The inaugural Grand Slam Track is well underway, as some of the biggest names in athletics battle it out to be crowned ‘Racer of the Year.’ We’ve run you through all you need to know, keeping you up to speed with the new competition and how it works.
What is the Grand Slam Track?
The Grand Slam Track is a brand-new professional athletics league launched earlier this year by four-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson. The new event took inspiration from the tennis and golf Grand Slam format and looks to bring the biggest track and field names together four times a year through highly publicised slams, which could bring more fans to the sport on a regular basis rather than once every four years like the Olympic Games or the continental championships.
The competition began back in April and is now halfway through its first slam, which has been a success with racers, who have flocked to be a part of the new movement, which promised bigger prize pots for winners and a more marketable brand. It is, however, still going through teething problems with empty seats present during the first Grand Slam.
What are the rules of the Grand Slam Track, and how will it work?
The competition consists of a complicated but gripping format. It includes four slams, with each being hosted in a different city. It started in April and will last through to September, where the world’s most famous and fastest athletes will compete against each other. It is made up of 48 racers who have committed to racing in all four slams per year and 48 challengers who will be selected on a slam-by-slam basis.
Each athlete will be put into one of six event groups, with each group consisting of four racers who will stay in that group throughout the year and four challengers who will change each slam. There are six women’s race groups and six men’s groups, with events being short hurdles, short distance, long sprints, long hurdles, and long distance.
The swapping and drafting of challengers for each slam poses a new test for the racers in each city, with challengers chosen based on who will provide the biggest threat to the four racers, hopefully leading to close and tense battles. Each competitor earns points based on where they finish in each race, with those with the highest total points winning their race group.
There will be one Slam Champion per race group, and then, based on total points allotted throughout the four slams, one female and one male racer will be crowned Racer of the Year. It’s not all about the winners, though, with every place mattering due to the 12.6-million-dollar prize pool, which is distributed at the end of the season based on the final rankings.
Who is competing in the Grand Slam Track, and where will it take place?
The four locations for the slams are Kingston, Miami, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. The first two slams were held in the National Park of Kingston, Jamaica, at the start of April and in the Ansin Sports Complex in Miami at the beginning of May. After these events, the standings have Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Kenny Bednarek as the current women’s and men’s Race of the Year.
The final two slams will be held in Philadelphia from May 31 to June 1 and in Los Angeles from June 27 to June 29, where the inaugural Grand Slam Track Racers of the Year will be crowned.
Grand Slam Track has already secured some of the biggest names in athletics, with some of the 96 athletes signed up including six current Olympic gold champions: McLaughlin-Levrone, Thomas, Quincy Hall, Cole Hocker, Marileidy Paulino, and Masai Russell. The event also has the athletes from the full 2024 Olympic podiums of the women’s 100m hurdles, the men’s 1500m, and the men’s 400m.
The competition is, however, without 100m Olympic champion and current figurehead for the sport, Noah Lyles, and British 800m gold medalist Keely Hodgkinson. The pair have so far made no comment on the event and their possible inclusion.
What is the history of the Grand Slam Track?
The Grand Slam Track is a completely new concept, with the first-ever slam currently ongoing. Michael Johnson admitted that he has had the idea since the 90s, and in February 2024 he announced his intention to make his concept a reality. It was first announced that the competition would be a track and field event, with the first track event running from April to September, although that has now been cut down to April to June.
The original intention for the concept was to promote the sport of athletics in a more sustainable manner, bringing fans back, whether casual or die-hard, every year rather than peaking at the Olympic Games, where the whole sport builds up to one huge celebration and then goes into hibernation for another four years.
The four locations were announced by September 2024, and by 19 December 2024, all 48 racers had been announced, and the plans of choosing challengers on a slam-by-slam basis were too.
Who is Michael Johnson?
Johnson, who is the creator of Grand Slam Track, is a 57-year-old ex-professional sprinter who held Olympic and world records in the 200, 300, and 400-meter races and in the indoor 400. He had four Olympic gold medals to his name by the time he decided it was time to retire in 2000 and has since worked in athletics as a pundit, writer, and trainer.
He was elected to the United States Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2004, but he still feels as though he has work to do in the sport, announcing that the new Grand Slam Track could save track racing by giving athletes year-round audience attention and publicity.
Where can you watch Grand Slam Track?
Fans in the United States can watch all the action unfold live on Peacock or can alternatively catch up on all the moments they missed on there as well. Those in the UK and Ireland can tune in on TNT Sports or through Discovery+ on demand.
The slams are being broadcast live globally across many different countries and using several different broadcast partners. To find out if you can watch it in your country, and where to do so, check Grand Slam’s official website, where a dropdown menu of available countries will appear.
