The Diamond League had its final meet of 2023 before the upcoming Olympic season, the Prefontaine Classic, in Eugene, Oregon on September 16 and 17. The Diamond League series consists of 15 annual one-day outdoor invitationals throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. In order to compete in the Diamond League series, an athlete must be invited to compete in some of the 14 meets between May and September of that year. To have the opportunity to compete in the Diamond League's final meet, athletes must score the highest number of points in previous series meets by placing first to eighth to collect points respectively. For the final meet, the top 6 to 10 scorers in each event, depending on the type of event, will then compete for the title of Diamond League Champion.

World Athletics, the international governing body of track and field, reported that this final in Eugene was “the best score in the history of the competition performance ranking.” Based on the WA scoring table, 99,156 points were scored, the highest ever scored in a one-day meet. This isn’t super surprising, given that there were two world records, 12 national records, and a Diamond League record set at this competition. 

Ethiopian distance runner Gudaf Tsegay broke the barely three-month-old women’s 5km run world record set by Kenyan distance runner Faith Kipyegon in a prior Diamond League meet in Paris by 4.99 seconds to achieve the lightning-fast time of 14:00.21. Armand “Mondo” Duplantis broke his own world record in pole vault, set just seven months prior during the indoor season by a centimeter for his seventh world record. This is after unsuccessfully attempting at three different Diamond League meets, with nine attempts total, to break his world record. 

Duplantis took only four jumps at the meet with zero misses. He was in first place by his second vault at 5.82 m with Ernest John Obiena following closely with one miss from this height. However, Duplantis became the last competitor as when they both agreed to move the bar to 6.02 m, Duplantis cleared the bar first attempt, and Obiena missed all three attempts. This left the stage empty for Mondo to attempt the world record for the tenth time, and this time, he succeeded. He said after the event, “The limit is very high, and I hope that I can continue to jump well and keep jumping higher than I did today, but for now I’m not really thinking about anything except enjoying this moment and enjoying what I just did.” Embodying the spirit of pole vaulters around the world, he continued, “Everything just [built] up to what I need to be able to break [the] world record.”

Another significant record set at the meet was in the women’s 800m, which had a surprise competitor entrance from the one-time world champion and reigning Olympic champion, US runner Athing Mu. This competitor wasn’t originally listed as competing after a disappointing third Budapest World Athletics Championship three weeks prior. She went on to win with a world-leading time of 1:54.97, which is also a U.S. and Diamond League meet record. The 800m also had some significant national records from second-place finisher Keely Hodgkinson of Britain with a time of 1:55.19, and the third-place finisher Natoya Goule-Toppin of Jamaica with a time of 1:55.96. 

In the men’s 800m, there was a switch between the WA Championship three weeks prior between Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya and Marco Arop of Canada, in which Arop won the title. In this meet, Wanyonyi outkicked Arop in the last 100m with a world-leading time and Diamond League meet record of 1:42.80; Arop finished at 1:42.85. Yaraslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine and Nicola Olyslager of Australia both cleared 2.03 m, with Mahuchikh, the defending Diamond League champion and reigning world champion, only winning based on attempts. 

In the men’s discus, Manny Denny of Australia threw a national record of 68.42m in his final throw to win against Kristjan Ceh of Slovenia. 

Unsurprisingly, Femka Bol of the Netherlands was crowned the Diamond League champion with a Diamond League record time of 51.98. She finished her season undefeated with 11 straight 400m hurdle wins. She has dominated the season without any significant competition, as her main competitor last year, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, switched to only competing in the 400m. She had smashed the world record in the 400m hurdles on three separate occasions, although she had to pull out of the season leading up to the WA championship due to a knee injury. Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway from the Ingebrgsten family of track professionals won the prestigious Bowerman mile, a race not often contested internationally, with a time of 3:43.73. He narrowly missed the world record by 0.50 seconds, but with the third-fastest time, he was able to claim the European record. He also won the 3000m, with a time of 7:23.63, he was able to get a photo finish to beat Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia.

The Diamond League final did not go without detractors. For example, women’s mile U.S. record holder Nikki Hiltz tweeted “Can someone explain to me why at the @nikepreclassic the Bowerman Mile is only an event on the men’s side? If I don’t get a good enough explanation I’m going to start calling it the mojo-dojo mile.” This tweet references the fact that the extremely prestigious race is only held on the men's side, while women race in the 1500m. This is significant not only because it is held in honor of the historical mile races held in the past, or because it shares the name of the Bowerman watch list of the most outstanding athletes at the collegiate level to watch for on the international stage, but also because on the international level, the mile, or 1609m, has been replaced by the 1500m. There are only a few other major mile races left in the world despite the mile having a large cultural significance, as the measurement for the mile does not align with the rest of the sports metric system.