{"id":2297,"date":"2021-01-06T10:27:27","date_gmt":"2021-01-06T10:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/one-to-watch-in-2021-wayde-van-niekerk\/"},"modified":"2021-01-06T10:27:27","modified_gmt":"2021-01-06T10:27:27","slug":"one-to-watch-in-2021-wayde-van-niekerk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/one-to-watch-in-2021-wayde-van-niekerk\/","title":{"rendered":"One to Watch in 2021: Wayde Van Niekerk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Over the next few weeks, we\u2019ll be looking at some of the athletes hoping to make their mark on the Wanda Diamond League circuit and at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It is more than three years since Wayde Van Niekerk last graced the Diamond League circuit, but the South African superstar will be hoping to return with a bang in 2021.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Van Niekerk, 28, was the world and Olympic champion in the 400m when he was struck down with a knee injury in 2017.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Having also broken the world record in 2016 and the Diamond League record a year later, the South African was the undisputed king of the world over one lap.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Now, after a long road back from injury, he will be hoping to defend his Olympic crown in Tokyo this summer.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It remains to be seen whether or not Van Niekerk will also return to the Wanda Diamond League this season, having last appeared on the circuit at Herculis Monaco in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Yet hopes are high of a return to the biggest stage after he made important strides in 2020, a year in which he also saw his beloved Liverpool FC win their first league title for three decades.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think lockdown was easier for me than for some other athletes, because I have been in a two-year hibernation vibe anyway with my injury!\u201d he told the WDL Call Room back in June.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A few months later, the 28-year-old made his first competitive appearance outside of South Africa since 2017 with victory at the Gala dei Castelli in Switzerland.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The South African signed off his season with a statement of intent, posting on Instagram that he is \u201cfar from done\u201d.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Tune in below to watch all of Wayde Van Niekerk\u2019s best Diamond League moments from 13:00 GMT on Sunday.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"lazyload smush-lazyload-video smush-lazyload-youtube\" style=\"--smush-video-aspect-ratio: 661\/372\" data-bg-image=\"url(https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php?action=smush_video_thumbnail&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2Fzfk-m6q9VXk&#038;video_width=661&#038;video_height=372)\" ><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"661\" height=\"372\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zfk-m6q9VXk\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\"><\/iframe><span class=\"smush-play-btn\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Play video\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<span tabindex=\"0\" class=\"smush-play-btn-inner\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<span>Play<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The South African sprinter made a long-awaited return from injury in 2020 and will be hoping to...","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[522,718,6,90,518,214,603,624],"city":[],"class_list":["post-2297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-522","tag-718","tag-diamond-league","tag-olympics","tag-south-africa","tag-sprints","tag-tokyo","tag-wanda"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2297"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=2297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}