The former 200m and 400m world record holder told the BBC why his new ‘Grand Slam Track’ series features only runners.
Michael Johnson believes his new Grand Slam in 2025 can save the ‘track’ but not the ‘light track’.
The first meeting will take place in Kingston, Jamaica, on April 4 next year, followed by Miami, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, but it only features current events, which has drawn criticism.
“I love the sport,” he told the BBC on Wednesday (November 27). this” or “you need to understand this” doesn’t work.
“The 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 the track.
“Putting the two together works in the Olympics and the World Championships, but I’m not sure it works when you’re trying to create a professional sport outside of those global competitions.”
He added: “My goal is to make the sport of athletics more popular, but to do that you have to pick your battles.
“Based on today’s audience, if you were going to build a sport, you wouldn’t build ‘athletic’ because it wouldn’t work. You can’t have four or five all in one and call it one sport, because that’s athletics.”
“There is absolutely no similarity between pole vaulters and sprinters or shot putters and triple jumpers. As a sport, it’s very difficult to change that, but with us (Grand Slam Track) coming from outside and creating something very new, we can change it.
“We had to bypass one story. Only the fastest one. Whether we can ultimately create something for the field events for today’s audience remains to be seen, and I wish we could do that, but they are very are different events.”
Johnson, 57, believes that field events are not suitable for television because they take a long time to complete.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levron (Getty)
Sydney McLaughlin-Levron, Josh Kerr and Matt Hudson-Smith are among the athletes who have registered so far in the series with newer achievements including sprinters Gabby Thomas and Daryl Neita.
However, big names like Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Femke Ball and Keeley Hodgkinson have not signed. Or not yet anyway.
“My goal is to create the opportunities athletes have always wanted and put them on a stage worthy of their greatness, with races that mean something,” Johnson continued.
“To do that, you have to compete against each other. That’s what’s compelling about the world’s biggest sports. That’s what we create.”
“We want to create a little more danger, higher stakes and a better story.”
Johnson also wants to ensure that competitors receive financial rewards, along with a $12.6 million prize pot, 48 contracted “racers” will receive a base salary to compete in all four slams.
In each slam, racers are joined by 48 competitors in one of six men’s and women’s groups; they are short and long sprints, short and long hurdles, and short and long distances, each run in two events.
In both races, athletes are awarded points for their finishing position.The combined results determine the champion of each Slam and the recipient of $100,000.
(Getty)
The series has also been mildly criticized for being US-based, but Johnson says that was part of his plan.In response to recent claims by UK Athletics that the British governing body had turned down the chance to be involved, he said: We partnered with 10 interested cities around the world and decided the first year that we wanted to focus our energies on the US.
“We will continue to work with interested cities. As we look to expand and rotate, it (a UK event) will certainly be possible.”
The “Grand Slam” also competes with established events such as the Diamond League circuit. World Athletics has also recently created new events, such as its final World Athletics Championships in 2026, and there is talk of a new World Track Championships.
“We’ve had a lot of conversations with World Athletics and we’ve heard a lot about what they’ve had to say over the years,” Johnson said.
“They want to grow the sport in the United States so that the athletes get paid more, to encourage more innovation in the sport.
“When we sat down to build a Grand Slam track, we heard this. we built a Grand Slam circuit to do all those things.”
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