What To Watch at the Zurich Diamond League Final

Hello again! David Melly here. After a long season of track and field, the biggest stars of the sport are taping up their sore muscles and shaking out their legs for one last championship: The Diamond League final in Zurich, Switzerland. With $30,000 doled out for a first-place finish in every event (and, for that matter, hefty prize money going all the way down to 8th place) and a “wild card” entry* into the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest on the line, the stakes are high.

The long season adds an exciting element of unpredictability as a grueling training and competition schedule starts to take its toll. Big stars like Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Mondo Duplantis, and Ryan Crouser have all lost in recent weeks, so even athletes normally considered heavy favorites may not come out on top at the end of the day. On the other hand, the high-quality pacing and stadium atmosphere can allow athletes who haven’t quite hit their potential all season to throw down one last big mark before packing it in for the fall.

Below, we preview all the biggest events and storylines to watch. The full, jam-packed schedule and live results can be found here and American track fans can watch the action on Peacock at 11:30 am EST on Wednesday and 1 pm EST on Thursday. Full international streaming info can be found here.

*NOTE: Countries only get one wild card per event and reigning World champions also qualify, so individual federations that have both are allowed to choose which wild cards to send. So if the U.S. has a world champion in the 100 meters and a Diamond League champ in the same event, they can only send one and USATF historically prioritizes World champions in selection.

DAY 1:

Must-Watch Track Event: Women’s 5000m

Some would argue that the 5000-meter finals aren’t truly a “track” event as, for the second year in a row, the distance events will be held on a temporarily banked outdoor track with unfriendly tight turns. Still, it will be exciting to see American Alicia Monson throw down with some of the world’s best, including World champ Gudaf Tsegay, Olympic champ Sifan Hassan, and world leader Ejgayehu Taye. After Monson turned heads in Lausanne by taking Francine Niyonsaba to the line over 3000 meters, expectations are higher than ever. It’s just a shame that the alternate venue likely means that a fast time will be tough, as Monson’s 14:31.11 PB, set earlier this year, could easily go down with this field in a fast race.

Must-Watch Field Event: Men’s Shot Put

In Lausanne, World silver medalist Joe Kovacs turned the tables on fellow American and World/Olympic champion Ryan Crouser for the first time this season, winning the competition with a 22.65m throw, beating Crouser by over half a meter. It was Crouser’s shortest mark since his outdoor season opener and well over a meter off his personal best (which is also the world record), so Big Throws Fans will be tuning in to see if the GOAT is feeling a little late-season fatigue or if he can return to his usual form.

DAY 2:

Must-Watch Track Events: 

Women’s 100m: All year, the story of the woman’s 100m has been the Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce show… until last Friday, when her Jamaican compatriot Shericka Jackson beat her to the line by 0.01 seconds to hand her first L at the distance in over a year. Both women are back in action this week and, if the long season hasn’t started to take its toll, Fraser-Pryce will surely want to continue her quest to finally break 10.6 seconds. Another intriguing name on the starting line is Sha’Carri Richardson, who is coming back after a disappointing USAs and a long mid-summer break but reclaimed some form late in the year with a foul-weather victory over Elaine Thompson-Herah in Luzern and a respectable 10.93 finish in Brussels. Will she continue the trend to finish 2022 on a high note?

Men’s 1500m: The most thrilling event of 2022 has consistently been the men’s 1500m, and most of the big stars are back in action in Zurich. (One notable absence - World champion Jake Wightman - is entered in the 800m instead as well as the Fifth Avenue Mile in New York this weekend). The man to beat is Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the world leader at 3:29.05 and European champion. The men who will try include Commonwealth Games champ Olli Hoare, Olympic bronze medalist Josh Kerr, and the Kenyan duo of Abel Kipsang and Timothy Cheruiyot. The times will likely be quick with 5 men on the starting line with sub-3:30 personal bests, and we very well may see our first 3:28 of the season.

Must-Watch Field Events:

Women’s Discus: A rising star takes on an all-time great as Tokyo Olympic champion Valarie Allman of the USA battles 2x Olympic champ Sandra Perkovic of Croatia. The two have matched up 5 times this season and Allman has the edge at 3-2, but Perkovic, still only 32 years old, has the lifetime advantage 12-8. The duo had to settle for silver and bronze in Eugene behind China’s Feng Bin, but she’s not entered, so it should be a true head-to-head battle as they are the only two athletes in the field who’ve thrown over 68 meters.

Men’s Pole Vault: Typically, when world record holder Mondo Duplantis enters a pole vault competition, the conclusion is foregone: He’ll walk away with the win and, more often than not, a 6-meter jump. So it was a shock to see the normally dominant Duplantis finish second in Brussels last week having only cleared 5.81 meters, a height every athlete entered in the final has jumped before. Time to see if last week’s loss was a fluke, or if the World and Olympic champ is vulnerable.

PLUS:

Worlds Redemption Arc: Trayvon Bromell (Men’s 100m)

While a pair of global medals makes for a pretty impressive resume, Eugene bronze medalist Trayvon Bromell has to have left Worlds a little hungry as he was beaten by two of his teammate in the 100-meter final and didn’t contest the 4x100m relay. With no Fred Kerley or Lamont Marcell Jacobs in the race and the fastest season’s best of the entrants, Bromell has a shot to redeem himself here and pick up a decent paycheck to round out the season.

Rookie of the Year: Sage Hurta (Women’s 800m)

In her first full year as a pro, On Athletic Club’s Sage Hurta has dropped her 800m personal best from 2:00.08 to 1:57.85 and her 1500m from 4:07.50 to 4:01.79. Although she didn’t make the Worlds team in the 800m, she’s been tearing up the international circuit all summer so don’t be surprised if she punches above her weight in a field that includes 2022 World medalists Keely Hodgkinson and Mary Moraa, 2019 World champ Halimah Nakaayi, and 1:56 performer Natoya Goule.

Farewell Tour Finale: Kara Winger (Women’s Javelin)

It seems increasingly crazy to think that Kara Winger is really retiring after 2022, which has shaped up to be the best-ever year of her impressive two-decade career. The 9-time national champ and 4-time Olympian had never medaled at a World or Olympic championship, and in Eugene she picked up the silver at 36 years old, two years after her second knee surgery. And then to top it off, she set a new American record and a huge new personal best of 68.11 meters, her first PB since 2010, in Brussels last week. She’s entered here with nothing to lose and everything to celebrate, and at this point, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see her walk away with yet another career-defining performance.

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