by Perri Williams
This weekend, ardent followers of athletics will be tuned into the inaugural Grand Slam Track (GST) event which is scheduled for Kingston, Jamaica. The start list has been defined, the prize money allegedly loaded in stacks on a golden platform, with broadcasting rights across 187 countries worldwide already secured. The brainchild of Michael Johnson (who won four gold medals over three Olympic Games) the GST, is set to challenge the format of track and field as we have come to know it. Johnson stated that; “people watched track during the Olympics because of the stakes, the stars and the stories. So that is the recipe. And at the absolute heart of it is the head-to-head competition between the best athletes. Because that’s what people want to see.”
How it Works
Each ‘slam’ will have 96 athletes (48 racers and 48 challengers) who will compete twice over multiple days at each GST location. The racers are contractually bound to race at all four Grand Slam locations while the challengers will be paid appearance fees for any race they compete in.
Athletes will compete in one of the six groups, where each group has the designated two events: Short Sprints (100m/200m); Short Hurdles (100m or 110m Hurdles and 100m sprint combo), Long Sprints (200m/400m), Long Hurdles (400m hurdles/400m), Short Distance (800m/1500m) or Long Distance (3000m/5000m).
Points are awarded based on an athlete’s place in a race, with the combined score of their two events being the final score for the meet. Tie breaks are split using the combined times for their races. The prize money is lucrative with the winner receiving $100,000 with a sliding scale to the eight placed athlete who will take home a pay of $10,000. And that is for each slam meet with the total prize pot for each amounting to $12.6 million (and that is in addition to the base fee paid for contracted or ‘racer’ athletes and appearance fees for challengers).
What the Critics are Saying
The innovated event has received much attention, hype and excitement, at the same time, it has not been without its criticism. Take for example the Grand Slam Website states “Grand Slam Track events will be conducted annually in cities around the world”, yet three of the four locations are in the USA with the fourth being located close by in Jamacia. Speaking with the BBC last November Johnson stated, “We engaged with 10 interested cities around the globe and we decided for year one that we wanted to focus our energy on the US," he said.
Then of course there is the deliberate exclusion of the field events which has angered many field event athletes. Johnson has claimed he can “save track…but not track and field”, again challenging the paradigm of “things always remaining the same”.
Johnson would have liked all the top athletes in each event to have signed up. However, many of the groups lack that top elite performer head-to-head that most spectators would like to see. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA) was one of the first racers to sign up for the GST where she will compete over the 400m Hurdles and 400m combo. Her closest challenger Femke Bol (Netherlands) will not compete. Noticeable in this group is just two racers instead of four (McLoughlin-Lavrone and Clayton Russell) with six instead of four challengers. In the men’s same combo of the top three hurdlers, Alison De Santos (Brazil) who was third behind Rai Benjamin and Karsten Warholm at the Paris Olympics is the only one of the top three listed to compete. Noah Lyles is a notable absentee from the short sprints as is Jakob Ingebrigtsen from the distance groups. Ingebrigtsen inclusion would have added spice to the Josh Kerr, Cole Hocker and Yared Nuguse showdown.
What races are of interest?
On the plus side, with ‘Pacers’ eliminated from each race, and stacks of money on the table, the format of the competition should answer the question of who is the best athlete? The best athlete may not be the person who shines on the Diamond League stage, nor the best athlete in one particular event. Take for example what is considered as the most competitive event in the slam, the men’s Short Distance Group (800m/1500m combo). The three Olympic1500m medalists Kerr, Hocker and Nuguse will have to compete with the 800m specialists Marco Arop, Bryce Hoppel and Emmanuel Wanyonyi. How each specialist converts to the other distance is going to make for interesting results. Arop the silver medallists over 800m in Paris has a best of 3:38.36 for 1500m. Kerr on the other hand has an 800m PB of 1:45.35 going all the way back to 2019. Wanyonyi be the surprise in this group as he has recently run 3:38 for 1,500m on a dirt track at over 2,100m of altitude. The 800m specialist has an 800m PB of 1:41.11.
The ladies’ short distance is also one to look out for. Consisting of Jess Hull, Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji who was second at the recent world Indoor 1500m and 2024 World Indoor silver medallist Nikki Hiltz (USA). Olympic 800m bronze medallist Mary Moraa competes the racer line up.
Aside from the Short Distance Group there are plenty of other groups where results may not be as obvious. Grant Fisher (USA) fresh from two recent world records over 3000m and Olympic silver medallist over 5000m Ronald Kwemoi (Kenya) are set for a showdown in the Long Distance Group. The men’s Short Sprint group has an exciting line up with Olympic 200m silver medallist Kenny Bednarek and 100m bronze medallist Fred Kerley set to compete. While the ladies have just two racers, with the top two athletes from Paris not competing, leaving it to number three and four to complete the challenge.
The ladies' Long Sprint Group on the other hand has a stacked line up. Gabby Thomas (USA) the Olympic 200m champion will be pitted against Marileidy Paulino (Dominican Republic) the 400m champion. Included in the racer line up is Salwa Eid Naser the Olympic 400m runner-up. Another star-studded line up is the Short Hurdles where the top three medallists in the 100m hurdles from Paris – Masai Russell, Cyréna Samba-Mayela and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn are all listed as racers and will compete in all four GST meets.