Michael Johnson wants to make one thing clear: track doesn’t need saving. But he does think it needs improving.
For Johnson and many others, we are reminded of the sport’s potential once every four years when, for a brief, two-week window, athletes compete for status and legacy at the Summer Olympic Games.
In that moment, track and field is suddenly the most popular show on the planet, the short-lived center of the sporting universe. It’s what happens over the next four years that the sprinter-turned-commissioner has concerns about.
“That’s the void that has existed in the sport,” Johnson tells CNN Sports’ Amanda Davies, “and we’re filling it with Grand Slam Track.”
Spearheaded by the four-time Olympic champion, Grand Slam Track hosts its inaugural event in Kingston, Jamaica on Friday – the first of four meets taking place across the next three months.
The league has attracted some of the biggest names in the sport, including American Olympic champions Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabby Thomas, Cole Hocker and Quincy Hall.
Athletes signing up for Grand Slam Track have been promised regular, meaningful races against their fiercest rivals, as well as more prize money than the sport has ever offered before.
The 48 racers contracted by the league each receive an annual base salary for competing in the four meets over the course of the season, while $12.6 million in prize money is also on offer. That ranges from $100,000 for winning a slam to $10,000 for placing last.
By contrast, in the Diamond League – the sport’s established annual series of track and field meets – athletes receive $10,000 for winning an event and $1,000 for placing eighth.
“Most of the athletes suffer greatly because they aren’t able to realize any value,” says Johnson, best remembered for winning 200-meter and 400-meter gold medals at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
“Those athletes end up in situations where, many years later, and sometimes even in their careers, they’re wondering: ‘Should I have made this choice? I love this sport, but I’m suffering financially, I’m suffering mentally trying to make a living in this sport. I’m having to rely on friends and family to help.’”
The debut Grand Slam Track season will see 48 contracted racers, who are among the world’s top athletes, and 48 challengers, selected on an event-by-event basis, competing in six event groups: short and long sprints, short and long hurdles, and short and long distance.
Each athlete is assigned to an event group and will compete in two disciplines at every meet. Short sprinters, for example, will race in the 100 and 200 meters, and long sprinters in the 200 and 400 meters.
Points are earned based on an athlete’s finishing position in a race, and whoever has the most points across the two races at a meet is crowned the winner of an event group.
“That creates some significant narratives and jeopardy, which is what fans told us they want,” says Johnson. “They ...
