Silesia Diamond League Preview: Athletes, Storylines & Matchups To Follow

By David Melly

Wait, didn’t we just do this?

The runners in Lausanne have barely finished their cooldowns, and already the Diamond League is packing up and heading a bit over 600 miles east to Poland, where the next round of action is kicking off in a few short days.

On Sunday, August 25, the post-Olympics circuit continues with the biggest Olympic stars toeing the line (or sprinting down the runway, or stepping into the ring… you get the idea) to take care of business. It all kicks off at 10 am E.T. on Peacock (subscription required). You can find a full schedule, entries, and link to live results here.

With more than a dozen gold medalists from Paris entered and a fully stacked program, races like Grant Holloway in the 110H, Karsten Warholm in the 400H, and a huge 100-meter showdown are all being pushed outside the television window. So in the interest of winnowing down this incredible meet into a few bite-sized chunks to savor, here are the key events, athletes, and storylines to follow:

An Incredibly Deep 400m For The Home Crowd

You thought the fan support for the French athletes in Paris was loud? Wait until you hear the crowd in Silesia get rowdy for European champion Natalia Kaczmarek’s homecoming. The Olympic bronze medalist in the 400m will face off against the two women who beat her in historically-fast fashion, Marileidy Paulino and Salwa Eid Naser, but this time she’ll have the Polish faithful urging her on. There will be plenty of opportunity for either redemption from Paris or a reinforcement of the pecking order, as seven of the eight finalists are back in action. Two athletes who’ll surely be looking to move up the field are Lieke Klaver, the Dutchwoman who missed the Olympic final by one spot, and Rhasidat Adeleke, the fourth-placer who clocked a time that would’ve landed her a medal in every Olympics going back to 1996.

Paulino is the favorite until proven otherwise. She remains undefeated on the season in the 400m and is the world leader with her 48.17 gold-medal winning mark. But with Laviai Nielson the slowest entrant in the field at 49.87, the Dominican can’t rest on her laurels too much without one (or several) competitors rising up to take her down.

The 1:41 Tour Continues In The Men’s 800m

11 of the 26 sub-1:42 performances in history have come this year, thanks to a historic leveling-up at the top of the men’s 800m, and the season isn’t over yet.

With Olympic 1-2 Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Marco Arop back to do battle, chased closely by fourth-placer Bryce Hoppel, Frenchman Gabriel Tual, and three other entrants flirting with the 1:42 barrier, it’s a safe bet that times we haven’t seen regularly since the David Rudisha era will be required to take the win (or even the second or third spots) here in Silesia. Wanyonyi seems to inch closer to Rudisha’s 1:40.91 world record every time out, so it wouldn’t be crazy to see strong pacing and a good challenge from Arop pushing the 20-year-old Kenyan to knock the last 0.21 seconds off his best needed to dethrone the king. And even if the times aren’t there, the racers in the mix will ensure that the battle down the homestretch will be thrilling and likely decided by hundredths.

Every Hurdler In The World Heads To Silesia

Both the 110m hurdles and 100m hurdles feature the entire podiums from Paris: that’s Grant Holloway, Daniel Roberts, and Rasheed Broadbell in the men’s race and Masai Russell, Cyrena Samba-Mayela, and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn in the women’s. The latter is so chock-full of talent that they’re running two heats – a rarity in Diamond League competition – and with athletes like 2019 World champ Nia Ali, 2023 World champ Danielle Williams, former world record holder Keni Harrison, and 2024 world #2 Ackera Nugent in the mix, just making the final will be quite the feat.

In the men’s race, the most intriguing matchup will be Holloway vs. Broadbell, after the Jamaican took down the Olympic champ in Lausanne, improving his lifetime head-to-head against his American rival to 4-3. Holloway rarely loses races, but in the last three years, if he loses at all it’s likely to be to Broadbell. How their rivalry plays out over this next chapter adds an additional level of intrigue to an event that can sometimes get repetitive when Holloway is dominant.

A Kipyegon-Free 1500m Makes For A Wide-Open Race

Sometimes, the race isn’t made by who shows up; it’s by who doesn’t. For basically the last five years, when Faith Kipyegon is on the starting line next to you in a 1500m, you’re racing for second. And on the rare occasion when Kipyegon is challenged late in an effort, it takes a history-making run to even put a little sweat into the three-time Olympic champ in the final lap.

The 1500m in Silesia isn’t lacking for talent or depth – there are 13 entrants with sub-four minute PBs headlined by Olympic bronze medalist Georgia Bell and two of the only women to beat Kipyegon head to head in recent years (albeit over a road mile), Freweyni Hailu and Diribe Welteji. The battle for the win between Bell and the Ethiopians should be a good one, as she and Welteji lead the field with 3:52 personal bests, but a kicker’s race could really open to door for any of a half-dozen competitors to surprise the favorites, including Spain’s Marta Perez, Australian Linden Hall, and American Cory McGee. Plus, with Polish Oregon Duck Klaudia Kazimierska in the field, the NCAA all-dates list could get another update if she improves on her 4:00.12 PB from Paris.

