According to Michael Johnson, the four-time Olympic gold medallist and eight-time world champion, Grand Slam Track (GST) was going to revolutionize his sport and see athletes treated as “true professionals.”
The track league launched in April this year after claiming in a press release in September 2024 that GST had “secured more than $30 million in financial commitments from investors and strategic partners.”
Yet almost five months after GST’s opening meet in Jamaica, the project appears to be on life support. GST did not complete its first season, announcing on June 12 that it would cancel its fourth and final meet in Los Angeles, previously scheduled for the end of that month. Had the money run out?
Competing athletes, 28 of whom were medallists at the Paris Olympics, are owed millions of dollars in promotional fees and prize money. The league has missed a series of self-imposed deadlines, so far paying out only athlete promotional fees from the first meet in Kingston, but not the $3.2m prize money from that event.
This has left some agents fearing their clients will never receive their money, while others consider legal action. Based on the prize pot formula on GST’s website, Paris gold medallists Gabby Thomas and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone are owed $180,000 and $250,000 in prize money alone respectively, while Melissa Jefferson-Wooden is owed $300,000. On the men’s side, Kenny Bednarek is owed $300,000 while Josh Kerr is waiting for more than $160,000. This is all before appearance fees.
