The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fifteen invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics one-day meet competitions.
20-725: The inaugural season was in 2010 . It was designed to replace the IAAF Golden League , which had been held annually since 1998. The full sponsorship name is the Wanda Diamond League , the result of an agreement with Wanda Group that was announced in December 2019. While the Golden League was formed to increase the profile of the leading European athletics competitions, the Diamond League's aim
40-646: Is to "enhance the worldwide appeal of athletics by going outside Europe for the first time." In addition to the original Golden League members (except Berlin) and other traditional European competitions, the series now includes events in China, Qatar , Morocco , and the United States. Beginning in March 2022, after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , the Diamond League excluded Russian and Belarusian athletes from all of its track and field meetings. The number in
60-465: The "Diamond Race"; in case of a tie on points, the number of victories was used as the first tie-breaker, followed by the results of the final. Only athletes who competed in their discipline's final meeting were eligible to win the Diamond Race. In 2016 scoring was expanded to the top six (10–6–4–3–2–1); double points (20–12–8–6–4–2) were still awarded in the event finals. A completely new system
80-752: The IAAF Grand Prix was succeeded by the IAAF World Outdoor Meetings series in 2003, the Monaco meeting was removed from the Golden League series and made host of the IAAF World Athletics Final instead. The Golden League meetings remained unchanged from 2003 to 2009. The series had three title sponsors in its history, starting with Ericsson in 1998, TDK in 2004 and 2005, then ÅF in 2008 and 2009. The jackpot and its eligibility rules changed through
100-477: The competition's history. Each year, a number of men's and women's events were made eligible for the Golden League jackpot if an athlete won their event at all Golden League meetings. This ranged from five to eight men's events and five to six women's events for each year. In the first two years, jackpot winners shared in a US$ 1 million prize. In 2000 and 2001, this was changed to 50 kg of gold bars and athletes only had to win at 5 out of 7 meetings to qualify for
120-584: The division between track and field specialists is also evenly divided. In Oslo, Eugene and London, mile races are counted to the Diamond League standings for the 1500m. In Lausanne and Monaco, 3000m races are counted to the Diamond League standings for the 5000m. IAAF Golden League The IAAF Golden League was an annual series of outdoor track and field meetings organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Athletes who won specific events at all of
140-476: The event's inauguration have been held in the Northern Hemisphere in spring and summer months, in line with the traditional international track and field season. Athing Mu won the final as a national wild card so she was ineligible to win the Diamond League title, which went to runner-up Keely Hodgkinson Abeba Aregawi 2010 Diamond League The 2010 Diamond League season
160-474: The events featured seven times only over the course of the fourteen meetings of the 2010 Diamond League, and the best athlete in each event won a Diamond Trophy . League winners were decided via a points system, with four points going to the winner, two to the runner-up, and one to the third place finisher, with points doubled at the final two meetings in Brussels and Zurich. The total available prize money for
180-416: The jackpot. In 2003, the prize structure reverted to US$ 1 million for athletes winning at all the meets only, and a new stipulation was that athletes also had to compete at the IAAF World Athletics Final . From 2006 onwards, the jackpot events were set to five men's events and five women's events, ensuring gender equality . The award structure was also changed in 2006 so that athletes who won any five of
200-407: The originally planned 15 meets were cancelled, the season was delayed to June 10, only four or the meets had a full competitive program, and the final was cancelled with no champions crowned in 2020. In December 2020, the 2021 Diamond League was announced to return with 32 disciplines and a two-hour broadcast window. The original Diamond League scoring system, used from 2010 to 2015, awarded points to
220-609: The series meetings were awarded a jackpot prize, sometimes given in gold bars , which inspired the series name. The competition began with seven meetings and it lasted for twelve years as the IAAF's top tier of one-day meetings. Within the IAAF's global circuit, athletes received additional points for their performances at the Golden League for the IAAF Grand Prix (1998–2002), IAAF World Outdoor Meetings (2003–2005), then IAAF World Athletics Tour (2006–2009). The Golden League
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#1732776149571240-668: The series was US$ 6.63 million. For infrastructure reasons the men's and women's hammer throw events were not included in the IAAF Diamond League. For this reason the IAAF created a Hammer Throw challenge. For the first time, some of the world's foremost track and field athletes were centrally contracted to an athletics meeting series. For the 2010 series the contracted athletes – called Diamond League Ambassadors – included figures such as Usain Bolt , Kenenisa Bekele , Yelena Isinbayeva and Blanka Vlašić . Prior to
260-465: The series, former World Champion Steve Cram stated that he believed that, through greater television exposure, and mutual responsibility between the IAAF and promoters, the 2010 Diamond League would raise the profile of the sport of athletics. A total of fourteen athletes were given Diamond League Ambassador status, with the intention of bringing attention to some of the sport's foremost competitors. There are seven male and seven female athletes, and
280-465: The table represents the order in which the meeting took place. In March 2019 the president of the IAAF, Sebastian Coe , announced changes in the Diamond League's format for the 2020 series. The number of Diamond Disciplines was reduced from 32 to 24 and a second Chinese meet was added to the calendar. The dual final format was replaced by a single final. However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, 7 of
300-442: The top three athletes at each meeting (4 points for first place; 2 points for second place; 1 point for third place). Each of the thirty-two disciplines (sixteen each for male and female athletes) was staged a total of seven times during the season; points scored in the final meeting for that discipline (either Zürich or Brussels) were doubled. The athletes who finished the season with the highest number of points in their discipline won
320-438: The winner of the final automatically winning the overall championship, is similar to the former IAAF Grand Prix circuit with its Grand Prix Final . As part of the scoring changes, the term 'Diamond Race' is no longer used. Instead, athletes compete in 'Diamond Disciplines' to become the Diamond League champion. After the 2019 season , the final format changed from being held by two separate meets to one meet. All meetings since
340-659: Was held as the new top tier of the 1998 IAAF Grand Prix and consisted of the former Golden Four meetings, plus Rome , Monaco , and the 1998 IAAF Grand Prix Final in Moscow . From the 1999 IAAF Golden League onwards, the Meeting Gaz de France in Paris was added and the Grand Prix Final dropped. That year all meetings were scheduled for Wednesday evenings in order to improve the sport's television coverage. When
360-466: Was introduced in 2017 ; the top eight athletes at each meeting are now awarded points (8–7–6–5–4–3–2–1), but these points only determine which athletes qualify for the discipline finals in Zürich and Brussels. The athletes who win at the finals are declared IAAF Diamond League Champions, and the allocation of the overall prize money is likewise determined solely by the results of the final. This system, with
380-536: Was replaced in 2010 by the Diamond League , which marked an expansion to fourteen seasonal meetings covering all track and field events except the hammer throw . The origins of the Golden League trace back to the Golden Four series that ran from 1993 to 1997, comprising four top level European meetings on the IAAF Grand Prix circuit ( Berlin , Brussels , Oslo , and Zürich ). The first Golden League
400-783: Was the first season of the Diamond League , an annual series of fourteen one-day track and field meetings. The series began on 14 May in Doha , Qatar and ended on 27 August in Brussels , Belgium . Superseding the European-centred IAAF Golden League , the Diamond League was the IAAF 's first intercontinental series of one-day track and field meetings. Expanding upon the idea of the former Golden League jackpot, there were 32 separate Diamond Races , involving 16 men's and 16 women's track and field events – each of
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