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Michael Johnson's Grand Slam Track series aims to modernize athletics by offering record prize money and more top-tier competition.
Four-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson believes his Grand Slam Track series is filling a “void” in athletics and is confident that his innovative new league will attract the biggest names in the sport.
Set to launch next year, Johnson's ambitious project promises to reshape athletics with record prize money and a format aimed at captivating a broader audience.
The Grand Slam Track series will feature contracted stars racing at four major events between April and September, covering distances from 100 meters to 5,000 meters.
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Johnson is optimistic about the league's future, and his excitement is backed by the positive response from both athletes and fans.
“I’m very pleased with how it’s going,” Johnson told the PA news agency.
“We’ve signed half of the (athletes) that won medals in Paris already. So it just proves that this is what the athletes have been wanting, but more importantly you need fans, and fans have been overwhelmingly positive and excited about our launch of Grand Slam Track next year.”
A host of star athletes are already on board, with British 400m silver medallist Matthew Hudson-Smith recently committing to the series.
He joins a lineup that already includes American sprinting sensation Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and middle-distance star Josh Kerr.
Despite these high-profile signings, Johnson acknowledges that there is still work to be done in attracting other top athletes, such as Noah Lyles, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Sha’Carri Richardson, Femke Bol, and Keely Hodgkinson.
However, Johnson remains unphased by the challenge of signing more big names.
“We’ll continue signing athletes this year, but we’re not going anywhere as well. There are athletes that may not join this year that will join next year. Some athletes it’s going to take them a little bit longer – we’re a different format than they’re used to, so that’s going to take some time,” he said.
“But I’m very pleased so far that we’re signing all of the big names and the medal winners, which is what we wanted.”
Johnson's post-retirement career has been marked by entrepreneurship and investment, largely outside of athletics.
Yet his passion for the sport has inspired him to bring this new initiative to life.
Drawing inspiration from other sports like tennis and golf, he envisions Grand Slam Track as a modernized version of athletics that can reach new audiences while keeping elite athletes at its core.
“I was investing myself in some other sports and I thought, ‘This is a great time for sports, a great time for sports investment, why not investment in my own sport?’” Johnson said.
“I’ve always seen the opportunity, but the other thing was this collection of current athletes not only are amazing athletes but it’s the greatest collection of personalities that I’ve seen in quite some time.”
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Johnson is confident that the series will drive the sport forward rather than disrupt the existing structure, as some might fear.
He views the Grand Slam Track as complementary to the established Diamond League series and believes his league can provide a much-needed platform for regular high-level competition.
“I see us filling a void that has existed in this sport where you rarely get an opportunity outside of the major global championships to see the best athletes competing against one another,” Johnson said.
“I think it will drive the sport forward.”
Apart from revolutionizing athletics, Johnson is also passionate about health, particularly after his own experience recovering from a stroke in 2018.
His underlying health played a critical role in his rapid recovery, and today, Johnson advocates for digital health innovations like Bupa’s Blua platform, which offers virtual healthcare services.
With the Grand Slam Track series set to launch next year, Johnson’s vision for modernizing athletics and making it more accessible to fans seems to be on a promising track.
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