Grand Slam Track league Next Big Thing for Sport
Shot By: Laureus Sport
American track legend Michael Johnson is launching a new league to gather about 100 of the top performers four times in its first season giving out $12.6 million.
The league is called Grand Slam Track and will be making its debut in April of 2025. The only confirmed location is Los Angeles but plans are being made for the other events to be in another American city and two more overseas.
Luckily for Johnson and everyone else involved the league received an early boost with the signing of a certain star athlete. The world-record hurdler Sydney Mclaughlin-Levrone brings in some star power to the newly founded league. But she isn’t the only track star attached.
Johnson is a big name himself famously known for his gold spikes and much like Mclaughlin-Levrone he also has the feat of setting a world record. His event was the 200m, his record came at the 1996 olympics where he completed the sweep by winning the 200m and 400m open.
Shot By: Jacob Teng, FloTrack
The motivation behind the league coming together is something that Johnson has advocated for with others in recent years. Creating a more competitive and incentivized environment around the sport. Hoping to gather the best of the best and have them running for bragging rights not just a time.
The need is there as the sport typically falls off in overall engagement during non olympic and world championship years. The pro season is limited to individual meets mostly led by the Diamond League, which just lost their streaming contract with NBC.
Grand Slam Track looks to fill the void and show an increase in engagement. The league wants to sign 48 athletes who would be the “GST Racers”, and then use appearance fees to get another 48 as the “GST Challengers” for each meet. The four meets to be held each year give the audience a chance to see their favorite athletes at varying points of their training process.
Separating themselves from other individual meets, the league also disclosed that there will be no field events.
Johnson’s goal is to see this league used as a catalyst for a sport he loves and feels is undervalued. Grand Slam Track is coming to grow the sport of track and field, taking it to a new level of viewership.