Kenneth Rooks And Grant Fisher (Re-)Take On Olympic Champs

As newly-minted Olympic medalists for Team USA, Kenneth Rooks and Grant Fisher have to be riding high as their Eurotrip continues alongside some familiar faces. And with the benefits of a few weeks of rest, fewer rounds of racing, and strong competition, both Rooks and Fisher will likely be chasing historically-fast times over 3000 meters – Rooks in the steeplechase and Fisher in the flat event. Fisher is already the American record holder in the 3000m, so any personal best is also his country’s, but he’ll want to see if he can put a true scare into Jakob Ingebrigtsen on his revenge tour after the Norwegian handily dispatched American Cole Hocker over 1500m in Lausanne. Rooks took a huge jump forward with his 8:06.41 silver medal performance, so knocking off another 6 seconds and challenging Evan Jager’s American record feels unlikely – but if we learned anything from Paris, it’s that the BYU grad doesn’t play into expectations.

The steeplechase is headlined by Olympic champ Soufiane El Bakkali, and though the Moroccan tends to prefer a kicker’s race and seems to care little about chasing times, fans of the event will be hoping he gets out hard and goes after it, as it’s been a relatively quiet year in the steeplechase and the world lead is still only 8:01.63. Given El Bakkali’s return to healthy training and 7:56 personal best, the first sub-eight performance of 2024 shouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility.

Rain, Rain, Go Away (Please)

The men’s shot put in Paris was slated to be one of if not the most anticipated field events of the Games. Unfortunately, a band of rain across the last few rounds put quite a damper on the competition. Fear not, throws fans, because we’ve got a high quality rematch on deck this Sunday. 

Three-time Olympic champ Ryan Crouser headlines the field that includes both other members of the Olympic podium, Joe Kovacs and Rajindra Campbell, as well as the fourth- through seventh-place finishers from three weeks ago. Italy’s Leonardo Fabbri, who had been the most consistent shot putter in the world this year leading into Paris, was most affected by the conditions, as he finished in fifth and failed to break 22m for the first time outdoors on the sport’s biggest stage. After we saw a scorned Chase Jackson produce in the women’s shot put earlier this week in Lausanne, Fabbri could be in for a big day.

One interesting thing to keep an eye on in this competition is the addition of Americans Jordan Geist and Roger Steen into the fold. They sit fifth and 11th in the world this year, respectively, and would’ve had a great shot at making the final in Paris if they were anything but American. Geist, who is also a 76m hammer thrower, has been having a stellar first post-collegiate season and will be making his Diamond League debut this weekend.

If the idea of a shot put competition of this caliber tickles your fancy, I’ve got good news for you - this event will be at each of the last three Diamond Leagues of the year still to come, and it’s probably a safe bet that most of the top guys will be going head-to-head time and time again. 

The Meet Before The Meet

Remember how we mentioned that there’s a slate of Diamond League-caliber races all happening before the NBC TV window even kicks off? It’s a real shame we likely won’t get to see Olympic hammer throw champ Ethan Katzberg or high jump champ Hamish Kerr compete live, but the field events are used to being disrespected by a broadcast schedule. What’s more unusual is seeing so much high-quality racing on the oval happening only for the entertainment of in-person fans and live-results refreshers.

In addition to the aforementioned 110m hurdles race, Karsten Warholm returns to action in the longer hurdles event, contesting the 400H for the first time since his silver medal in Paris. He won’t have Rai Benjamin or Alison dos Santos to contend with here, so Warholm enters as the favorite, but Warholm is no stranger to putting on a show with nothing but clear track and the clock in front of him. There’s also a 100 meter race featuring Olympic silver and bronze medalists Kishane Thompson and Fred Kerley, plus Thompson’s fellow Jamaicans Oblique Seville and Ackeem Blake and Kerley’s compatriot Christian Coleman. Throw in 2021 Olympic champ Marcell Jacobs (who is hopefully healthy) and Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala and it’s highly possible there will be multiple 9.8s dropped in the process.

And just as intriguingly, a whole bunch of middle-distance runners will line up for a rarely-contested 1000m, headlined by Mary Moraa fresh off an 800m win in Lausanne. Brit Jemma Reekie is the fastest entrant at 2:31.11, and she’ll likely have Laura Muir’s British record of 2:30.82 in her sights. And a strong race from U.S. 800m champ Nia Akins could threaten Regina Jacobs’s 25-year-old American record of 2:31.80 – all before you’ve had your second cup of coffee on the East Coast.

Thanks for reading! Tune in to the Silesia Diamond League on August 25 at 10am E.T. and follow along with us on Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube for live coverage, interviews, analysis, and more.