The men’s sprint finals in Brussels are defined by one common theme: who isn’t there. The Olympic champion will be present for only 1 of the 5 finals, the men’s 200m where Letsile Tebogo is widely expected to continue his summer-long run of dominance over the event – although after Kenny Bednarek took him to the line in Zurich, a Tebogo win is not a guarantee. The absence of so much star power, most notably (and controversially) 110m hurdler Grant Holloway, means that a lot of Diamond League trophies will likely be decided in close finishes among a well-matched field. In the 100m, Olympic bronze medalist Fred Kerley will look to keep his strong positive trend going as he’s the fastest entrant in the field by season’s best – but with four men entered under 9.90 this year, it won’t come easy.

With no Holloway or Olympic bronze medalist Rasheed Broadbell, the 110m hurdles will likely come down to a U.S. vs. Europe battle as Americans Freddie Crittenden, Daniel Roberts, and Cordell Tinch face Italian Lorenzo Simonelli and Frenchman Sasha Zhoya. Although Roberts, the top finisher in Paris, is probably the slight favorite, it’s about as wide open as any of the fields on the program. In the longer event, the absence of the 1st, 2nd, and 4th placers from Paris mean the 400H is Alison dos Santos’s race to lose – but lose he might, as dos Santos has had nothing but shaky performances the last couple of weeks.

In the 400m, Matthew Hudson-Smith is the big favorite as he’s lost 400s only twice this season: in his season opener way back in March, and then to Olympic champ Quincy Hall in Paris. Hall won’t be there so unless fellow sub-44 men Kirani James and Muzala Samukonga manage to figure out a way to beat their British rival, Hudson-Smith should cruise to victory.

Women’s Sprints

Friday: 100m, 400m

Saturday: 100m hurdles, 200m, 400m hurdles

We sadly won’t get any real head-to-head matchups between Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and top global contenders, as the 400H world record holder hasn’t race enough on the circuit this season to earn a wild card spot and instead will race against watered-down fields in exhibition races that technically aren’t part of the program. SML very well may end up with the fastest times of the day in the 400m and 200m, but she won’t take home any Diamond League trophies – although if she finally manages to snag the American 400m record from Sanya Richards-Ross, that’ll be a pretty good consolation prize.

Without the challenge from McLaughlin-Levrone, Olympic champ Marileidy Paulino has a good shot to complete the rare undefeated season in the 400m, but as has been the case all year, she’ll likely be pushed to the line by Bahraini Salwa Eid Naser and Irishwoman Rhasidat Adeleke. In the 200m, the title will likely land in American hands even without Olympic champ Gabby Thomas or Sydney, as Sha’Carri Richardson and Brittany Brown enter with the only sub-22 performances on the season. Richardson will be doubling back from the 100m the day before, so she may be a little tired (or may withdraw if she has a really good or really bad day in the first event), but Brown is a formidable opponent regardless of Sha’Carri’s racing plans. Ideally the two will battle to a blazing-fast finish.

Speaking of the 100m, we’ll get another great matchup between Richardson and Olympic champ Julien Alfred, as Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith and Dina Asher-Smith will try to find a way to finally beat the favorites for the first time this season. The 100m hurdles will continue to be one of the most thrilling events of the whole year even without Olympic champ Masai Russell, as Jamaican Ackera Nugent will look to topple Puerto Rican Jasmine Camacho-Quinn once again.

Finally, the last event of the whole program will send off the 2024 Diamond League with a bang as Femke Bol returns to the racing circuit after a few weeks off in the 400m hurdles. Bol will have to contend with American Anna Cockrell, who beat her to silver in Paris, but in all likelihood a little rest and reset will be enough to land the flying Dutchwoman back on top in her signature event.

Men’s Distance

Friday: 1500m, 3000m steeplechase, 5000m

Saturday: 800m

The event that may draw the most attention will be another round of heavy hitters facing off in the men’s 1500m, where Jakob Ingebrigtsen will once again face off with Americans Cole Hocker and Yared Nuguse. Assuming Ingebrigtsen has recovered from the bout of sickness he faced in Zurich, he’s probably still the favorite in the controlled DL environment, but as recent history has shown, a speedy American clipping his heels in the final lap can be dangerous. Speaking of speedy: in the 800m, four of the six fastest men in history will go head-to-head-to-head-to-head once again, with Olympic champ Emmanuel Wanyonyi hopefully looking to inch even closer to David Rudisha’s world record of 1:40.91. But as the season has shown, Wanyonyi is not invincible, particularly when the hard-kicking Djamel Sedjati and Canadian Marco Arop are in the mix.

The men’s steeplechase has not been the most thrilling event on the Diamond League circuit all year, and unfortunately the final doesn’t look like much of an exception. With Lamecha Girma and Kenneth Rooks’s seasons ending early due to injury, Olympic champ Soufiane El Bakkali will either be battling a roster of Kenyans and Ethiopians in the 8:02-8:05 range or trying to drop them all in a bid to clock the first sub-8 minute performance of the season. Bronze medalist Abraham Kibiwot, his countryman Amos Serem, and Ethiopian Abrham Sime are likely the strongest challengers but they haven’t shown the ability to beat El Bakkali yet.

