4-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson has introduced the launch of Grand Slam Observe (GST), knowledgeable observe league designed to deliver collectively the world’s greatest sprinters and distance runners for 4 marquee meets in 2025, much like tennis and golf. This progressive league goals to raise the game by offering a novel platform for the world’s greatest athletes to compete and shine.
“We’re excited to launch this new platform for the planet’s biggest racers on this sport all of us love,” Johnson stated in a press launch. “We’re revolutionizing the observe panorama, permitting our sport to stay on the forefront of the sporting world year-round, and pushing our celebrity racers to interrupt new floor of their private storytelling, aggressive success, and marketability. Grand Slam Observe goes to take our sport to new heights, and we wish you to return alongside for the experience.”
The Grand Slam Observe league additionally made an enormous splash by asserting their first athlete, 400m hurdles Olympic champion and world document holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. Within the press launch, Mclaughlin-Levrone stated she’s honoured to be the primary athlete in Grand Slam Observe. “Michael’s imaginative and prescient is obvious, and he’s precisely the chief this sport wants to interrupt new floor. I’m thrilled to be part of this league and look ahead to every thing we now have coming sooner or later. I firmly imagine that that is the step ahead that observe must take it to a different stage.”
What it’s essential find out about Grand Slam Observe
The league will start subsequent 12 months, and can comply with the same construction to skilled golf and tennis, that includes a collection of 4 main occasions in its inaugural season. One occasion can be in Los Angeles (the house of the 2028 Olympics), one other American metropolis, and two extra abroad (which haven’t but been introduced). The league will characteristic 96 of the world’s prime observe athletes, divided into two teams: 48 racers and 48 challengers. There are six occasion classes at every slam, with athletes having to do two races, guaranteeing a various vary of competitors. One other huge change would be the racing format: this league goals to ship a pure racing expertise by eliminating rabbits (pace-setters) and tempo lights. Athletes will compete with out bibs, to boost recognition and branding.
Every slam will provide a considerable prize of $100,000 to the winner, with money awards extending right down to eighth place. Over its first season, the league will distribute $12.6 million in prize cash.
The imaginative and prescient
Johnson has lengthy criticized the shortage of marquee head-to-head matchups in observe and area resulting from inadequate monetary incentives. “It’s offering the followers and the athletes what they’ve been asking for,” Johnson stated. “I feel there’s an actual alternative right here. They’re pissed off at an all-time stage with the game, on the elite stage, the way in which it’s been during the last couple of years the place they’re not compensated and acknowledged for his or her super expertise.”
The Grand Slam Observe league plans to signal 48 athletes, often called “GST Racers,” to contracts, and use look charges to deliver one other 48 athletes, “GST Challengers,” to every meet. Athletes will compete in classes corresponding to a short-sprint group working 100 and 200 metres over a weekend, for prime prizes and elevated visibility.
The league has secured greater than $30 million in monetary commitments and funding from Winners Alliance, the business arm of the Skilled Tennis Gamers Affiliation (PTPA) co-founded by tennis legend Novak Djokovic. The league’s identify, Grand Slam Observe, goals to evoke the status of tennis and golf’s main tournaments, providing a standout collection of occasions amid the yearly observe and area schedule.
Although Johnson has lengthy been crucial of observe’s international administration, he sees his league as a disruptor and enhancer of the game. Current developments in observe and area, corresponding to World Athletics’ plan to award $50,000 to Olympic gold medalists and the launch of the Final Championship in 2026, point out a rising recognition of athletes’ worth.
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Johnson, who stays deeply concerned within the sport as a BBC analyst, believes now could be the right time to launch GST. “I’m motivated by the truth that that is the opportune time to do it,” he stated. “The world is searching for one thing like this in order that we are able to step into that void.”
