Diamond League


The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fifteen invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics one-day meet competitions.
The inaugural season was in 2010. It was designed to replace the IAAF Golden League, which had been held annually since 1998. The full sponsorship name is the Wanda Diamond League, the result of an agreement with Wanda Group that was announced in December 2019.
While the Golden League was formed to increase the profile of the leading European athletics competitions, the Diamond League's aim is to "enhance the worldwide appeal of athletics by going outside Europe for the first time." In addition to the original Golden League members and other traditional European competitions, the series now includes events in China, Qatar, Morocco, and the United States.
Beginning in March 2022, after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Diamond League excluded Russian and Belarusian athletes from all of its track and field meetings.

Editions

EditionYearMeetsDiamond
Disciplines		Start dateEnd date DohaShanghai OsloRome New YorkEugene LausanneGreat BritainParisMonacoStockholmLondon ZurichBrusselsRabat Chorzów Xiamen
12010143214 May27 August1234567891011121314
2201114326 May16 September1253647981011121314
32012143211 May7 September1253641112791071314
42013143210 May6 September1265348791012111314
5201414329 May5 September1254637128101191314
62015143215 May11 September1264739581012111314
7201614326 May9 September1275411612981013143
8201714325 May1 September1254381271169131410
9201814324 May31 August1254381271061113149
10201914323 May6 September1254781112931013146
11202082411 June25 September81753426
122021143223 May9 September243891106571211
132022133213 May8 September16531171082131249
14202314325 May17 September1531464971011132812
152024153220 April14 September326135118971014154121
162025153226 April28 August326591381071115144121
17202615328 May6 September127591281061114154133
182027153230 April27 August127651391081115144123

The number in the table represents the order in which the meeting took place.

Format

Scoring system

The original Diamond League scoring system, used from 2010 to 2015, awarded points to the top three athletes at each meeting. Each of the thirty-two disciplines was staged a total of seven times during the season; points scored in the final meeting for that discipline were doubled. The athletes who finished the season with the highest number of points in their discipline won the "Diamond Race"; in case of a tie on points, the number of victories was used as the first tie-breaker, followed by the results of the final. Only athletes who competed in their discipline's final meeting were eligible to win the Diamond Race. In 2016 scoring was expanded to the top six ; double points were still awarded in the event finals.
A completely new system was introduced in 2017; the top eight athletes at each meeting are now awarded points, but these points only determine which athletes qualify for the discipline finals in Zürich and Brussels. The athletes who win at the finals are declared IAAF Diamond League Champions, and the allocation of the overall prize money is likewise determined solely by the results of the final. This system, with the winner of the final automatically winning the overall championship, is similar to the former IAAF Grand Prix circuit with its Grand Prix Final. As part of the scoring changes, the term 'Diamond Race' is no longer used. Instead, athletes compete in 'Diamond Disciplines' to become the Diamond League champion.
After the 2019 season, the final format changed from being held by two separate meets to one meet.

Pandemic season

In March 2019 the president of the IAAF, Sebastian Coe, announced changes in the Diamond League's format for the 2020 series. The number of Diamond Disciplines was reduced from 32 to 24 and a second Chinese meet was added to the calendar. The dual final format was replaced by a single final. However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, 7 of the originally planned 15 meets were cancelled, the season was delayed to June 10, only four or the meets had a full competitive program, and the final was cancelled with no champions crowned in 2020.
In December 2020, the 2021 Diamond League was announced to return with 32 disciplines and a two-hour broadcast window.

"Final 3" format

In the "Final 3" format for horizontal jumping and throwing events, only the top-3 athletes after five rounds get a trial in the last round. Originally, only that final attempt then determined the ranking of the top-3 athletes, regardless of previous marks. The format was first tested at two World Athletics Indoor Tour meetings in 2020 and received ample criticism from athletes prior to its first implementation in the Diamond League at the 2020 BAUHAUS-galan.
Nonetheless in December 2020, the format was adopted throughout the 2021 Diamond League season, except for the final in Zürich. World Athletics president Sebastian Coe defended the decision as an attempt to make "sure that we haven't got field events that are dying" by raising the stakes of the final round, and made the comparison to track events where results in prior rounds are also not taken into consideration when ranking runners in the final. Coe did however quell earlier concerns that the controversial format could also be adopted at the Olympic Games and World Championships, and confirmed it would be reviewed at the end of the 2021 season.
In December 2021, the revised "Final 3" format was announced: as before only the top-3 athletes after five rounds get a final trial, but all marks determine the ranking of those athletes rather than just their results in the last round. However, the competing order for rounds 4 and 5 and for round 6 is changed by descending marks in the preceding three resp. five rounds. This format continues to be used from the 2022 season onwards.
Both the original and revised formats were the subject of academic studies into their effects on fairness and jumping strategies.