Grand Slam Track will not take place in 2026 unless athletes receive their prize money for this year, says founder Michael Johnson.
The four-time Olympic sprint champion confirmed the upstart track circuit has been unable to pay millions in appearance fees and prize money from its inaugural season and will not move forward until those debts are cleared.
Grand Slam Track launched in 2025 as a high-paying alternative to the Diamond League, focusing exclusively on track events and offering salaries for contracted athletes along with up to $100,000 for race winners. The concept lured in top names, including British Olympic sprinters Daryll Neita and Matthew Hudson-Smith, and 1500m world champion Josh Kerr, with the promise of swift payouts and a bold new stage for elite sprinting and middle-distance races.
The season began with meets in Kingston, Miami and Philadelphia, though the latter was trimmed from three days to two as costs mounted. The finale in Los Angeles, scheduled for June, was cancelled altogether after organizers failed to secure promised investment. Johnson said the move was designed “to avoid further losses” and begin the “lengthy process of stabilizing the company to get back on track”.
“It is incredibly difficult to live with the reality that you’ve built something bigger than yourself while simultaneously feeling like you’ve let down the very people you set out to help,” Johnson said in a statement on Friday. “We promised that athletes would be fairly and quickly compensated. Yet, here we are struggling with our ability to compensate them.”
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Industry outlet Front Office Sports reported last month that Grand Slam owes around $13m to competitors. Johnson blamed the crisis on “circumstances beyond our control” after committed funding failed to materialize, but insisted the league had no plans to fold.
Instead, he said, Grand Slam is “putting systems and partnerships in place” to ensure such a breakdown never happens again. “While I am no stranger to setbacks and overcoming obstacles, this current situation of not being able to pay our athletes and partners has been one of the most difficult challenges I’ve ever experienced. The 2026 season will not happen until these obligations are met – and that is my number one priority.”
