Saint Lucian Julien Alfred will be one of three Paris 2024 Olympic champions to headline the 2025 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, organisers announced on Monday.
Alfred, the World Indoor 60m gold medallist, Olympic 100m gold medallist, Olympic 200m silver medallist, and Wanda Diamond League champion is set to make her New Balance Indoor Grand Prix debut. Alfred, who lives and trains in Austin, Texas, was also a seven-time NCAA champion at the University of Texas. The PUMA athlete is likely to open her season in Boston.
Returning to defend his crown, Noah Lyles of the USA is set to make his seventh appearance at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix. Lyles won his first USA national indoor title at 60m this year, two silver medals at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, and gold and bronze medals at the Paris Olympics in the 100m and 200m, respectively.
Like Lyles, Grant Holloway will be going for a fourth-straight victory, as he is signed up for the Viva Tequila Seltzer men’s 60m hurdles. Holloway is the best indoor hurdler in history, having won the 2022 and 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships and owning eight of the nine fastest times ever recorded, including the world record of 7.27 seconds set earlier this year.
Leading the field in the men’s 1500m will be one of the world’s best middle-distance runners in recent years, Jake Wightman of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In 2022, Wightman became the first British man since 1983 to win gold at the World Athletics Championships over 1500m, with a thrilling win in a personal best of 3:29.23.
One of the year’s most promising distance runners, Parker Valby will make her professional racing debut at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix. As a student-athlete at the University of Florida, Valby was a dominant force, winning six individual NCAA Championships for the Florida Gators, including the 3000m and 5000m at the 2024 NCAA Indoor Championships.
The 2025 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix will be shown live on NBC from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, February 2, and is a founding member of the World Athletics Indoor Tour. The series of the best indoor athletics events around the world awards overall tour winners US$10,000 and a guaranteed spot at the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China.
