Michael Johnson Reveals Everything You Need To Know About Grand Slam Track: Coming In 2025
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- Опубліковано 17 чер 2024
- "What's exciting is that in this new role, I'm able to bring athletes and fans what they've been asking for and just screaming out for - more head-to-head matchups, more fans getting to know these athletes, athletes able to connect better with their fans, athletes being able to realize more value for themselves. Fans are frustrated that they're hearing these stories of the athletes that they love to support and are frustrated that they’re not able to capitalize on their greatness. So with Grand Slam Track, I'm able to bring that to fans and athletes. That brings a smile. It makes me happy."
Michael Johnson is one of the greatest sprinters of all-time with his 12 gold medals. However, he joins me as the new commissioner of Grand Slam Track. Michael is on a mission to revive his beloved sport, track and field, which has long struggled to capture the U.S. public's attention outside of the Olympics. Grand Slam is set to debut in 2025.
This league aims to engage fans with a TV-friendly format, spotlighting the sport's biggest stars, and drawing new audiences through compelling storytelling. I speak for CITIUS MAG in sharing our excitement to be partnering with the league to share in their mission on athlete storytelling and we’ll be helping them with our own resources and expertise to connect them with our super loyal and engaged track and field diehard audience.
With a significant investment exceeding $30 million, Michael is determined to bring the essence of the sport to the forefront, putting athletes center stage like never before.
Grand Slam Track will host four annual Slams in global cities - starting in April 2025. Los Angeles will serve as the league's home, hosting one of these exciting events. The league has already signed its first star racer, 400m hurdles Olympic champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. In my conversation with Michael, we talk about the fan’s frustration around now watching some of the top stars compete more and how this aims to change much of that.
Each year, 48 elite athletes will be named GST Racers, competing across various categories and vying for substantial prize money.
Hear a bit more about Michael's vision for the future of track and field and the challenges he's tackling. We'll delve into how this new league plans to fit in among the existing competitions like the Diamond League and leverage the excitement of the upcoming Paris Olympics and the Netflix series to galvanize support from fans and athletes alike.
Host: Chris Chavez | / chris_j_chavez
Guest: Michael Johnson | / mjgold4
Read a complete guide to the new league here: citiusmag.com/articles/michael...
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I'm have to listen to this when I'm not in the car with these kids
Lol!;!
LoL
This is EXACTLY what I have been wishing to happen for years!!!! So perfect!
The biggest issue the sport has is broadcasting especially with flotrack taking over next year. If you can't watch live, nothing else will matter
I'm extremely excited about this! I know I'm jumping the gun here, but I'd love to see this filter down into youth athletics. I believe that could be huge for the sport - pee wee football and basketball have so much more of a team aspect for young athletes. In track, there is no emphasis on team until the college championship meet.
If meets had a team point aspect like MJ is proposing here I believe it would cause both athletes and spectators to be more invested in the sport. . .
really excited about this and this is just what track needs. However what we do need to be alert about is making sure the sport does not get all kinds of different leagues like in boxing, where different athletes are contracted by different leagues and rarely fight each other. In track this would mean that Mclaughlin is contracted by the grand slam track and then Femke Bol would be contracted some other league which may appear in the future, then we still do not get to see the battles we want. Also the sport is track AND field, so a way must be found to apply this same concept to the field events and make them compelling. But overall, if Grand slam track manages to become the only big league then it would be great for the sport.
Looking fwd to this let's see it. Hopefully it works. 100,000 on the line, they will show up for that
We need UFC style walkouts🔥
MJ is right on so many levels! So glad someone is finally taking a professional approach to what I believe is a showcase of the best in athleticism in the world. I totally celebrate the "one event at a time" approach. I want to bask in the glow of my favorite athletes win, record broken, or even a tightly fought race!
I think the categories should be somewhat flexible to add a bit of spice and interest to the event.
1. There is overlap between short sprints and long sprints (200m), same goes for 400H/400m and long sprints (400m). Separating best hurdlers and long sprint runners in the 400m race might not be what the
fans actually want to happen.
