Barely two weeks have passed since the end of athletics events at the Paris Olympics ahead of Thursday's Diamond League meeting in Lausanne. The fact that eighteen Olympic or world champions are competing underlines the importance of the meeting and the run-up to the Diamond League finals in Brussels on September 14, although the cumulative fatigue that comes with the end of the season and the excitement of the Games should be evident. The dominance of its leading lights has seen winners in two categories, in addition to being locked into the 18-event calendar.

One of them is Armaud Duplantis from Sweden, who broke the Olympic and world records in Paris, clearing 6.25 metres after the competition. The second is Greek long jumper Miltiadis Tentoglou, who is also dominating his event. He is the current indoor and outdoor world champion, and successfully defended his Olympic long jump title in the French capital. During a press conference, Swiss long jumper Simon Ehammer, who placed fourth at the Olympics, was asked what it would take to beat Tentoglou.

"Luck," he said. He noted, "He is an extremely consistent athlete." However, Neeraj Chopra would approach the meeting with a completely different mindset than Tentoglou. Despite a season's best of 89.45m, he was relegated to silver at the Olympics and fouled all his subsequent attempts in Paris, perhaps realizing that once Pakistan's Ashrad Nadeem cleared an incredible 92.97m on his second attempt, it would be almost impossible to figure it out. gold. Still, Neeraj's runner-up finish at the Olympics is testament to his consistency at the highest level, especially at major events in the previous six years. The 26-year-old Olympic champion from Tokyo was disappointed that he once failed to give his all and defend the Olympic javelin crown. After the Olympics, Neeraj trained in Switzerland and wants to finish the season before deciding whether to undergo adductor surgery. But Thursday's competition will be quite tough. Of the top six players in Paris, Nadeem is the only one who did not participate. Among the ten contenders are Anderson Peters of Grenada, who won bronze in Paris; Jakub Vadlejch from the Czech Republic, who last year won this year's Doha and the Diamond League final in Eugene, both ahead of Neeraj; and Julian Webber from Germany. With nearly 80,000 people attending the Stade de France every night, athletics in Paris was one of the biggest winners. The $50,000 awarded by World Athletics to each champion was also enthusiastically welcomed. However, WA's only recommendation that caused controversy was to replace the starting plate with a starting zone in the hope that this would prevent fouls from prolonging the contest.