Air Aware Labs at the London Diamond League - what we did

As the world's premier outdoor athletics series, the Diamond League brings together the very best athletes across 14 international meetings before the season concludes with the Diamond League Final. With no Olympic Games or World Athletics Championships taking place in 2026, It was history's fastest-selling London Diamond League — a third straight sellout, making every race, jump and throw even more significant. 

Headlined by Noah Lyles, Femke Bol, Georgia Hunter Bell, reigning 800m world champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Armand Duplantis, Karsten Warholm and home favourite Keely Hodgkinson. And Josh Kerr made athletics history by shattering the one-mile world record in London.

Bringing air quality into the spotlight

Elite athletes can breathe up between 10-20 times more air than the average person during intense exercise. That means air quality is more than an environmental issue, it's a performance, recovery and health issue.

The science is clear: a 1 µg/m³ rise in PM2.5 is linked to marathon times slowing by up to 32 seconds, and elite NCAA runners have been shown to lose up to 1.5% of their pace under elevated pollution. It's not just endurance sports either, research on German football found higher PM2.5 raised the chance of a misplaced pass by over a quarter.

Clean air doesn't just protect athletes' health. It protects the performance itself.

Throughout the event, Air Aware Labs delivered live air quality information for display on the stadium's screens, giving athletes, coaches and spectators real-time insight into the conditions throughout the day. 

Fortunately, pollution levels remained low across the event, providing ideal conditions for competition. Sometimes the best result is the one nobody notices because clean air doesn't make headlines, it lets athletes do the hard work instead.

Getting fans involved

Our exhibition stand proved just as busy as the track.

Visitors of all ages stopped by to learn more about air pollution, but our biggest attraction was undoubtedly "Air Pong". Our clean-air twist on a classic game. Instead of aiming for cups labelled with drinks, participants targeted different air pollutants, sparking conversations about PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants that affect our daily lives.

Children were some of our most enthusiastic visitors, proudly explaining what they'd already learned about air pollution at school and challenging their families to beat their scores. It turns out environmental education is even more competitive than the men's 100 metres.

We also allowed spectators to 'check in' to the event on our AirTrack app and to find cleaner routes to and from the venue.

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Launching our Plan a Route tool

The event also marked the first live deployment of our Plan a Route tool for spectators.

Visitors heading to and from the London Stadium were able to explore routes that considered air quality, helping them reduce unnecessary exposure during their journey.

It's a simple idea with wide-reaching applications, not just for athletics but for marathons, mass participation events and cities looking to help people make healthier travel choices. If you run, cycle or commute daily, the air along your route can affect performance as much as it affects how you feel.

Sport and sustainability go hand in hand

Major sporting events are increasingly expected to demonstrate strong environmental performance. Air quality is becoming an important part of that conversation, whether through sustainability reporting, athlete welfare or fan experience.

This event is one stop on a longer journey for us, from live stadium data to formal certification. World Athletics has made its Athletics for a Better World (ABW) Standard a contractual requirement for host cities from 2026, naming air pollution one of four critical risks facing the sport through 2050. Yet in the Standard's first year, only 40 of 102 reporting events did anything on air quality at all. We're already helping organisers close that gap, including on the London Marathon.

Looking ahead

The London Diamond League showed what's possible when elite sport and environmental data come together.

More than 60,000 fans witnessed world-class athletics. Athletes competed in excellent air quality conditions. Thousands of spectators engaged with clean-air education. And our technology demonstrated how real-time environmental information can support healthier, more informed sporting events.

We're excited to keep supporting more sporting events with the tools, insights and expertise needed to put air quality on the agenda.

If you're organising a sporting event and would like to explore how air quality data can support your goals, we'd love to talk.