Nobody in athletics has developed quite like Audrey Werro over the past 12 months.On Thursday, the Swiss athlete headlines the women’s 800m race at the Zurich Diamond League, the very meet at which she announced herself to the world last year.Werro, then 21, left the Letzigrund stadium in August 2025 as a Diamond League champion, only the second Swiss athlete to win the final meet of the season (after long jumper Simon Ehammer).She had produced the performance of her young career, running 1:55.91s to finish ahead of Georgia Hunter-Bell, an Olympic 1500m medallist. In the process, she revised her own Swiss record for the third time in as many months, a progression that saw her jump from 101st to 29th on the all-time list in the same summer.If that sounds impressive, then the Werro that will walk into Letzigrund on Thursday evening is on another level: European champion, unbeaten in four Diamond League races in 2026 (winning every one in a meet-record time), and, most notably, the third-fastest ever.Her 1:53.80s run in Paris at the end of June is the best over 800m since Jarmila Kratochvilova set the world record in 1983. That is the longest-standing athletics world record and a mark that, in over four decades, has only been troubled by a handful of women — now Werro is a little more than half a second from it.“It’s clear my status (has) changed from last year, some crazy things have happened this year,” she said in Zurich ahead of the race. “I’m really proud of my progression, running close to the world record this year, it’s really great.”She has even usurped Keely Hodgkinson, the Briton who, in 2024, raced a perfect season to claim European and Olympic golds and looked unbeatable. Werro, having out-kicked her rival to win the Stockholm Diamond League at the start of June, spoiled the party for Keely on home soil in August, stealing her continental crown at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, England.“I knew I would be European champion one day,” she beamed in the mixed zone, sporting a tiara, given to her by team-mates at Belfaux, her athletics club. “I’m a bit of an 18-year-old queen, so I allowed myself to bring it.”That smile replaced the grimace from the day before, when Werro had fallen in the semi-final. Officials advanced her to the final because video review showed that her foot clipped another athlete as they ran around the final bend.Audrey Werro reacts after falling during her semi-final fall at the European Championships (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)Unhurt and undeterred, Werro took the final to the rest of the field, running a gun-to-tape 1:54.81s for gold, smashing the European Athletics Championships record from 1982 in the process.“I told myself that I had the best times and that I’d run many races at the front, even if there was a pacemaker,” Werro said in response to a question about the risk of her tactics, given that she effectively turned a championship race into a time trial. “I knew that I was capable of running the whole race from the front, so I decided that was my best card to play.”