WDL 2025: Where Champions Are Made

If you want to beat the best, you have to compete with the best. 

On April 26th, some of the biggest names in global track and field will assemble in Xiamen for the launch of the 2025 Wanda Diamond League season. 

It’s the start of a journey across 15 cities and four different continents, as the world’s best athletes go head to head in the sport’s biggest arenas. 

The prize? A place in the Wanda Diamond League Final in Zurich on August 27-28 and a chance to win the iconic Diamond Trophy. 

This is athletics’ biggest global series. This is where champions are made.

For the last decade and a half, the Diamond League has been the backbone of the global athletics calendar. 

It’s a series which has seen 13 world records in the last two seasons alone, and launched the likes of Mondo Duplantis, Noah Lyles and Femke Bol to global superstardom. 

This is where the world’s best cut their teeth for the major championships. Where they compete with their biggest rivals, week in, week out. 

The series’ 16th edition will be no different, as athletes head into the 2025 campaign with one eye on the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September. 

This season is already promising some Tokyo dress rehearsals, with Letsile Tebogo, Marcell Jacobs and Christian Coleman going head to head in the men’s 100m in Shanghai/Keqiao and Keely Hodgkinson, Tsige Duguma and Mary Moraa eyeing an Olympic final rematch in the women’s 800m in Eugene. 

Field stars such as high jump world record holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh and pole vault superstar Mondo Duplantis have also already confirmed their attendance at several meetings, as they look to conquer ever greater heights and extend their title-winning streaks in 2025.

The field events will also take centre stage on the first day of the Wanda Diamond League Final in Zurich on August 27, with fans able to see five disciplines up close at a street event in front of the city’s opera house. 

“With 32 track and field disciplines and competitors from around 100 countries, the Wanda Diamond League has long provided the world’s best athletes with an unrivalled opportunity to compete at the highest possible level throughout the season,” said Diamond League CEO Petr Stastny.

“In the coming years, the series will continue to evolve to meet the needs of fans and athletes, remaining on the cutting edge of innovation in areas such as athlete services, sustainability and fan engagement.”

Now as in previous years, no other series delivers such reliably high levels of competition and prize money for athletes across the diversity of track and field disciplines. 

Over the past 15 years, the Diamond League has invested USD 290 million in its athletes, with USD 18 million a year spent on prize money and promotional fees, and a further USD 6 million on athlete services such as transport, accommodation and medical care.

That investment is set to increase this season as the series begins a new five-year agreement with media rights partner Infront. In 2025, the total prize money awarded will rise to USD 9.24 million, the highest level in the series history. 

At the same time, the series remains committed to promoting development across the sport: the increase will benefit all 32 Diamond Disciplines and prize money will remain 100 percent gender equal. 

The series also continues to evolve off the track, driving innovation in sustainability and fan engagement in 2025. 

More than 400,000 spectators attended a Diamond League meeting in the stadium last season, with a further 400 million watching on television across 150 different territories. 

In the coming season, the series will continue to attract new audiences across the globe, providing a wealth of content to athletes to engage fans directly and introducing new platforms for fan interaction both inside and outside the stadium. 

This, after all, is a truly global series. A series which unites the best athletes from all four corners of the world, providing the global benchmark both on and off the track.

This is the beating heart of international athletics. This is where the world’s champions are made.