There are athletes who dominate their event. And then there is Femke Bol.
When the Dutch 400m hurdles star crossed the line in first at the Wanda Diamond League Final in Zurich last August, it was her fifth straight Diamond League title.
In almost two decades of series history, only a few athletes – from Valerie Adams to Mondo Duplantis – had ever won the Diamond Trophy five years in a row. Bol was the first to do so in a track discipline.
Yet the win in Zurich also marked an even more impressive milestone for Bol, one which underlines her extraordinary consistency over the past five years.
The world champion and Olympic bronze medallist has now won 30 Diamond League competitions in a row – the longest winning streak in series history.
Bol headed into the season with 24 wins under her belt already, having won every single 400m hurdles race she had started since her Diamond League debut in 2020.
She began her fifth title defence with back-to-back meeting records in Rabat and Stockholm, before turning her attention to a new challenge Monaco.
Before 2025, Monaco was one of the few meetings where Bol had never won in the 400m hurdles. In July, she set the record straight in style with a meeting record and world lead of 51.95.
It was the first of two sub-52 times in Bol’s 2025 campaign, with the Dutch star winning in London before storming to another world lead of 51.91.
With five wins in five, she once again headed to the Diamond League Final as firm favourite, and didn’t disappoint in Zurich.
In a perfect dress rehearsal for her world title in Tokyo, Bol cruised to 52.18, winning the final a full second ahead of the chasing pack.
“It always helps to have people around to push you through the last hurdles, but I also know how to push
myself,” she said. “I always have my own race to do, and you have your own 10 hurdles on the way, so the focus is to hold on tight and enjoy it.”
After five Diamond League titles and 30 Diamond League wins in a row, she knows better than most how to lead from the front.