The men’s 5000m final looks like it’ll come down an intrasquad battle of Ethiopians, as so many of the DL races have all season, with Hagos Gebhriwet, Yomif Kejelcha, and Berihu Aregawi battling one another once again. If history repeats itself, that probably means that Aregawi will keep the pace honest and Gebhriwet and Kejelcha will let their kicks do the work. Depending on the pacing and the weather, a sub-12:40 race is not out of the question.

Women’s Distance

Friday: 800m

Saturday: 1500m, 3000m steeplechase, 5000m

The women’s 800m will once again come down to Mary Moraa vs. the Brits, but this time it’ll be Jemma Reekie and Georgia Bell, rather than Keely Hodgkinson, representing the island. Moraa has won her last two 800ms since the Olympics and picked up a 600m world best in between, but the Kenyan is always a tactical wild card in tightly-packed races, throwing in unusual pace surges and running all over the lane. A well-positioned kick from Bell or Reekie could give the reigning World champion a real challenge down the homestretch.

The 1500m, on the other hand, is practically a foregone conclusion with Faith Kipyegon headlining; the more interesting question is whether she’ll once again chase history and a third world record in the event. Behind her, Jessica Hull will seek revenge on the Ethiopian duo who beat her in Rome, Freweyni Hailu and Birke Haylom, and Olympic fourth-placer Diribe Welteji will look to channel her strong post-Paris campaign into a higher finish in the final. Plus, Bell is doubling back from the 800m to her arguably stronger event and, if she handles the workload well, should factor into the podium in both.

Another event where we’re on world record watch is the steeplechase, where Winfred Yavi will try to add a Diamond League crown to her World and Olympic titles and find the extra tenth of a second to leapfrog Beatrice Chepkoech and land atop the all-time list. To run that fast, she’ll once again need to be pushed by Olympic silver medalist Peruth Chemutai, as the Ugandan is the only other woman in the world besides Chepkoech and Yavi to break 8:50. And the battle for top American will be interesting as Val Constien, Gabby Jennings, and Olivia Markezich have all made improvements in leaps and bounds this year and a strong finish to the season could also mean a move up the all-time list.

Olympic champ Beatrice Chebet headlines the women’s 5000m final, but the field doesn’t look like it’s the quality needed to push her to a world record in the event. As we saw in Zurich, 14:00 is a tough mark to hit with a lot of solo running, even for a world-beater of Chebet’s caliber, but whether or not she hangs back or chases a hot early pace, the 24-year-old Kenyan is the woman to beat. That isn’t to say it’s a totally weak field; even without Faith Kipyegon or Gudaf Tsegay, Chebet will have to contend with three sub-14:20 performers in Ejgayehu Taye, Tsige Gebreselama, and Medina Eisa. And while she likely won’t contend for the win, Karissa Schweizer will be riding high off her victory at the Fifth Avenue Mile and a good race could land her quite close to her four-year-old 14:26.34 PB.

Men’s Jumps

Friday: Long jump, pole vault

Saturday: Triple jump, high jump

Mondo Duplantis has broken the pole vault world record three times this year, bringing it from 6.23m up to 6.26m. He’s undefeated in 2024 (even in the 100m), and it seems like a near certainty that he’ll collect his fourth consecutive Diamond League title. It’s not going to be easy, though, because the other six men in the field are excellent. Sam Kendricks and Emmanouil Karalis have looked consistently fantastic each time they’ve taken to the runway this year, and the American duo of Chris Nilsen and KC Lightfoot are also 6m jumpers at their best.

The five best men in the world this year will all be flocking to Brussels to contest the Diamond League long jump final. Olympic champ Miltiadis Tentoglou is favored coming off only his second loss of the season in Zurich last week. He has been a model of consistency this year, clearing 8m in every competition this year, but he’ll almost certainly need to leap much farther to beat a field this strong. Wayne Pinnock, the runner-up to Tentoglou in both Paris and Budapest, took the win in Zurich with a jump of 8.18m. He’ll be one of three Jamaicans looking to claim the nation’s first Diamond League trophy by a male jumper.

Saturday’s triple jump field is missing some significant firepower, as Olympic champ Jordan Díaz Fortun will be absent, among others. Pedro Pichardo is the only man in the field to have surpassed 18m this season, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you pencil him in for a win over reigning World Indoor and Outdoor champion Hugues Fabrice Zango. None of the other four men in the lineup have cleared 17.40m this year, so Zango and Pichardo should only have each other to truly contend with.

