Paris Diamond League, Best meet of the year?

Every year during the track and field season the fastest times and performances are almost always performed at Diamond League meets. This past weekend was a perfect example of this, the Paris Diamond League was held at the Stade Sébastien Charléty, and it lived up to the hype of most Diamond League events. As you may know, the Paris Olympics will begin in just 16 days, in this same city, and this meet was a good showing of what we may see in Paris. As the days go by and we get closer to the Olympics, athletes will begin to taper, and for most of the athletes competing in the Olympics, this meet and the Monaco Diamond League on Friday may be their last opportunities to compete prior to the Olympics. Before I get ahead of myself and start talking to much about the Olympics, let me talk more about how wonderful a meet the Paris Diamond League 2024 was. 

To start off, this meet had two world record performances in both the women’s 1500m and the women’s high jump. However, before I talk about those (I want to save the best for last), I am going to touch a bit on the incredible race that was the men’s 800m. 

This men’s 800m was arguably the fastest 800m race ever. Yes, there was no world record set, However, results from this race were some of the fastest EVER. For example, out of the top ten fastest 800m times of all time, results from this specific race make up 50% of the top ten, that is just insane. Djamel Sedjati, a runner from Algeria won this race running a blazing time of 1:41.56, you may think that is really fast, but to put that into a little perspective. 1) that is only .65 off the world record, which was run by the best to ever do it, from Kenya, David Rudisha. 2) this time means that on average during this race Sedjati was running at a speed of 17 and a half miles per hour, that would be like running eight 100m in 12 and a half seconds, back to back to back… Behind Sedjati were nine other men who broke 1:45, and two that broke 1:42. This race was awesome to watch and it makes me even more excited for what's to come when we come back to Paris for the Olympics. 

Speaking of the Olympics. The Olympics are my favorite sporting event, and I have said multiple times before that they are the pinnacle of an athlete’s career. In honor of the Olympics being just around the corner, I have launched a new line of Kicking For Home merchandise. This time around the shirt features the iconic Eiffel Tower to commemorate the Olympics being in Paris, along with the Kicking For Home and Olympics Text. There is a link just below to get your own and to look at the rest of the details. ​​Whenever you're watching the Olympics this summer, do it in the Kicking For Home Paris Olympics T-Shirt. 

Now for more on the Paris Diamond League, another great event, and one where there was a world record broken was in the women’s high jump. For myself, I don’t watch too much of the field events, but when I do, I truly enjoy it, and that was the case this weekend. Leading into this meet, the reigning world champion from Ukraine, Yaroslava Mahuchikh was the favorite, and she definitely will be leading into Paris. As I said, I don’t follow the field events that much, and because of that I had no idea how close Mahuchikh was to breaking the prior world record of 2.09 meters, formerly held by Stefka Kostadinova. In this competition, Mahuchikh was making her way over the heights easily clearing the bar on one or two attempts every single time. This was the same all the way until the end where she jumped the new world of 2.10 meters. This record caught me by surprise and even got the commentators surprised because I didn’t realize what the record was or that she was going to be able to do it. 

Another incredible athlete is Faith Kipyegon from Kenya and she showed her incredible fitness and dominance by breaking the women’s 1500m world record once again. I say once again, because leading into this race, Kipyegon had already broken the world record and was holding it with a time of 3:49.11, coming from last year. Anytime Kipyegon steps into a race it is always a thought in my mind, will she break a world record again? That thought was correct because in this particular race, at the same place where she broke the 5000m world record last year (Kipyegon no longer holds this record), Kipyegon broke the world record again. Kipyegon ran a time of 3:49.04 which beats her previous world record by 7 hundredths of a second. Kipyegon didn’t just run away with the win though, behind her was Australian superstar Jessica Hull who has consistently been in these big races, and consistently brings good results. Hull ran 3:50.83 which broke the Australian record and is the fifth fastest time of all time. Both women are incredibly fast and will for sure be favorites to win in Paris at the Olympics. 

As I mentioned throughout, all the athletes I mentioned will be heavy favorites to win gold in Paris for the Olympics this summer, and that begs the question. Was this the best meet of the year?