Diamond League 2026 prize money
The 2026 Diamond League paid $9,200,500 to 626 athletes across fifteen meetings, from 16 May to 5 September. Masai Russell took more of it than anyone, $170,000.
The series pays by finishing place and by nothing else, so one card covers every discipline at every meeting of the season: $10,000 for a series win, $30,000 at the final, and eight places paid in each. A Diamond+ discipline pays more again, $20,000 for a series win, and ran 120 times across the season.
Who earned the most in 2026
The 2026 Diamond League money list
| # | ATHLETE | PAID | WINS | BIGGEST DAY | EARNED |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Masai Russell | 7 | 7 | 1st | $170,000 |
| 2 | Audrey Werro | 6 | 6 | 1st | $150,000 |
| 3 | Julien Alfred | 7 | 6 | 1st | $136,000 |
| 4 | Marileidy Paulino | 6 | 6 | 1st | $130,000 |
| 5 | Collen Kebinatshipi | 6 | 6 | 1st | $120,000 |
| 6 | Jamal Britt | 8 | 5 | 1st | $116,000 |
| 7 | Rumesh Tharanga | 6 | 5 | 1st | $116,000 |
| 8 | Emmanuel Wanyonyi | 6 | 3 | 1st | $115,000 |
| 9 | Alison dos Santos | 6 | 6 | 1st | $110,000 |
| 10 | Oblique Seville | 4 | 3 | 1st | $106,000 |
| 11 | Kenny Bednarek | 7 | 4 | 1st | $103,000 |
| 12 | Miltiadis Tentoglou | 6 | 4 | 1st | $98,000 |
| 13 | Cameron Myers | 5 | 2 | 1st | $94,000 |
| 14 | Monae' Nichols | 5 | 2 | 1st | $81,000 |
| 15 | Yan Ziyi | 5 | 5 | 1st | $80,000 |
| 16 | Klaudia Kazimierska | 4 | 1 | 1st | $72,000 |
| 17 | Melissa Jefferson-Wooden | 5 | 3 | 1st | $72,000 |
| 18 | Freweyni Hailu | 6 | 2 | 1st | $68,500 |
| 19 | Soufiane El Bakkali | 5 | 3 | 1st | $68,000 |
| 20 | Valarie Sion | 5 | 3 | 1st | $68,000 |
| 21 | Emmanouil Karalis | 7 | 2 | 1st | $66,500 |
| 22 | Faith Cherotich | 6 | 3 | 1st | $66,000 |
| 23 | Kristjan Čeh | 5 | 2 | 1st | $66,000 |
| 24 | Rajindra Campbell | 6 | 2 | 1st | $66,000 |
| 25 | Letsile Tebogo | 9 | 2 | 1st | $65,000 |
| 26 | Emma Zapletalová | 7 | 5 | 2nd | $64,000 |
| 27 | Kurtis Marschall | 7 | 2 | 1st | $62,500 |
| 28 | Chase Jackson | 5 | 3 | 1st | $62,000 |
| 29 | Hana Moll | 4 | 3 | 1st | $61,500 |
| 30 | Henriette Jæger | 5 | 2 | 1st | $59,500 |
| 31 | Anna Cockrell | 5 | 2 | 1st | $58,000 |
| 32 | Tina Clayton | 5 | 2 | 1st | $57,500 |
| 33 | Saly Sarr | 5 | 2 | 1st | $56,000 |
| 34 | Angelica Moser | 7 | 1 | 1st | $54,500 |
| 35 | Yared Nuguse | 7 | 2 | 1st | $54,500 |
| 36 | Birhanu Balew | 6 | 2 | 1st | $54,000 |
| 37 | Jessica Schilder | 6 | 2 | 1st | $53,000 |
| 38 | Armand Duplantis | 5 | 3 | 1st | $52,000 |
| 39 | Yaroslava Mahuchikh | 5 | 2 | 1st | $50,750 |
| 40 | Andy Díaz | 4 | 2 | 1st | $50,000 |
Masai Russell collected $170,000 of the $9,200,500 the season paid out, 1.8% of it. 396 athletes were paid more than once in 2026 and the rest were paid once, which is what a money list of a series that runs fifteen times a summer looks like. The table lists the 40 biggest of 626.
