Katerina Stefanidi will compete in the pole vault at the Inspiration Games ©Getty Images

Olympic pole vault champion Katerina Stefanidi, American world champion sprinter Noah Lyles and Jamaican 110 metres hurdler Omar McLeod have been added to the list of athletes for Diamond League exhibition event, the Inspiration Games, in Zurich next month.

Scheduled to take place on July 9, the event follows Oslo's Impossible Games and will take place in seven different venues across the globe with timing and broadcasting coordinating centrally from Zurich's Letzigrund Stadium in Switzerland.

These events are being held in absence of this season's Diamond League which has been heavily affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

All three are among 30 athletes confirmed for the event and will join the likes of former pole vault world record holder Renaud Lavillenie, triple jump double Olympic champion Christian Taylor and Allyson Felix - the most successful female Olympian in athletics.

The men's and women's pole vault competitions will start the programme with Stefanidi facing United States' Sandi Morris and Sweden's Angelica Bengtsson, while in the men's event Lavillenie goes head-to-head with world champion Sam Kendricks and Polish athlete Piotr Lisek.

Taylor will have compatriot Omar Craddock to compete with in the triple jump alongside one of the other greats in the discipline - Portugal's Pedro Pablo Pichardo.

Current Olympic champion Omar McLeod will race the flat distance of 100 yards ©Getty Images
Current Olympic champion Omar McLeod will race the flat distance of 100 yards ©Getty Images

Felix will race over the uncommon distance of 150 metres against Swiss sprinter Mujinga Kambundji and 400 metres Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo.

Women's 400 metres hurdles world record holder Dalilah Muhammad will face fellow hurdlers Zuzana Hejnova of Czech Republic and Switzerland's Lea Sprunger in the 300 metres hurdles while Lyles faces European sprinters Churandy Martina and Christophe Lemaitre in the 200 metres.

McLeod, a hurdles specialist will race over the old distance of 100 yards (91.44 metres) against flat sprinters Andre De Grasse of Canada and Jimmy Vicaut of France.

Lemaitre and the four Swiss athletes will compete in Zurich, while the other venues will be Aubiere in France, Bradenton in Florida, Walnut in California, both in the United States, Karlstad in Sweden, Lisbon in Portugal and Papendal/Arnhem in The Netherlands.

Live television signals will be sent to Zurich and will be synchronised and edited for global broadcasting with split screens and a two-minute delay.

Stefanidi has already taken part in one of World Athletics' virtual competitions during the pandemic, winning the second Ultimate Garden Clash pole vault event in searing heat.