Emmanuel Wanyonyi and the race for David Rudisha’s legendary 800m world record at the 2024 Diamond League finals

A summer of electrifying races, smashed world records and life-long dreams fulfilled on an iconic purple track will come to a marvelous, even if slightly bittersweet, end during the 2024 Allianz Memorial Van Damme Diamond League Finals on 13-14 September in Brussels, Belgium.

Olympic champions like Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred and Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis will look to impress onlookers one final time this season, while cementing their status as the best in the world before a well-earned vacation away from the rubber runways and foam landing mats.

While many races will be decided head-to-head at the 2024 Diamond League finals, the most compelling battle might be the imaginary one between Kenya’s rising star and the nation’s undisputed legend over 800 meters. Enter Paris 2024 Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi and world record holder David Rudisha - himself a double Olympic champion in the 800m.

The origins of Kenya’s rising star Emmanuel Wanyonyi

By any definition of the word, Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi has been incredibly successful in his short athletics career. The 20-year-old already has an Olympic title, Diamond League final victory, world championship silver medal, and U20 world championship title to his name in the 800 meters.

It certainly doesn’t hurt that he “likes his job” - a statement that often comes up in interviews with the Olympic Games Paris 2024 gold medallist in the men’s 800m. A statement that would have felt out of place if it were spoken by the young athlete only a few years earlier.

“I am the first one to run the 800m in my tribe,” Wanyonyi told World Athletics in January. “My family is six boys and six girls. I am the fifth of 12 children. I am the only one in my family who can run.”

Wanyonyi ran in the face of ridicule as a young athlete, but that superficial hurdle paled in comparison to the educational, economic and personal hurdles he had to overcome before becoming the world’s best 800m runner.

He dropped out of primary school at age 10 due to insufficient funds. Working as a cattle herder, he attempted to improve his family’s economic situation. Nonetheless, it worsened with the death of his father in 2018, which forced his mother to move away with his younger siblings.

The young Kenyan continued to run in his free time, and was eventually scouted by a teacher that kickstarted his return to school.

“I didn’t come from a family of runners, but I knew that I could make it as a runner if I trained and pushed hard,” Wanyonyi explained during an interview with Olympics.com earlier this year. “I had to do it for my family.”

His drive to succeed pushed him to great heights. The hard-working young athlete caught the eye of Janeth Jepkosgei - silver medallist in the women’s 800m at the Olympic Games Beijing 2008. She advised him to focus on the 800m and paired him up with his current coach, Claudio Berardelli.

It didn’t take long for the young Kenyan to make a name for himself.

Emmanuel Wanyonyi goes from rising star to Olympic champion

Wanyonyi burst onto the international scene when he ran 1:43.76 to claim victory at the 2021 World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya. The victory was life-changing.

“After running the World U20, I went and looked for my mum, got her a piece of land and built her a home where she now lives with my younger siblings,” he told Olympics.com.

Wanyonyi remained committed to training, and it showed during his first proper international season in 2022.

The then 17-year-old won his first four 800m races that season, including his first-ever Diamond League race. He nearly achieved a storybook ending at the World Athletics Championships Oregon 2022, finishing just off the podium to take fourth in the men’s 800m final.

If 2022 was the teaser trailer, Wanyonyi’s 2023 season was the feature film.

The still relatively inexperienced teenage runner joined Kenya’s team at the 44th World Athletics Cross Country Championships, where he won a gold medal in the mixed relay. He rolled his early season success into the Diamond League, claiming victory on two separate occasions in the men’s 800m, before successfully qualifying for the Kenyan team for the World Athletics Championships once more.

Kenya’s then teenage sensation continued his meteoric rise at the World Championships, earning a silver medal in the men’s 800m behind world champion Marco Arop of Canada. He finished his season by turning the tables on the current world champion at the 2023 Diamond League finals in Eugene, Oregon, securing one final victory before the Olympic season in 2024.

