Grant Holloway Makes Shocking Decision After Xiamen Diamond League Disaster

Holloway withdraws from Shanghai Diamond League after a surprising result in Xiamen.

Grant Holloway Makes Shocking Decision After Xiamen Diamond League Disaster

Festus Chuma 23:45 - 29.04.2025

Holloway withdraws from Shanghai Diamond League after a surprising result in Xiamen, sparking speculation about his current form.

American hurdler Grant Holloway has withdrawn from the upcoming Shanghai Diamond League, set to take place on May 3rd.

Holloway, widely regarded as one of the most dominant forces in the 110m hurdles, finished a shocking 10th place at the Xiamen Diamond League on April 26th.

It marked the first time in two years that Holloway had lost back-to-back races in the Diamond League series, casting doubt over his current form just months before the Paris Olympics.

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The sprinting star, who was previously full of enthusiasm about competing in Shanghai, revealed he has been battling a knee injury since the start of the 2025 indoor season.

"I started off this indoor season kind of with like a knee injury," Holloway said during an episode of the Beyond The Records podcast as per SportsKeeda.

"Funny story, I had 435 front squat on my back with Sean in the weight room, my strength and conditioning coach. And I could literally hear my knee kind of like popping as I was going down and coming up and I was like: 'is that my knee?' and like I didn't think anything of it and then 30 minutes later my knee is swelled up like a balloon."

Although Holloway managed to power through the indoor season, even clinching his third consecutive gold medal in the men’s 60-meter hurdles at the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, he admitted the knee issue continued to linger throughout his races.

“At Boston when we ran I actually had Kinesio tape on that general area to kind of stop the swelling and give me a little bit of comfort,” he continued.

“But I think this whole indoor season, you know no excuses but I think I was kind of guarding that knee you know just to protect it from like not being hurt or vice versa and I think that kind of played a huge part into you know what this indoor season kind of was for me.”

Holloway's withdrawal means that Eric Edwards, a former Pan American U20 Champion, will take his place in Shanghai.

Edwards now joins a stacked field featuring Hansle Parchment, Cordell Tinch, Rasheed Broadbell, Rachid Muratake, Shunsuke Izumiya, Enrique Llopis, and Chinese talents Liu Junxi and Xu Zhuoyi.

For a man who holds a personal best of 12.81 seconds, the second-fastest time ever in the 110m hurdles, Holloway’s decision to pull out of a high-profile meet he once expressed excitement about raises eyebrows.

Just weeks ago, he voiced his enthusiasm for returning to Shanghai in a pre-season interview with the Diamond League.

Holloway has won nine Diamond League meeting wins and a 2022 Diamond League title under his belt thus remaining a top contender in the sport.