2. 800/1500 is somewhat odd pairing: some runners actually run frequently both distances but many have a clear preference: 800/400 or 1500/800; however
most 800 runners can step down to 600m or step up to a 1000m; most 1500m runners will enjoy a mile or can step up to 3000m or even 5000m or step down to 1000m.
Most 5000m runners can step up to 10000m or step down to 3000m (of course a few of the best can cover them all).
3. It seems like the participants names will be set well in advance. It is fine, but not necessarily ideal: by taking a look at grand slam tennis tournaments: there is a qualification before a tournament actually begins and it happened a few times that the winner actually emerged from the pool of qualification rounds. So perhaps 2 or even up to 4 spots in every category could be given to these who can prove via qualification rounds or criteria that they belong to the best... This would likely reduce the amount of guaranteed money required and perhaps spark more interest among runners striving to join the elite event.
4. Perhaps at the grand finale (the 4th grand slam), if there is enough interest, there could be official attempts at world records with designated pacemakers, special prizes for the records, etc.
thank you flow 444
Hopefully this creates incentive for USATF to step up...and pay a minimum salary to all active members who have qualfied to USAs in the most recent season.
If it is only in America ,then it will not work i would love to see it at the old crystal palace athletics stadium, i feel the uk athletics have abandoned athletics in that part on the south east
Requiring athletes to do double events seems strange to me. Why does it matter if, for example, Keni Harrison beats Tobi Amusan in a 100m dash or Emmanuel Korir loses to Jake Wightman in a 1500, especially with 6 figures on the line? Should 1500/5000 athletes like Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Faith Kipyegon pick the mid distance or long distance category? One of the advantages of regular meets is that athletes can choose the events they compete in, opening any combination of doubles. I like the concept of Slams but this aspect is weird to me. And yes, it’s a tragedy that field events, steeplechase, and multis are left out. There are many many deserving athletes in those events and adding stars like Chopra, Mondo, and Tara would help get more eyes on the league.
That’s (one of) the differentiators. That’s the disruption. Interested to see how it plays out.
There's nothing stopping Diamond League from creating matchups. That's a meet director issue.
Instead of packing 1 race with the top names, their trend is to get one "A-Lister" spread across each event. But they can shift and do this. Nothing is stopping them.
Are fans going to have to pay to watch?
Does Jakob do 800/1500 or 3000/5000? Guessing he'd have a better chance in 3k/5k
15, 3k, 5k, XC.
My guess is while he’s still in his prime in the 1500 he’ll stick with that since it’s his favorite event but once that’s over he’ll switch.
Not sure what I think about the format dictating the two races each competitor must participate in. Sure, seeing Sydney M-L compete in 400m and 400H is compelling, but there aren’t many like her. I want to see the very best in each event competing against each other in their specialties. Decathletes may legitimately be the best athletes in the world, but their event-specific performances don’t make for very interesting viewing.
In fact a 100% decathlete-like league would be Peak Sport professionalism. That's what Bruce Jener should have done.
No field events cause they make the meet too long.....let the field events do their own thing🤷🏿♂️🤣 bad enough long distance. Long distance don't get exciting until the last lap or 2.....I'll get over long distance being apart tho. I think they said only 1500 which ain't that bad
We already have two leagues, the Diamond League and WA Continental Tours, but they have not done anything to improve the sport in terms of marketing all top and upcoming athletes, and have not invested in a dedicated t&f app channel on roku where fans have 24 hour access to league meets; championships; Olympics; athlete stories and profiles; merchandising; WA collaborations, plans and vision; etc.
How is this league going to advance the awareness of and interest in the sport to new audiences globally? What will the league do to keep the love of current fans? How is this league promoting the sport beyond its present state, for example, 2 minute ads on social media, digital billboard, tv, radio. I like the personal videography crew idea. Essentially, much more should be done.
I really hope this isn’t just another diamond league or world athletics league… Johnson works closely with those guys so I feel like he would do what they want unfortunately.
Erin Brown made a good list of things that would bring in more CASUAL VIEWERS to the sport:
- Involve betting in almost every meet for locals
- Don’t give drug testing companies sooo much power over the sport
- Sell alcohol at meets (leads to more expenditure at the event)
Those are all good suggestions.
Pen15