More Gold Medalists Joining Friday Night Party at the 2026 Prefontaine Classic
Olympic Champions Sion, Paulino & Katzberg to compete at Hayward Field
Three reigning Olympic champions have been added to the Friday Night line-up at the 2026 Prefontaine Classic. Valarie Sion (Women’s Discus), Marileidy Paulino (Women’s 400m), and Ethan Katzberg (Men’s Hammer Throw) will headline their respective events on 4th of July Eve at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon.
Valarie Sion (Longmont, Colorado) first won a competition at Hayward Field in 2014, becoming the USA Junior Champion. Later that summer, she earned a silver medal at the World Junior Championships, also contested at Hayward Field. Valarie has gone on to dominate the ring in Eugene with five national championships, four Prefontaine Classic titles, and the silver medal in the Women’s Discus at the 2022 World Athletics Championships. In 2025, she set the Prefontaine Classic record with a throw of 70.68m (231’ 10”) and then set the Hayward Field record of 71.45m (234’ 5”) at the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships a month later. Sion is a two-time Olympic gold medalist (Paris & Tokyo) and has won the discus discipline 19 times in Diamond League events since 2021, including five Diamond League finals. The three-time World Championship medalist has a career best throw of 73.52 m (241’ 2”), which is the sixth longest in history. Sion celebrated her wedding earlier this month and previously competed under the surname Allman.
Marileidy Paulino (Dominican Republic) will be making her second Prefontaine Classic appearance in the Women’s 400m, this time as the reigning Olympic gold medalist. In 2023, Marileidy won the Diamond League Final at The Prefontaine Classic, one of her 18 event wins and three finals wins on the Diamond League circuit since 2021. She also enjoyed success at Hayward Field at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, winning a silver medal in the 400m and a gold medal as part of the 4x400m relay team that set the national record for the Dominican Republic. Paulino is the 2023 World Champion in the 400m and also holds a silver medal in the discipline from last year’s World Championships in Tokyo, where she ran her personal best of 47.98. Her Olympic title in Paris was run in a time of 48.17, breaking the Olympic record for the first time in 28 years. Marileidy also earned an Olympic silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Games in the 400m.
Ethan Katzberg (Canada) threw 84.70m (277’ 10”) in Tokyo last year to win his second World Championship in the Men’s Hammer Throw. Katzberg’s new career best also set a new World Championships record that had stood for 18 years. The new Canadian record was the longest throw in any competition in nearly 20 years. Now at fifth on the all-time list, Ethan has won a Diamond League meet in each of the last three years. In addition to being the reigning World Champion, he is the reigning Olympic gold medalist from the Paris Games, where his winning throw was his first throw of the final round. As his Olympic competitors took their six throws, nobody came within four meters of Katzberg’s winning Olympic throw of 84.12 (276’). Ethan is a three-time Canadian national champion and also earned gold medals at the 2023 World Athletics Championships and 2023 Pan American Games. Last year, he finished second in his Prefontaine Classic debut in a competition that saw a new Hayward Field record set by the event winner.
The Prefontaine Classic will take place on Friday, July 3rd, and Saturday, July 4th, 2026.
The Women’s Discus, Women’s 400m, and Men’s Hammer Throw are scheduled for Friday, July 3rd.
The tentative event schedule windows for each day of competition are: Friday, 6:00 - 10:00 p.m. / Saturday, 12:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Tickets, VIP Experience Packages, and Accommodations packages are now on sale.
Those interested in volunteering at The Prefontaine Classic can learn more here.