It was during the current season that Wanyonyi reached the peak of his short career, cracking the one minute 42 second barrier for the first time in his career during the Kenyan Olympic trials, before lowering his personal best to 1:41.58 at a Diamond League meet in Paris one month before the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

The now 20-year-old achieved a memorable victory at Paris 2024, leading from the front to hold off any potential challengers for the Olympic title. He crossed the finish line in a time of 1:41.19 to win his first Olympic gold medal, becoming the third-fastest man over 800 metres in history during the process.

Wanyonyi further improved his personal best at the Diamond League meet in Lausanne after the Olympics, running 1:41.11 to bring himself within 0.20 seconds of the legendary world record held by David Rudisha.

David Rudisha: the last man standing between Wanyonyi and a world record

While Wanyonyi has made a name for himself in the men’s 800m, there’s still one name synonymous with the distance: David Rudisha.

His list of accolades in the distance makes for lengthy reading, including two Olympic gold medals, two world championship titles, two African championships, one U20 world championships title, 19 Diamond League victories and one world record.

“It was not easy,” cautioned the legendary 800m runner during an interview with Olympics.com in 2023. “You can’t just walk out there and make things happen, you really have to dig in, in anything you want to achieve.

“I'm just proud of myself because running was part of my life, as a young boy from Maasai,” added Rudisha, whose dreams of Olympic glory took root early in life, after he caught a glimpse of his father’s silver medal from the Olympic Games Mexico City 1968.

“Growing up, I saw an Olympic medal when I was very, very young," he said in the same interview from 2023. "That was my father's from the 1968 Olympics, 4x400 metres relay, and it really motivated me.”

Rudisha would ultimately focus his efforts on the men’s 800m, becoming the fastest runner of all-time over the distance - an accolade he claimed with earnest at the Olympic Games London 2012.

Rudisha's thrilling triumph at London 2012 remains one of the more iconic races in recent memory. He led from the gun and never looked back, clocking 1:40.91 to become the first man to break 1:41 over 800 meters. It was an astonishing achievement - one cherished by Kenya’s 800m legend.

“That is one of the few races I watch back and I remember everything about it,” Rudisha told World Athletics, adding, “I ran the race exactly the way I planned, only a little faster. I wanted to run 1:41.00. When I saw 1:40-something on the clock, it was a little bit of a surprise.”

He would remain at the top of the sport despite injury concerns, defending his Olympic gold medal at Olympic Games Rio 2016, but injuries, accidents and personal concerns would eventually force him to retire before the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

While he remains fond of his glorious “surprise,” Rudisha is ready to see his world record broken.

“I want to see that (world) record being broken one day. And it would make me happy to see somebody also beat me in one way or the other," he told Olympics.com in 2023.

At the time, Rudisha already had his eye on a certain rising star from Kenya, telling Olympics.com, “Emmanuel Wanyonyi is still young and when you see him running, I believe he still has a lot of opportunity for improvement.”

Call it fate, call it intuition, call it one great champion recognizing the makings of another - Rudisha had just identified the second-fastest man in history, and perhaps the most likely candidate to break his world record.

Don’t forget about Marco Arop and Djamel Sedjati

Wanyonyi will certainly run with thoughts of a world record performance bouncing around somewhere in his brain during the 2024 Diamond League Finals.

His times continue to improve and the allure of a world record might be the final piece needed to push Wanyonyi towards immortality in the men’s 800m.

Of course, the ghost of Rudisha’s London 2012 victory won’t be the only runner Wanyonyi will need to beat in Brussels.

He’ll also need to keep a close eye on current world champion and Paris 2024 silver medalist Marco Arop, as well as Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati, who won a bronze medal behind Wanyonyi and Arop at Paris 2024.

Arop’s personal best of 1:41.20 makes him the fourth-fastest runner over 800m in history, with Sedjati holding down the fifth spot on the all-time list with a time of 1:41.46.

All three runners will be keen to break the 1:41 barrier during the 2024 Allianz Memorial Van Damme Diamond League Finals.