The 2024 Diamond League continues its Scandinavian swing with a track and field gala in the Swedish capital of Stockholm on Sunday (2 June).
All eyes will be on Swedish Olympic champions Mondo Duplantis and Daniel Ståhl as they aim to impress a passionate home crowd at Stockholm’s Olympic stadium.
Approximately 300 athletes from 50 nations are expected to take part in the seventh leg of the 2024 Diamond League. Among them are world champions Femke Bol, Shericka Jackson, Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Chase Jackson, along with breakout stars like Alison Dos Santos, Mykolas Alekna and Brittany Brown.
Read on to learn more about the athletes to watch, competition schedule, and how to watch many of the world’s best track and field athletes live.
- 2024 Diamond League preview: full schedule and how to watch track and field action live
Chase Jackson (USA) competes in the women's shot put event during the 2024 Suzhou Diamond League.
A smorgasbord of top level athletics featuring Olympic and world champions
Mondo Duplantis began the outdoor season in fine form, passing his previous world record of 6.23m at the 2024 Xiamen Diamond League, where he cleared 6.24m to push his world record a centimeter further.
Anticipation is building around the Swedish pole vaulting star as the prospect of a world record on home soil has partial and impartial fans alike holding their breath ahead of the 2024 Stockholm Diamond League.
Duplantis has publicly stated that the meet is the most important event to him outside of major championships. He told the Wanda Diamond League website, “When I'm at Stockholm Stadium, and I'm on the track there, and we're competing at the Diamond League meet, it almost feels like I have to defend the turf. That just ups my game and fills me with adrenaline.”
A trio of American vaulters, including Olympic medalists Chris Nilsen and Sam Kendricks, will attempt to deny him home glory. 2023 World Athletics Championships silver medalist E.J. Obiena will also look to vault to new heights in Stockholm.
While one Swedish Olympic champion comes into the meet with the rest of the field chasing him, another will be chasing his rivals in the discus ring.
2023 world champion Daniel Ståhl has yet to find the spectacular throws that helped him win that title last summer in Budapest, Hungary. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion still has a few weeks to tweak his technique and improve his strength before the Olympic Games Paris 2024. Nonetheless, he’ll want to give the home crowd something to cheer for in Stockholm.
His main rivals will be provisional world record holder Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania and Australian Matthew Denny. The pair have finished first and second ahead of Ståhl at both Diamond League discus competitions this season.
Alekna announced his preparedness for the Olympic Games by launching a provisional world record of 74.35m in advantageous conditions earlier this season. While it seems unlikely that he will replicate that throw in Stockholm, expect some throws near the 70m mark.
With six of the seven best ranked discus throwers in the world on the start list, the 2024 Stockholm Diamond League is shaping up to be a memorable one.
Shericka Jackson will definitely be hoping to make this meet a memorable one. The 29 year-old Jamaican sprinter has gone faster than anyone over 200m except 1988 Olympic champion Florence Griffith Joyner.
However, a fifth place at 2024 Oslo Diamond League on Thursday has led to questions about the 2023 world champion’s fitness ahead of Paris 2024. She will look to assuage concerns with a speedy time in Stockholm.
On the other hand, American Brittany Brown will look to rattle her confidence once more. Brown scored an upset victory with a time of 22.32 seconds in Oslo. The result has vaulted the American sprinter into the Olympic selection conversation ahead of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in late June.
Brown is slated to run both the 100m and 200m in Stockholm. The Gambia’s Gina Bass and Cote d’Ivoire’s Marie-Josée Ta Lou-Smith will be her biggest challengers in the 100m, while Jackson and fellow Americans Anavia Battle and Jenna Prandini will be her biggest rivals in the 200m.
Another highly anticipated women’s track event is the 400m hurdles. Dutch world champion Femke Bol will make her season debut in the event at Stockholm’s Olympic stadium.
Bol has gone from strength, to strength, over the last year. She won the 2023 World Athletics Championships by over a second with her time of 51.70 seconds. The 24 year-old Dutch hurdler then rocketed to two world indoor titles in the 400m and 4x400m relay this winter. Now, she will show her hurdling form ahead of Paris 2024.
She will be challenged by a trio of Jamaicans, including Rushell Clayton, Andrenette Knight and Janieve Russell, who swept the podium at the 2024 Oslo Diamond League on Thursday.
In the field events, American Chase Jackson and Canadian Sarah Mitton will reignite their head-to-head battle in the women’s shot put, while Ukrainian world champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh will attempt to jump higher than Australians Eleanor Patterson and Nicola Olyslagers.
The 2024 Diamond League will go on a month-long hiatus before the next leg at the Stade Sébastien Charléty in Paris, France on Sunday July 7.
Schedule for the 2024 Stockholm Diamond League
(All times local GMT+2)
- 17:20 Shot Put women
- 17:25 High Jump women
- 17:27 Pole Vault Men
- 18:04 400m Hurdles men
- 18:15 100m women
- 18:23 1500m women
- 18:32 Triple Jump women
- 18:39 3000m men
- 18:55 Discus men
- 19:00 100m men
- 19:11 3000m Steeplechase men
- 19:32 400m Hurdles women
- 19:42 200m women
- 19:52 800m men
2024 Stockholm Diamond League: how to watch live
Action will be streamed in a number of territories on the Wanda Diamond League YouTube page, but the live stream will not be available in all territories.
BBC has the rights in the UK and will broadcast it on BBC Two, while for audiences in the U.S., live coverage will be provided by NBC/Peaco*ck.
SuperSport is the rightsholder for the 2024 Diamond League in most of Africa.
Please check your local listings to find out more information.
