There’s a new international track competition on schedule for the 2025 season, and it’s different from any existing professional athletics league.
Grand Slam Track was announced in 2024 by American Olympian and retired sprint champion Michael Johnson as a league that aims to increase public awareness of the sport and promote it outside of how it relates to the Olympic Games every four years. Instead, Grand Slam will include a series of events occurring four times a year between April and September and will feature rivals in frequent thrilling head-to-head competition.
The first of the Slams will be held in Kingston, Jamaica (April 4-6); other locations are the US cities of Miramar in Florida (May 2-4), Philadelphia in Pennsylvania (May 30 to June 1) and Los Angeles in California (June 27-29).
There will be six event categories for male and female, and each category will have eight rivals and two disciplines that competitors will contest throughout a weekend. Competitors in the short sprints will double in a 100m and 200m; those in the 100m hurdles and 110 hurdles will run a 100m; 200m runners will also compete in a flat 400m; 400m hurdlers will run a flat 400m; 800m competitors will also do a 1500m; and those in 3000m must contest a 5000m.
Points will be awarded from first to eighth place for each event as follows: 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. The athlete with the highest combined score between his/her two events in their category will be the winner, or Slam champion, of that meeting. If there is a tie, the lowest combined time will be used as a tie breaker.
The winner of each Slam group will get US$100,000 in prize money, and the eighth-place competitor will earn US$10,000. Grand Slam Track has announced US$12.6m of prize money that will be awarded across the Slams each year in addition to the base compensation and appearance fees paid to racers.
Several big names in track have been listed for this new League. Among them is US Olympian and 400m hurdles world record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (in photo).
As noted by Johnson, Grand Slam Track aims to offer a TV-friendly product “to promote the sport’s biggest stars and draw new audiences through unique storytelling.”