Two other field stars who are already Olympic champions will be kicking off their outdoor seasons in earnest in Doha: Miltiadis Tentoglou and Neeraj Chopra. Tentoglou is coming off a 2023 season in which he was crowned World champion – and even more recently an indoor season where he earned the same title. The 2022 Diamond League champ has already competed this spring with a 10.96 100m race in Turkey, but will be jumping into the pit for the first time on Friday.

Chopra opened his season last year in Doha with a world leading mark that only two other athletes matched all summer. As a javelin thrower, Chopra doesn’t get an indoor season, so if he opens up as impressively as he did last year, it’ll be a good first step toward defending his title.

On the track, two Kenyan athletes who had very different 2023 seasons are making their debuts back-to-back on Friday. In the women’s 5000m, Beatrice Chebet is returning to the track for the first time since running 14:05 at the Diamond League Final last September. It’s not like she’s been on vacation since then however, collecting global titles both on the road and in cross country.

The race immediately following Chebet’s is the men’s 1500m, where 2019 World champion Timothy Cheruiyot is racing the distance for the first time since failing to make the final last year in Budapest. Cheruiyot’s exit in the semi-finals was the first time he fell short of a global final in all six of his championship appearances dating back to 2015.

Another former World champ, Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos, will be going over hurdles for the first time in 2024, and will be looking for his first Diamond League win since he took home seven wins on the circuit in 2022.

Mary Moraa vs the Field in the Women’s 800m

The biggest women’s 800m matchup of the month will come in a few weeks at the Prefontaine Classic, but Mary Moraa will get her first taste of 2024 Diamond League action this Friday against a very quality field. 10 of the 11 runners on the start list have personal bests under two minutes, including two thirds of the field from the World Indoor final.

Moraa won the World title over two laps last year in Budapest, and until we see how things shake out between her, Keely Hodgkinson, and Athing Mu at Pre, she should be considered at least a co-favorite in Paris this summer. The 23-year-old Kenyan won the 400m at the African Games back in March with a time just off the national record she set last year. Moraa followed up that performance with her first 800m race of 2024 on home soil at the Kip Keino Classic last month, where she led a field of five under 2:00, and ran the second-fastest time of the outdoor season to date. Moraa’s 1:57.96 season opener was the fastest of her career to date and could easily have her knocking on the door of 1:55 later this summer.

The women’s 800m is returning to Doha for the first time since 2021, when fellow Kenyan Faith Kipyegon stepped down in distance and took the win. A win for Moraa wouldn’t be a walk in the park however, with stiff competition including the likes of Jamaican Natoya Goule-Toppin, Scot Jemma Reekie, and Ethiopian Habitam Alemu.

A Chance for U.S. Sprinters To Shine

There are a number of U.S. sprinters racing in Doha, and without names like Noah Lyles, Sha’Carri Richardson, or Gabby Thomas on the start list, the meet will serve as a chance for other athletes to step into the spotlight.

Three of the four legs from the newly crowned men’s 4x100m World champion relay team – minus Lyles – will headline the first short sprint of the night, the men’s 200m. Courtney Lindsey will be making his Diamond League debut, but might be the favorite with two of the three fastest 200m times of the year (including a head-to-head win over Letsile Tebogo). Just behind Lindsey on the U.S. leaderboard for 2024 is Kyree King, who will be looking to improve upon his fourth place finish in Doha last year, his best ever Diamond League finish over 200m. Rounding out the trio is Kenny Bednarek, the reigning Olympic silver medalist. All three are undefeated over 200m this year. Their biggest international(-ish) competition is Joseph Fanbulleh, who is fresh off an incredible performance to punch team Liberia’s ticket to the Olympics last weekend.

In the women’s 100m, Tamari Davis and Celera Barnes will both be looking to gain some Diamond League experience after picking up World Relay titles of their own – Barnes will be making her debut on the circuit. The 21-year-old Davis is the favorite on paper with the fastest PB in the field, but she’ll have to hold off Brit Daryll Neita who already has a Diamond League win over 200m this year, and Jamaican Natasha Morrison, who has more Diamond League experience than the rest of the field combined.

In the women’s 100m hurdles, Alaysha Johnson will have her turn as the favorite after getting buried among stacked fields in the first two Diamond League meetings of the year (ninth in Xiamen, fifth in Suzhou). Johnson hasn't run particularly fast yet this year, but here she’ll have her chance on a track that has produced winning times under 12.50 each of the past two years. Fellow Americans Amber Hughes and Tonea Marshall may be Johnson’s biggest competition. Hughes is enjoying a breakout year at age 29 with PBs both indoors and outdoors, while Marshall is the world leader, and has run under 12.50 – including wind aided times – four times this year (the rest of the world combined only has four such performances). The rest of the field is filled with fast Europeans, including two finalists from the 60m hurdles at this year’s World Indoor Championships.

What Other Americans Are Running

In a meet without as many of the usual crop of household names that show up on the Diamond League circuit – although you could argue athletes like Diribe Welteji and Eleanor Patterson should fit that bill – American fans will still have plenty to cheer for. And while it's not a roster full of World champions, there will be a few intriguing athletes repping USA just six weeks from the Olympic Trials.