Every meeting of 2026
In the order the season ran them
| MEETING | WHERE | WHEN | DISCIPLINES | PAID |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shanghai Diamond League | Shaoxing | 16 May | 14 | $499,000 |
| Xiamen Diamond League | Xiamen | 23 May | 14 | $500,000 |
| Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athlétisme de Rabat | Rabat | 31 May | 14 | $500,000 |
| Golden Gala Pietro Mennea | Rome | 4 June | 14 | $500,000 |
| Bauhausgalan | Stockholm | 7 June | 13 | $466,500 |
| Bislett Games | Oslo | 10 June | 14 | $498,000 |
| Doha Diamond League | Doha | 19 June | 14 | $500,000 |
| Meeting de Paris | Paris | 28 June | 14 | $499,000 |
| Prefontaine Classic | Eugene | 3 to 4 July | 14 | $500,000 |
| Herculis EBS | Fontvieille | 10 July | 14 | $499,000 |
| London Athletics Meet | London | 18 July | 14 | $498,000 |
| Athletissima | Lausanne | 20 to 21 August | 14 | $496,500 |
| Kamila Skolimowska Memorial | Chorzów | 22 to 23 August | 15 | $530,000 |
| Weltklasse Zürich | Zürich | 26 to 27 August | 14 | $500,000 |
| AG Memorial Van Damme | Brussels | 4 to 5 September | 32 | $2,214,500$2.2m |
| 15 meetings | 15 cities | — | 228 | $9,200,500$9.2m |
What the season paid, meeting by meeting
season running total
The line is the running total, and it is close to straight because the pots barely move: every series meeting pays the same rate a discipline, so what separates them is how many disciplines they ran. The step at the end is AG Memorial Van Damme, the final, which pays 3 times what a series meeting pays for a win.
Every discipline of 2026
How often each one ran, and what it paid across the season
No discipline runs at every meeting. The series rotates them, so a discipline's total for the season is its rate multiplied by how many times it was on the programme, and the column above is a count of appearances rather than a ranking of anything.
What each place paid in 2026
The four cards in force across the season
| PLACE | SERIES | SERIES + | FINAL | FINAL + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | $10,000 | $20,000 | $30,000 | $60,000 |
| 2nd | $6,000 | $6,000 | $12,000 | $20,000 |
| 3rd | $4,000 | $4,000 | $7,000 | $9,000 |
| 4th | $3,000 | $3,000 | $4,000 | $4,000 |
| 5th | $2,500 | $2,500 | $2,500 | $2,500 |
| 6th | $2,000 | $2,000 | $2,000 | $2,000 |
| 7th | $1,500 | $1,500 | $1,500 | $1,500 |
| 8th | $1,000 | $1,000 | $1,000 | $1,000 |
| All eight | $30,000 | $40,000 | $60,000 | $100,000 |
Every column is the whole of what that kind of discipline paid in 2026. There is no appearance money in these figures, no bonus for a record and nothing for ninth, and where athletes tied they took the places between them and split the money for all of them.
Frequently asked questions
How much prize money did the 2026 Diamond League pay?
$9,200,500 across fifteen meetings and 39 disciplines, to 626 athletes. That is 17.1% of everything the series has paid across the nine seasons on this site.
What did a Diamond League win pay in 2026?
$10,000 at a series meeting and $30,000 at the final, and double that in a Diamond+ discipline: $20,000 in the series. The figure is the same in every discipline on the card, so a win in the shot put pays what a win in the 100 m pays.
Who earned the most in the 2026 Diamond League?
Masai Russell, on $170,000 from seven paid finishes, seven of them wins. 396 of the 626 athletes paid in 2026 were paid more than once.
How many meetings did the 2026 Diamond League run?
Fifteen: fourteen series meetings and the final, at AG Memorial Van Damme. Every series meeting paid the same rate for the same finishing place, so what separates one meeting's pot from another is how many disciplines it ran and how many of them were Diamond+.
What is a Diamond+ discipline?
A discipline the series pays double for. It arrived in 2025 and ran 120 times in 2026: $20,000 for a series win against $10,000 in a standard discipline at the same meeting. Nothing else changes, and the eight paying places are the same eight.
How far down the field does the Diamond League pay?
Eight places. Ninth pays nothing however fast the race was: 1,796 payments in 2026 went to 626 athletes from 83 countries, and 468 other finishes in the same result tables were worth nothing at all.
Where to next
The rest of the Diamond League money
Diamond League prize money holds all nine seasons on this site, 104 meetings and $53,753,250. The season before this one is 2025, which paid $9,188,500.
Every Diamond League season
- Diamond League 2026
- Diamond League 2025
- Diamond League 2024
- Diamond League 2023
- Diamond League 2022
- Diamond League 2021
- Diamond League 2019
- Diamond League 2018
- Diamond League 2017
These meetings across every season
- Shanghai Diamond League
- Xiamen Diamond League
- Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athlétisme de Rabat
- Golden Gala Pietro Mennea
- Bauhausgalan
- Bislett Games
- Doha Diamond League
- Meeting de Paris
- Prefontaine Classic
- Herculis EBS
- London Athletics Meet
- Athletissima
- Kamila Skolimowska Memorial
- Weltklasse Zürich
- AG Memorial Van Damme