© Copyright – 2024 – Athletics Illustrated

Grand Slam Track is an upcoming professional track and field series announced in 2024 by 400-metre Olympic gold medallist Michael Johnson of the USA. The first season is scheduled to start in April and wrap up in September 2025. The name of the league and other details were detailed during a press conference in Los Angeles in June after being announced in February 2024.

The origins

The series is the brainchild of Johnson. Grand Slam Track is a track and field series, based on conversations he had with BBC colleague Garth Crooks.

In April 2024, Johnson announced an investment of $30 million in funding from investors and strategic partners. Winners Alliance is reportedly the lead investor. Speaking at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships, the president of World Athletics, Sebastian Coe, said, “I welcome innovation. I also welcome external resources. If you have a rising tide, everyone benefits.”

The League was working in 2024 with Doubleday & Cartwright, Two Circles, and SRK Strategies, to focus marketing initiatives and public relations for Gand Slam Track.

The timing works with the hit success of the Netflix series Sprint and the follow-up by Box to Box Films based on the 2023 Budapest World Athletics Championships and the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, respectively.

Drawing the big names

The first athletes to sign up for the events in June 2024 were double Olympic champion in the 400m hurdles Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and the 2023 world champion and 2024 Olympic silver medallist in the 1500m Josh Kerr of Great Britain. Adding to the list is In September 2024, it was confirmed that Cole Hocker and Yared Nuguse, the 2024 Olympic gold and bronze medallists in the 1500m, had signed onto the league. During this month sprinters Kenny Bednarek and Fred Kerley also signed onto the league.

In May 2024, former middle-distance runner Kyle Merber confirmed he was employed as Director of Athletes and Racing. On Oct. 22 Grand Slam Track added 10 more athletes including Marileidy Paulino, Jess Hull, Daniel Roberts, Shamier Little, Marco Arop, Devon Allen, Jasmine Jones, Jereem Richards, Luis Grijalva, and Rushell Clayton.

“I’m proud to welcome this incredible group of athletes to Grand Slam Track™,” said Michael Johnson, the league’s founder and Commissioner. “They’ve all proven themselves on the world’s biggest stages, but this league gives them a chance to face each other consistently and bring something new to the sport. I can’t wait to see how they step up and take their performances even further. We continue to add the fastest talent from all over the world, and we’re so excited for fans to see what we’ve built, starting in 2025.”

Grand Slam Track vs. the Diamond League

Grand Slam Track meet locations are in Los Angeles, New York City, Kingston, Jamaica, and Birmingham. The fits meetings will be held during two weeks in April and two in May — more details to be released.

Meanwhile, the Wanda Diamond League will continue with its 14-meet season which starts in Xiamen, China on April 26 and ends in Zurich, Switzerland on Oct. 2. The finale in Zurich is the league championships. Also, there is the 2025 World Athletics Championships happening Sept. 13 to the 25th in Tokyo, Japan.

Throughout North America and Europe, there are a number of professional meets not associated with leagues or a series.

In addition to the Diamond League, World Athletics has the Continental Tour which starts January 24 in New Zealand with nearly weekly meetings throughout the calendar year.

World Athletics World Indoor Tour will begin in mid-January and finish in May.

A deeper dive into Grand Slam Track

From the Grand Slam Track website, “Grand Slam Track is the premier global professional track league featuring matchups between the fastest stars in the sport. The league will host four annual Slams taking place between April and September, with eight Racers competing in one of 12 event groups. At the beginning of each season, four Racers per group make the starting roster to contest each Slam. The next four Racers in each group are the Challengers, whose recent performances unlock a lane to the most compelling head-to-head clashes on earth. Each athlete will compete twice over the course of the weekend with the best combined placing determining the Slam champion.”

Event TypeEvent iEvent ii
Short Sprints100m200m
Short Hurdles100m/110m Hurdles100m flat
Long Sprints200m400m
Long Hurdles400m Hurdles400m flat
Short Distance800m1500m
Long Distance3000m5000m

Scoring

Athletes will receive points for their finishing position in each of their two races. From 1st to 8th place the points are distributed as: 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1. The Racer who finishes with the highest total number of points after the completion of both events will be crowned Slam Champion with prize money being paid out to each corresponding place. In the event of a tie, the lowest combined time will be used to determine the winner.

Prizing

Prizing Per SlamFinal Prizing
1st$100,000.00
2nd$50,000.00
3rd$30,000.00
4th$25,000.00
5th$20,000.00
6th$15,000.00
7th$12,500.00
8th$10,000.00

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