Grand Slam track – what is it and what does it mean for athletics?

Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track is set to have its inaugural season in 2025 – but what is it, what does it mean for athletics and could it come to the UK?

American Johnson, a four-time Olympic champion, hit the Grand Slam trail in June, ahead of athletics’ quadrennial moment in the global spotlight at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

In an effort to harness the attention and enthusiasm the sport generates every four years at the Games, Johnson plans to maintain that interest through the Grand Slam Track by bringing together the world’s fastest athletes in four three-day events. days each year.

“My goal is to create the opportunities that athletes have always wanted and put them on a stage worthy of their greatness, with races that mean something,” Johnson told BBC Sport.

“To achieve this, the best must compete. That’s what’s fascinating about the biggest sports in the world. That’s what we create.”

Big-name announcements and lucrative prizes helped create hype, while other stakeholders were forced to respond and those left out voiced criticism.

Johnson outlines his vision for the future

Through more regular clashes between the world’s fastest men and women, Grand Slam Track aims to intensify competition and rivalries between athletes who would otherwise rarely meet – for their benefit as well as that of the fans.

As a former competitor, Johnson also wants to ensure that athletes are financially rewarded appropriately. As well as a prize pool of $12.6m (£10m), 48 contracted ‘runners’ will receive a base salary to compete in all four Grand Slams.

How will it work? At each slam, runners are joined by 48 challengers divided into one of six groups of men and women – these are short and long sprints, short and long hurdles and short and long distances – each athlete participating in two events.

Athletes receive points for their finishing position in both races. The combined results determine the champion of each slam – and the recipient of $100,000 (£79,500).

Three of the first four host cities are in the United States, with stops in Miami, Philadelphia and Los Angeles following the curtain-raiser in Kingston, Jamaica.

Johnson said the decision was made to focus on American audiences in the first year – and denied reports that UK Athletics had rejected the possibility of staging a Grand Slam track event.

“UK Athletics has not refused to host a Grand Slam track event,” Johnson said.

“We engaged with 10 interested cities around the world and decided for the first year to focus our energy on the United States.

“We will continue to collaborate with interested cities. As we look to expand and rotate, this [a UK event] this will certainly be a possibility. »

How does the Grand Slam Track fit into the calendar?

Athletes must aim for an outdoor world championship for a fifth consecutive year in 2025, following the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

A third World Championships in four years will take place in Tokyo next September, while the World Indoor Championships will also take place in Nanjing in March.

The Diamond League – the sport’s established professional circuit – will host 15 meetings again in 2025 and has announced record prizes totaling $9.2m (£7.3m) as it bids to attract the attention of athletes in a busy schedule.

Who signed up – and who is missing?

American star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was the first runner to be announced in June, with the Olympic 400m hurdles champion and world record holder a notable inclusion given she has run sparingly in the past.

“What Sydney represents is the problem with sport. When I asked why she didn’t run much, she said she loved running but when she did she wanted it to mean something,” Johnson said.

On Tuesday, Olympic 200m gold medalist Gabby Thomas became the 38th of 48 full-season runners to be confirmed.

The full Olympic podium in the men’s 1,500m will be there, with Great Britain’s Josh Kerr joining gold medalists Cole Hocker and Yared Nuguse.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen – whose showdown with Kerr was one of the most anticipated moments in Paris – is one of the main names absent, as is McLaughlin-Levrone’s closest challenger, Femke Bol.

Daryll Neita became the first British woman to sign up in November, with Olympic 400m silver medalist Matthew Hudson-Smith also signing.

They join 800m world champion Mary Moraa – but among the “big three” competitors in that event, Britain’s Olympic gold medalist Keely Hodgkinson and America’s Athing Mu are absent.

“I think I can save athletics – not athletics”

Johnson’s biggest decision is excluding half of the sport that is track and field.

Britain’s Jazmin Sawyers believes Grand Slam Track cannot achieve the change it seeks without including field events.

The European indoor long jump champion told the Telegraph: “[Johnson] talks about revolutionizing the sport, but in its current version, that’s not happening. Sport is athletics, it’s the sport that gave him the life he has.”

Meanwhile, reigning two-time US Olympic discus champion Valarie Allman defended eventing athletes by describing them as athletes who “want to compete the most” and hopes the new competitions “recognize that track and field is a complete package.

In response to criticism that followed the decision, Johnson said: “I love this sport. But I’ve had time to reconcile the fact that if we keep doing the same thing, tell people that ‘you should love that’ or ‘you should understand that’ – that doesn’t work.

“Grand Slam Track is a track, that’s what we do. I’m going to save what I think I can save; I think I can save the track, I don’t think I can save athletics.

“Putting the two together works at the Olympics and the World Championships, but I’m not sure it works when you’re trying to create a professional sport outside of these global competitions.”

Others are also looking to adapt to a changing landscape, including World Athletics which announced a new three-day competition this year.

The ultimate World Athletics Championship – which includes field events – will take place for the first time in 2026, with the champions pocketing $150,000 (£118,000) at the end-of-season competition.

The sport’s governing body, which introduced prize money at the Olympics this summer, is exploring new ways to attract mass audiences between the Olympics – including holding treadmill world championships.

“We’ve had many conversations with World Athletics and we’ve listened to a lot of what they’ve said over the years,” Johnson said.

“They want to grow the sport in the United States, so that athletes are paid more and to encourage more innovation in the sport.

“When we sat down to build the Grand Slam Track, we listened to this – we built the Grand Slam Track to do all of these things.”