What sounds more exciting than watching your favorite track athletes race head-to-head around the track in pursuit of prize money? Watching the best in the world compete across disciplines? Getting to see 200-meter specialists toe the line with the 100-meter or 400-meter specialists? Watching 800-meter champs race 1,500-meter champs?
Maybe watching athletes race to season bests, personal bests and new national and world records — which is not something the newly debuted Grand Slam Track is set up to produce. Place — not time — is the deciding factor, leading to some less-than-ideal race conditions.
The April 4-6 weekend marked an advent in the world of competitive running. Grand Slam Track, former four-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson’s attempt to bring elite running to the masses, held its first weekend of competition in Kingston, Jamaica. Athletes competed in doubles — two races over the weekend — across six disciplines for a prize pot consisting of $3.15 million, with 12 contestants taking home $100,000 first place checks. Kingston marked the first of four weekends of competition, with contests yet to come in Miami, Fla., May 2-4; Philadelphia, Penn., May 30 to June 1; and Los Angeles, Calif., June 27-29.
The six disciplines athletes compete in are short sprints (100 and 200), long sprints (200 and 400), short hurdles (110-/100-meter men/women and 100 sprint), long hurdles (400-meter hurdles and 400 sprint), short distance (800 and 1,500) and long distance (3,000-meter and 5,000-meter). 96 athletes compete at each Grand Slam event, eight across each division on both the men’s and women’s ends. Forty-eight of these athletes are “Racers,” contracted for all four weekends of Grand Slam Track, and 48 are “Challengers” who agree to participate in a single event. These challengers are meant to increase the depth of competition. Of the first weekend’s 12 champions, three were challengers.
While these event-doubles do put athletes in direct competition with those they may not usually face head-to-head, Grand Slam Track fails to fully explore this potential. We do not get to see the 100-specialists race the 400-specialists in the 200. We do not get to see hurdlers race sprinters in the 100 and 400. This all decreases the potential for grueling competition. In Grand Slam Track’s first weekend, U.S. hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Leverone breezed through both the 400 hurdles and 400 sprint. A long hurdles, long sprint race between McLaughlin-Leverone, Paulino, Naser and Thomas would have been far more exciting.
And then there’s the issue of Grand Slam Track being purely running. Some of your favorite athletes like pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis, shot putter Ryan Crouser, long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall and steeplechaser Lamecha Girma are all missing from the action. So too, obviously, are their events. Other notable runners and hurdlers are also missing, put off by the idea of needing to double. Dutch phenom Femke Bol is among these. So too are U.S. sprinters Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson, U.S. hurdles specialist Grant Holloway, British 800-meter specialist Keely Hodgkinson, Kenyan three-time Olympic 1,500 champion Faith Kipyegon and the infamous Norwegian distance phenom Jakob Ingebrigtsen. Without some of these stars, the question of Grand Slam Track’s success looms higher.
Fear not though, runners can compete as challengers in addition to the 48 signed on “Racers” at each of the four weekends. This brought in Emmanuel Wanyonyi, for example, a pure 800 specialist, who stunned in the 1,500 and came away with the weekend win in men’s short distance. Women’s long-distance winner Ejgayehu Taye — who destroyed most of the field with fellow competitor Agnes Ngetich — was also a challenger.
Grand Slam Track offers an alternative, or rather an addition, to the existing professional track circuit, the Diamond League. In the Diamond League, athletes compete across both track and field disciplines in a series of one-day meets where they work to win points and a spot in the Diamond League Finals. Success in the Diamond League depends on speed and strength, and the league regularly fields new world records.
Grand Slam Track seems to be operating in a different realm, with the main goal being to take home money. This creates race scenarios like the April 4 men’s 5,000, where the United States’ Grant Fisher won in a time of 14:39.14, nearly two minutes slower than his best time. Elite distance runners regularly run 5,000s in under 13 minutes. To this effect, the race in Kingston was almost a jog, with the only entertainment spanning from the kick at the end for the prize money. The inaugural 3,000 echoed this sentiment, with Fisher only putting in the effort to place third and secure the prize pot. The drive for money creates an environment where time is of little importance.
Grand Slam Track does have some redeeming qualities though. It boasts a $12.6 million prize pool across the season and a chance to vie to be crowned racer of the year across all disciplines. This holds potential to increase competition across event jurisdictions. It has also taken a spot on primetime television on Peacock and The CW Network in the United States, in addition to securing broadcast deals in 189 countries. Compare this to the Diamond League which is often only available to stream on FloTrack, and you can see where Johnson’s Grand Slam Track is making strides.
But the broadcast deals only go so far in painting the league’s success. April 4-6 marked the inaugural weekend of the league in Kingston — often colloquially referred to as the track capital of the world. Let’s hope location has nothing to do with success, as the 50,000-seat stadium of the world’s track capital remained mostly empty throughout the event.
Next month, Grand Slam Track debuts in the United States May 2-4 in Miami. This time, the stadium only seats 5,000. With a greater chance at a sold-out crowd, maybe Johnson will see his ideal atmosphere come to fruition. Maybe some fast races will happen, or maybe the draw for money will continue to drag down the promise of speedy splits and the pledged fantasy matchups will remain fables.