On June 12, Michael Johnson announced the end of the Grand Slam Track’s inaugural season, calling off its highly anticipated final stop in Los Angeles. The news came as a letdown to many, especially after the electric energy seen in Kingston, Miami, and Philadelphia. As a result, fans missed out on witnessing what Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone had hinted she would unveil at the last Slam. The four-time Olympic gold medalist had teased a bold performance, stepping beyond her comfort zone. But with the league’s sudden shutdown, bigger questions remain unanswered—questions that the end of GST left hanging.
When Michael Johnson introduced his independent track meet series—positioned as a challenger to the well-established Diamond League—he promised a total prize pool of $12.6 million (£9.2 million). Top-tier athletes were offered appearance fees as high as $200,000, with each round offering up to $100,000 in prize money. However, the final meet had to be abruptly called off, largely due to disappointing ticket sales across the first three events and growing concerns over limited broadcast and sponsorship income. The financial cracks had already begun to show—and now, it seems those issues may have a much deeper impact moving forward.
As reported by Matt Lawton in The Times on July 1, several of the world’s top track and field athletes are still waiting on millions of pounds in promised payments for their participation in the Grand Slam Track series. While the athletes and their managers were notified last month about the cancellation of the final event, there was still an expectation that appearance fees would at least be honored. It’s standard practice to delay prize money payouts until drug test results are confirmed, but appearance fees are typically processed much earlier. Yet, many athletes and their agents have not been paid for appearances at the meets in Kingston, Miami, and Philadelphia. And following Michael Johnson’s recent statement, the situation appears to have deteriorated even further.
Credits: Instagram
Two weeks ago, Michael Johnson claimed that Grand Slam Track had successfully achieved all the goals it had set out to accomplish. However, according to one source, he couldn’t provide a clear timeline for when outstanding payments would be made, only mentioning that they were still trying to secure new sponsorships with hopes of staging a comeback in 2026 with an expanded schedule. Meanwhile, GST executive Kyle Merber stated in an email, “Our plan is to make payments for Kingston prize money before the end of July and the remaining payments due by the end of September, which includes the honouring of Los Angeles appearance fees.” Whether these statements align or contradict each other is unclear. But the underlying tone of caution is hard to miss.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s coach and many others shared their takes
With decades of coaching experience under his belt, Bobby Kersee—coach to Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone—had high hopes for Grand Slam Track. So when the ambitious league came crashing down, the disappointment hit him hard. On June 14, Kersee took to Instagram, writing, “The Grand Slam brand is still very promising, but today, seasons and careers are impacted.” Speaking not just on behalf of Sydney, but for all athletes caught in the fallout, the veteran coach urged for collective action to breathe life back into the league.
Olympic champion Noah Lyles also voiced his concerns. In a June 18 interview with James Emeritt, Lyles reflected on the athletes who had signed on with Grand Slam Track, only to be left in limbo. “That’s very saddening,” he said, “because that doesn’t just affect this league, Grand Slam, but it affects every other athlete that you know might have leagues in their head in the future. Or for any athlete who’s saying, ‘Hey, you know, I was a part of this, and even though I was a part of it, it wasn’t able to succeed to the best of ability’.” But perhaps the sharpest critique came months earlier—from Patrick K. Magyar, the former Zurich Diamond League director.
Paris 2024 Olympics – Athletics – Women’s 4 x 400m Relay Final – Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France – August 10, 2024. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of United States in action. REUTERS/Aleksandra Szmigiel
In a pointed April post on LinkedIn, Magyar didn’t mince words: “If you disrespect half the track & field family… If it’s more about your ego than the sport… If you believe money alone rules athletics… Then what you create is not a vision. You create a Grand Flop.” Magyar insisted he was writing as a true fan of the sport, not a defender of a rival league. But his words carried weight. “Johnson didn’t care if other athletes got fair deals, or if meets were compelling for fans. As long as his fee was right, everything else was secondary.” For many, that statement struck at the heart of Grand Slam Track’s unraveling—and why trust, once lost, may not be easy to win back.
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