Despite missing some big names (like Olympic champ Hamish Kerr and Mutaz Essa Barshim), the high jump should still be plenty entertaining. In the month since a frustrating kidney issue derailed his Olympic title defense, Gianmarco Tamberi has responded nicely, clearing 2.31m to take the win in Silesia at the end of August and collecting victories in a pair of lowkey leading into this Diamond League Final. Shelby McEwen, the silver medalist from Paris, hasn’t competed since his jump-off loss to Kerr, but he’ll surely be hungry to close out the best season of his career on top. Keep an eye on Jamaica’s Romaine Beckford, as the four-time NCAA champion has set two PBs since the Olympics wrapped up, including clearing 2.30m for the first time at the Rome Diamond League.

Women’s Jumps

Friday: Triple jump, high jump

Saturday: Long jump, pole vault

We’re in for a good ol’ fashioned NACAC battle in the triple jump Friday afternoon. Two of the three Olympic medalists, Shanieka Ricketts and Jasmine Moore, will both be on the runway inside King Baudouin Stadium. They’ll be in a showdown with Cuba’s Leyanis Pérez Hernández, who has the best all-conditions jump in the world this year and has been a more consistent jumper than either Ricketts or Moore overall in 2024. It’s safe to say that a fifth-place finish in Paris doesn’t sit quite right with Pérez Hernández and she’ll be looking to get a bit of revenge this week.

This high jump field is really something else. World record holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh leads all four medalists from the Olympics onto this Diamond League Final apron. The 21-year-old Ukrainian hasn’t lost since a runner-up finish to Nicola Olyslagers at World Indoors, and capping off what would be an undefeated outdoor season with her third consecutive Diamond League trophy would be quite the cherry on top. With no disrespect to co-Olympic bronze medalists Iryna Gerashchenko and Eleanor Patterson, the most interesting athlete to watch outside of the top two will be Angelina Topić. The 19-year-old Serb was a strong medal contender in Paris before fracturing her ankle during qualifying – but still came back two weeks later to win the World U20 title in Lima.

Neither Tara Davis-Woodhall or Malaika Mihambo, the only women over 7m this year, will be going after the Diamond League crown, but it’s still going to be a tight, fascinating competition. Olympic bronze medalist Jasmine Moore should come in as the favorite, doubling back from the triple jump competition the day before. Her fellow Americans Quanesha Burks and Monae’ Nichols round out a strong U.S. contingent, but Moore’s toughest competition might come from Larissa Iapachino. The young Italian finished fourth in Paris and is always one of the most consistent jumpers on the circuit.

Nina Kennedy will be looking to cap off a dominant season with her second Diamond League title. Kennedy hasn’t lost since May (her only loss of the season) and has three of the five best vaults of the year, all coming in the last two months. While she’s coming into this meet with all the momentum in the world, Molly Caudery is coming in with redemption on the mind. The World Indoor champ from March hasn’t competed since a shocking no-height in the qualifying round of the Olympics. She still has the world lead at 4.92m and is the only woman this year to take down Kennedy, doing so in Doha. Alongside Caudery, the athletes looking to unseat the Olympic champ include Olympic bronze medalist Alysha Newman, Angelica Moser, and Sandi Morris.

Men’s Throws

Friday: Discus

Saturday: Javelin, shot put

The men’s discus lineup is stuffed to the gills with talent. World record holder and Olympic silver medalist Mykolas Alekna has only lost three competitions on the year, but comes to Brussels off back-to-back losses in the Olympics (second place) and the Rome Diamond League (third place). The 21-year-old Lithuanian will be looking to end his season on a high note, but he’ll have to contend with Kristjan Čeh, the 2022 World champ who took the win in Rome two weeks ago, and Olympic bronze medalist Matty Denny. And don’t count out reigning World champion Daniel Ståhl, who cracked 69m for the first time this year his last time out.

The men’s javelin field is also without the Olympic champion, as Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem almost never competes outside of Asia if it’s not for a major championship, but there will still be more than enough fireworks to satisfy throws fans across the world. Neeraj Chopra and Anderson Peters, the other two podium finishers from Paris, had a great duel in Lausanne last month, as Peters took the win in 90.61m to Chopra’s 89.49m with both men leaving with season’s bests. Jakub Vadlejch finished a distant seventh in Lausanne, but the three-time Diamond League champion always knows how to turn up the heat on this stage.

Last but not least, you aren’t going to want to miss a single throw in the men’s shot put competition. Ryan Crouser, Joe Kovacs, and Leonardo Fabbri lead the field and are among the all-time top five in this event. Shot put fans have been spoiled the last three weeks, as all of the men entered have competed against each other at least four times since August 22nd, with some competing five or even six times. After a second-place finish in the first leg of this “shot put tour” at the Silesia Diamond League, Crouser has dominated with four straight wins at marks of 22.49m, 22.66m, 22.93m, and 22.25m. The adoption of a post-Olympic technical tweak has proved effective for the three-time Olympic champ, but only time will tell if he’ll be able to claim his first Diamond League trophy since 2021.

Women’s Throws

Friday: Discus, shot put

Saturday: Javelin