Director of Athletes and Racing at Grand Slam reveals all about the new league
As Michael Johnson’s new track league approaches, excitement is building for the first Slam, which will kick off in Kingston, Jamaica, from April 4-6. To get a better understanding of what this league has to offer, we reached out to AW readers to gather their burning questions about the event that promises to revolutionize the sport of track and field.
What we already know is that athletes at Grand Slam Track are classified as either Racers and Challengers and are assigned to compete in one of the following categories: short sprints (100m/200m), short hurdles (100m hurdles or 110m hurdles/100m), long sprints (200m/400m), long hurdles (400H/400m), middle distance (800m/1500m), or long distance (3000m/5000m).
Each Slam event will showcase consist of four Racers who are contracted to the league’s four Slams: Kingston, Miami, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. They will go up against different Challengers during each Slam, who are compensated with an appearance fee, and will compete for full prize money.
The winner of each Slam group will take home $100,000 in prize money and the eighth place competitor will earn $10,000.
A total of 96 athletes will compete in the league, with 48 Grand Slam Track Racers, who collectively earned 34 Olympic medals at the Paris 2024 Games, facing off against 48 challengers.
To dive deeper into what fans can expect, we sat down with Kyle Merber, a former middle-distance runner and the Director of Racing and Athletes for Grand Slam Track and asked him a range of questions asked by our AW followers across social media platforms.
Michael Johnson (Grand Slam Track)
How were the events chosen?
A lot of things went into it prior to them being finalized. But I think ultimately the format obviously values being the fastest, right? That’s the most important thing but also having a range and being able to perform consistently across multiple events. I think the combination of having two race distances provides a little bit more jeopardy for the racers.
I think the combination of having two events creates intriguing match-ups, things that maybe fans haven’t necessarily seen before and ultimately sparks more debate and conversation amongst the fans.
Can a Challenger compete in multiple slams?
There is no official rule saying that a challenger can’t compete in more than one Slam. I think if you keep winning, then you’re
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