Seb Coe: “There’s no point in pretending this is satisfactory’

World Athletics president says governing body is monitoring developments at Grand Slam Track as athletes await payment

World Athletics president Seb Coe has revealed that the global governing body is closely monitoring the outstanding payments due to athletes from Grand Slam Track.

Speaking before the London Diamond League and asked about the project which began this year to much fanfare but has created headlines for the wrong reasons more recently, Coe said: “There is no point in pretending this is a satisfactory situation.” He added: “It’s not good. The one thing that World Athletics has always stood strongly behind is the athletes.”

Last month, the fourth and final event of the Grand Slam Track Series spearheaded by Michael Johnson that had been scheduled to take place in Los Angeles was cancelled due to reported financial issues. At the time, Johnson said that the global economic landscape had “shifted dramatically” in the past year and the move to curtail Grand Slam Track’s season was a “business decision” to ensure the league’s “long-term stability as the world’s premier track league”.

Multiple reports followed that Grand Slam Track still owed millions of dollars to athletes who competed in the Kingston, Miami and Philadelphia Slams, with only the appearance fees for the initial meet in Kingston believed to have been paid. As recently as July 5, Olympic 200m champion Gabby Thomas – who raced in the first three events – commented on a Grand Slam Track social media post by saying: “So dope!! Pls pay me.”

Coe added: “For these things to work, they can’t be vanity projects. They have to be suffused in practicality and deliverability. I just want the events that are going to add lustre, that we can find space for, and we will encourage them to at least have the courtesy of spending that kind of time and that kind of effort, both intellectual and resource, in making sure they work.”

Coe has publicly supported Johnson’s event, viewing it as a positive development for the sport. That backing extended to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the governing body and Grand Slam Track, which outlined a common understanding of objectives for the series.

“I welcomed Grand Slam Track,” Coe said. “In the early phases, Jon [World Athletics CEO Jon Ridgeon] and I were very clear, both internally to our teams and externally, that it was in everybody’s interest for something like this to…