Michael Johnson's Grand Slam Track is paused until 2025 athlete debts are fully paid

Independent Singapore

a day ago

Photo: Instagram/mjgold4
The Grand Slam Track won't happen again in 2026 unless all athletes who participated in its inaugural season get paid, said American former Olympic champion sprinter Michael Johnson, its founder.
Johnson admitted that the new track series has been unable to pay millions in prize money and fees needed for its first season. With this, he expressed on social media: ' It is incredibly difficult to live with the reality that you've built something bigger than yourself while simultaneously feeling like you've let down the very people you set out to help.
'We promised that athletes would be fairly and quickly compensated. Yet, here we are struggling with our ability to compensate them.'
Netizens expressed their opinions regarding this subject matter. One shared positivity and hope by commenting: 'This was one of the best things to happen in track and field! It brought excitement, anticipation, fun rivalries, and showcased the athletes in ways they hadn't been before! Keep pushing, team! ❤️' See also Marathoner Brimin Kipkorir of Kenya has been suspended for doping
Another commenter shared that Johnson and his team are really dedicated to providing innovation to the sport, and hopes that there will be new investors to come and grow the sport.
One more netizen, unfortunately, said that this is a 'grift attempt' and that no serious league should ever start without any money that is ready to be given out.
The Grand Slam Track is a new and supposedly well-paying option aside from the Diamond League. This tournament only focuses on rack races and pays participating athletes with salaries up to $100,000 for winning races. The event attracted top athletes in the sport, such as British Olympic sprinters Daryll Neita, Matthew Hudson-Smith, 1500m world champion Josh Kerr, and more top sprint and middle-distance runners.
The events took place in Kingston, Miami, and Philadelphia. However, the Philadelphia meet was shortened due to extensive costs. Furthermore, the Los Angeles meet, which was supposed to be the final event, was completely cancelled because organisers could not provide the promised funding. Johnson then stated that the cancellation was to 'avoid more losses' and to start fixing the company so that it can continue in the future. World Athletics on watch
Last month, Sebastian Coe of World Athletics stated that they are closely watching the unpaid fees of the Grand Slam Track series. Coe expressed that the situation is 'not good' given that even if the event is a startup, the athletes need to be paid properly.
He also suggested that for these events to work, they can't simply be 'vanity projects'. Instead, they should be governed with practicality and deliverability.
Regardless of the situation, Coe still remarked that he still fully supports privately funded athletics events. 'It was in everybody's interest for something like this to be successful. We're not the 'computer says no' command-and-control federation… From the very moment I became president of World Athletics, I talked about the need to be more creative and partner – don't shy away from forming those relationships. So we were very clear that this had to be done properly and executed properly,' he declared.
Read more about the World Athletics' sentiments here. document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { const trigger = document.getElementById("ads-trigger"); if ('IntersectionObserver' in window && trigger) { const observer = new IntersectionObserver((entries, observer) => { entries.forEach(entry => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { lazyLoader(); // You should define lazyLoader() elsewhere or inline here observer.unobserve(entry.target); // Run once } }); }, { rootMargin: '800px', threshold: 0.1 }); observer.observe(trigger); } else { // Fallback setTimeout(lazyLoader, 3000); } });