Athletics lovers will surely love this.

Organizers of the Prefontaine Classic have pulled out all the stops in ensuring that the 50th edition of the Wanda Diamond League meeting will be one of the best ever when the world’s best athletes descend on Eugene on Saturday, 5 June 2025.

The entry lists feature 17 individual Olympic champions, with full podium rematches from Paris in five disciplines: the women’s 100m, men’s 400m, women’s 1500m, women’s 3000m steeplechase, and women’s long jump.

And every single field features at least one reigning global champion.

Meanwhile, the likes of Mondo Duplantis, Beatrice Chebet, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Gudaf Tsegay return to the scene of their past world-record-breaking feats, adding further quality to what could be the best one-day meeting in the world this year.

Olympic champion Julien Alfred heads to Eugene with an impeccable record so far this year, having won all seven of her races across a range of distances. In her most recent outing, she won in Stockholm in 10.75 – just 0.03 shy of the PB she set when winning Olympic gold last year.

But on Saturday the St Lucian will face her toughest test so far this year as she takes on the women who joined her on the podium in Paris: world champion Sha’Carri Richardson and world leader Melissa Jefferson-Wooden.

Richardson has had a quiet season so far, her only outing being a fourth-place finish in Tokyo in May in 11.47. Jefferson-Wooden, meanwhile, has been much busier, racking up a handful of Grand Slam Track wins, topped by her world-leading 10.73 run in Philadelphia. Jamaican champion Tina Clayton is also part of a line-up in which the slowest PB is 10.87.

The men’s 400m is another Paris podium rematch as Olympic champion Quincy Hall takes on Matt Hudson-Smith and Muzala Samukonga. They’re joined by two of the men who have joined the sub-44 club this year, Khaleb McRae and Jacory Patterson, as well as the two most recent winners of the world indoor title, Chris Bailey and Alexander Doom.

One week after running the fastest mile in history, albeit in an exhibition race, Faith Kipyegon will contest her first 1500m of the year.

The multiple world and Olympic champion, who is undefeated at that discipline since June 2021, will take on the two women who joined her on the Olympic podium last year, Jessica Hull and Georgia Hunter Bell. Ethiopian duo Diribe Welteji and Freweyni Hailu are also in the line-up, as is USA’s Nikki Hiltz and Ireland’s Sarah Healy.

The depth is also strong in the women’s 3000m steeplechase, where the top five finishers from last year’s Olympics – Winfred Yavi, Peruth Chemutai, Faith Cherotich, Alice Finot and Sembo Almayew – will toe the line.

The fifth and final Paris podium rematch will be in the women’s long jump. Olympic champion Tara Davis-Woodhall, who recently jumped a season’s best of 7.05m to win in Stockholm, will take on world champion Ivana Spanovic, 2021 Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo, double Olympic bronze medallist Jasmine Moore and world indoor champion Claire Bryant.

Eugene’s Hayward Field holds happy memories for dozens of the world’s best athletes, not least those who have broken world records or won world titles there. Some have accomplished both.

Pole vault superstar Mondo Duplantis is one such athlete. He won the world title there in 2022, then returned in 2023 and broke the world record at the Diamond League Final. The Swede recently increased his world record to 6.28m in Stockholm and has been over 6.10m in his past four competitions, so chances are he’ll be soaring high again in Eugene.

Like Duplantis, Gudaf Tsegay won a world title (10,000m) in Eugene in 2022, then broke a world record (5000m) at the 2023 Diamond League Final. But in Saturday’s 5000m the Ethiopian will take on double Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet, who set a world 10,000m record in Eugene last year.

The Kenyan has been in incredible form this year, clocking 8:11.56 for 3000m and 14:03.69 for 5000m, the second-fastest times in history for both distances.

Eugene has been the venue for four of Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s six world 400m hurdles records. But this weekend the two-time Olympic champion will compete in the 400m flat, where she’ll face four other women who’ve broken 50 seconds this year: world indoor champion Amber Anning, NCAA champion Aaliyah Butler, NCAA indoor champion Isabella Whittaker and Jamaica’s Dejanea Oakley.

Tobi Amusan will also return to the scene of her world record, as the Nigerian leads a 100m hurdles field that features the four fastest women in history. Olympic champion Masai Russell and US compatriot Tia Jones, who ran 12.17 and 12.19 respectively in May to go to second and third on the world all-time list, are joined by former world record-holder Kendra Harrison. Two-time world champion Danielle Williams and Jamaican record-holder Ackera Nugent are also in the loaded line-up.

Elsewhere in the sprints, Olympic champion Rai Benjamin faces 2022 world champion Alison Dos Santos in the 400m hurdles. In the men’s 200m, Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo takes on USA’s Kenny Bednarek, who is undefeated in individual races this year. And in the men’s 100m, world leader Kishane Thompson takes on USA’s Trayvon Bromell and Jamaica’s Ackeem Blake.

The oldest meeting record – Ben Plucknett’s 71.32m in the men’s discus – could be under threat on Saturday, given the incredible depth the event has witnessed this season.

Mykolas Alekna, who increased his own world record to 75.56m earlier this year, will be out for revenge as he takes on the Jamaican who beat him to the NCAA title last month, Ralford Mullings. Two-time world champion Daniel Stahl and Olympic champion Roje Stona are also in the field.

The women’s hammer field features four athletes who, between them, have won every global title from 2012 onwards. World and Olympic champion Camryn Rogers takes on seven-time global champion Anita Wlodarczyk, 2019 world champion DeAnna Price and 2022 world champion Brooke Andersen.

Ethan Katzberg, another world and Olympic hammer champion from Canada, leads the men’s field. He’ll face Ukraine’s Mykhaylo Kokhan and USA’s Rudy Winkler.

Fresh from her US record of 20.95m, two-time world champion Chase Jackson leads the women’s shot put line-up. She takes on world indoor champion Sarah Mitton, two-time European champion Jessica Schilder, Olympic champion Yemisi Ogunleye and 2021 Olympic champion Gong Lijiao.

Elsewhere in the throws, Olympic champion Valarie Allman faces world champion Laulauga Tausaga-Collins in the women’s discus, while two-time world champion Joe Kovacs takes on Leonardo Fabbri, Tom Walsh, Payton Otterdahl and Rajindra Campbell in the men’s shot put.

In the women’s 800m, world leader Tsigie Duguma faces the outdoor and indoor world champions, Mary Moraa and Prudence Sekgodiso. But the eyes of the home crowd will be set on 2021 Olympic champion Athing Mu-Nikolayev, who'll be contesting her first 800m race in almost a year.

And there’ll be high hopes for the first US winner of the Bowerman Mile since 2006 as Olympic champion Cole Hocker is one of the standout athletes. But nothing is guaranteed in a competitive line-up that also includes the likes of Timothy Cheruiyot, world 1500m leader Azeddine Habz, world indoor 3000m record-holder Grant Fisher, world road mile champion Hobbs Kessler, Australian teenager Cameron Myers, Dutch record-holder Niels Laros and Kenya’s Reynold Cheruiyot