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With one week to go until the event, the line-up for the Wanda Diamond League Meeting de Paris just keeps getting better and better with the biggest names in world athletics. Indeed, it includes five Olympic champions from Paris 2024 who are sure to delight the audience in the French capital. In addition to high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh and hurdler Grant Holloway, whose presence was announced quite some time ago, the 400 m hurdles specialist Rai Benjamin and the boss of the 400 m Marileidy Paulino have recently confirmed that they will be joining the fray. Moreover, the latter will be competing against last summer’s runner-up, Bahraini Salwa Eid Naser, and Dutch athlete Lieke Klaver.
The two-time Olympic champion of the 3,000 m steeplechase, Sofiane el Bakkali, will also be in attendance, though this time around he’ll be lining up for the 5,000 m, alongside the Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha, who boasts no fewer than ten Diamond League victories, and France’s elite, which includes one Jimmy Gressier. Featuring barriers and water jumps the race may well be an opportunity for Lamecha Girma to get his revenge. The Ethiopian athlete lit up the 2023 edition of the Meeting de Paris by smashing the previous world record (7’52’’11). Alas, his Olympic dream was cruelly snatched from under him last year when he fell heavily in the last lap of the Stade de France track. In the women’s event, Ugandan athlete Peruth Chemutai, Olympic champion in 2021 and second last summer, will be keen to take on the local event hopeful Alice Finot.
Gabriel Tual, who secured a brilliant French record in the 800 m last year, will be eager to post a repeat performance in the same arena, whilst Azeddine Habz, winner of the 1,500 m in Rome a few days ago, will be hunting down Mehdi Baala’s French record, which has been the reference for over twenty years. The women’s race will provide the perfect opportunity for the European Indoor champion Agathe Guillemot to enthral her home crowd, whilst Briton Georgia Hunter-Bell, bronze medallist at Paris 2024 and European number two 2024 just shy of the Breton, also has her eyes on the big prize. Her compatriot Dina Asher-Smith, European 100 m champion in Rome, will be lining up for the 200 m, her favourite distance, which saw her snatch the world crown back in 2019.
The men’s high hurdles takes pride of place on the event poster this year, but the clash among the women in this discipline at the top of the table will also be well worth a look. The athletes to beat this year notably include the world record holder Tobi Amusan, world champion 2022, and the American athlete who previously held the reference time, Kendra Harrison, as well as five other runners who have posted sub-12’’40 times.
Field of dreams
High jumper Nicola Olyslagers, silver medallist at Paris 2024 and Tokyo 2021 plus two-time world indoor champion, will be looking to add to her string of victories at Charléty in 2021 and 2023, despite the presence of Mahuchikh. For their part, American pole vaulters Katie Moon (gold medallist in Tokyo in 2021 and silver medallist last summer) and Sandi Morris are intending to fly high in Paris to give the world indoor champion Marie-Julie Bonnin a tough time. Meantime, Italian triple jumper, Andy Diaz, who enjoyed a stellar winter season 2025 (European and world indoor champion) is at the peak of fitness and will be keen to get the upper hand against Hugues-Fabrice Zango from Burkina-Faso, who is well known across France after his dazzling performance on the global circuit last season.
The eternal Sandra Elkasevic, with an impossibly long list of achievements in the discus cage, is also a very familiar face at the Paris meeting, which is reflected by her huge haul of Diamond League victories (46!). Rivals for most of this period, Yaime Perez and Mélina Robert-Michon will be performing alongside her. Finally, javelin throwers Neeraj Chopra, two-time Olympic medallist, and Anderson Peters, double world champion, will rank among the five entries who have already thrown in excess of 90 m in what promises to be a crazy competition.