be one of the biggest global titles up for grabs in 2026.Schedule:May 8 – Doha; May 16 – Shanghai; May 23 – Xiamen; May 31 – Rabat; June 4 – Rome; June 7 – Stockholm; June 10 – Oslo; June 26 – Paris; July 4 – Eugene; July 10 – Monaco; July 18 – London; August 21 – Lausanne; August 23 – Silesia; August 27 – Zurich; September 4-5 – Final in Brussels

Pole vault world record holder Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis will aim to win a fifth successive Diamond League title Wednesday in Zurich, the Swiss city hosting the circuit's finals just two weeks before the world championships in Tokyo."I have to be focused, I can't slack," said the US-born Swede, who has been in electric form, setting a 13th world record, of 6.29m, in Budapest earlier this month."High expectations are better than no expectations. It's a good problem, honestly," he said of the public's perception of the current state of the pole vault competition."It's bringing people to watch us, jumping high."Asked whether the 6.30m barrier could soon be breached, Duplantis played a straight bat."I try to maximise my days as much as I can. And if I feel like that on the day, it's a day that I have the possibliity to break the world record, I'll go after it."It would be amazing to do it here, it'd probably even more amazing to do it in Tokyo."It really is just a beautiful circus act that we do and I think we can entertain anyone anywhere in the world."Duplantis will compete in one of six field disciplines held at a street event on Zurich's Sechselautenplatz, directly in front of the city's iconic opera house.Olympic champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh will resume her rivalry with Australia's Nicola Olyslagers in the women's high jump while there is also the men's long jump, the women's pole vault, and the shot put for both male and female throwers."I'm ready to jump!" said Mahuchikh, the Ukrainian who set a world record of 2.10m last year."I started my season very well. The main thing now is to get in shape for Tokyo," she added in reference to the September 13-21 worlds in the Japanese capital."It's exciting, it's the main competition of the season. I'm going to Tokyo to protect my title."Lyles v TebogoThe remaining 26 Diamond League champions will be crowned in the course of a bumper programme at the Letzigrund Stadium tomorrow.The array of global stars on show includes the likes of Olympic 100m and 200m champions Noah Lyles and Letsile Tebogo.They face off in the men's 200m, with Botswana's Tebogo hunting a first ever Diamond League title and US sprinter Lyles looking to win the trophy for a record-breaking sixth time."With Weltklasse Zurich being the last race before the world championships, I am looking to run something special," said Lyles, who had to be happy with 200m bronze at the Paris Olympics in a race won by Tebogo.Olympic and Diamond League champion Julien Alfred also lines up in the women's 100m, while 800m star Emmanuel Wanyonyi and 400m hurdles ace Femke Bol will also be looking to defend their series titles.The majority of athletes have qualified for the Diamond League finals thanks to points accrued in the 14 meets to date, while a handful will compete in Zurich on global or national wildcards.There is, however, no place for Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the men's 1,500m.The Norwegian, who has struggled with an achilles injury since winning double world indoor golds in Nanjing in March, was refused a wildcard because rules stipulate that he must have competed in at least one Diamond League meet during the outdoor season.He instead heads to a training camp in the Japanese city of Kyoto ahead of Tokyo to fine-tune preparation for a tilt at a 1,500-5,000m double.