Everyone knows Michael Johnson, one of many best athletes within the historical past of monitor and area and sports activities basically.
Simply as a reminder, he gained 4 Olympic gold medals (within the 200m, 400m and 4x400m) and eight World Championships gold medals (in the identical disciplines).
He set a 200m World Report in 1996 that might take Usain Bolt 14 years to interrupt. Wayde van Niekerk took virtually 17 years to interrupt Johnson’s 200m report.
Michael has been concerned with monitor and area a very long time since he stopped being a aggressive athlete. Since 2001 he’s a pundit for the BBC, the place he covers a wide range of monitor and area occasions, together with the Olympics.
Pre-announcing a brand new monitor league
Again in February, Michael Johnson introduced this on his social media:
BIG issues coming to skilled monitor & area!!! https://t.co/NVTfI6tVfw pic.twitter.com/yZjVnBjyxM
— Michael Johnson (@MJGold) February 27, 2024
“Simply needed to let you understand about mynew monitor enterprise. I teamed up with some nice companions and collectively we’re making the largest funding ever into skilled monitor and area, to construct knowledgeable, really fans-focused league that may unlock probably the most worth for the most effective monitor and area athletes on this planet.”
He then linked to an article on Sportico with extra particulars.
The promise
This February announcement got here with some details about the brand new league, however not every little thing. These have been the details:
- Observe and Area has a really massive following, however solely throughout occasions such because the Olympics and the World Championships;
- Followers battle to comply with their favourite athletes due to irregular TV protection;
- Athletes face monetary difficulties to maintain their careers;
- Winners Alliance is the accomplice on this enterprise, already making the most important funding in monitor and area historical past (in April we realized this determine to be $30M);
- They’ll create a brand new league in 2025;
- The league may have a format that’s TV and fan pleasant;
- It should give attention to the athletes, attempting to raise their standing globally;
- It should have good prizes for the winners.
Within the meantime
Within the meantime, Johnson has used his social media to highlights a number of the points the athletes (and monitor and area as a sport) are going through within the present state of affairs.
He’s additionally been sharing messages from different protagonists of the sports activities who are also nervous for the state of monitor and area.
There’s this interview with Usain Bolt, the place he says “monitor and area wants the eye as a result of I feel our sport goes underneath the radar.”
“Observe and area wants the eye as a result of I feel our sport goes underneath the radar.”
An interview with @usainbolt in Jamaica 🇯🇲
💬 Why monitor and area must evolve and there must be a change of surroundings
⚡️ Praises @LylesNoah on attempting to do various things and recommendation… pic.twitter.com/nhFt3aLzh9
— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) March 22, 2024
Or when he retweeted Noah Lyles, asking “I haven’t seen one business for the Observe & Area Olympic trials. Is it simply me?”.
I haven’t see one business for the T&F Olympic trials. Is that simply me?
— Noah Lyles, OLY (@LylesNoah) March 29, 2024
One other factor that occurred on this time, is World Athletics declaring, in April, that they may supply $50k per gold medal gained in Paris, and it’s planning to increase prize cash to silver and bronze beginning on the LA 2028 sport.
Lastly, enter the Grand Slam Observe
Michael Johnson has lastly revealed the main points of the brand new league – referred to as Grand Slam Observe – this week.
That is the way it will work.
- The league may have 4 meets, referred to as “Slams”.
- 2 Slams will probably be within the US, 2 elsewhere.
- There will probably be 96 athletes concerned in every Slam.
- Grand Slam Observe (GST) will contract 48 athletes as “core racers”.
- The Core Racers will obtain an annual base compensation from the League and clearly will probably be competing for prize cash.
- The opposite 48 athletes will probably be chosen occasion by occasion primarily based on latest efficiency and attention-grabbing matchups. They’re referred to as “Challengers”.
- Challengers will obtain an look payment for every Slam they take part in, plus are eligible to win the complete prize cash.
What occasions will probably be within the Grand Slam Observe?
Let’s now have a look at the occasion classes:
- Brief sprints – 100m / 200m
- Brief hurdles – 100m hurdles (F) or 110m hurdles (M) / 100 meters
- Lengthy sprints – 200m / 400m
- Lengthy hurdles – 400m hurdles / 400m
- Brief distance – 800m / 1500m
- Lengthy distance – 3000m/5000m
As you discover, there aren’t any area occasions (no leaping, no throwing). We’ll come again to this later.
Every athlete will compete (over 2 days) within the two races of their occasion class.
So if you happen to race the 100m, you additionally race the 200m. In case you race the 400 hurdles, you additionally run the 400 flat.
That is the half I’m not so certain about. However positively it’s an innovation.
The ultimate placement for the Slam would be the sum of the factors achieved in every of their two races. Factors are assigned as follows:
- First place – 10 factors
- Second place – 8 factors
- Third place – 6 factors
- Fourth place – 5 factors
- Fifth place – 4 factors
- Sixth place – 3 factors
- Seventh place – 2 factors
- Eighth place – 1 level
In case of a tie, the entire time of the 2 races mixed counts, and (you guessed it) the quickest one wins.
What about prize cash?
The winner of every Slam class will earn $100,000. That’s actually an order of magnitude larger than what the Diamond League affords their winners: $10,000.
Every Slam is unbiased and doesn’t carry over factors or instances or placements to successive Slam occasions.
No area occasions in any respect
Michael Johnson has been requested about it, and his reasoning is evident.
There must be one occasion at a time, with all the eye going to it. At the moment, area occasions happen concurrently the monitor occasions, and solely highlights or the very closing levels of a race are actually proven to viewers.
Because the Grand Slam Observe is supposed to be a 2:30 – 3 hour occasion, there isn’t any time to give attention to leaping and throwing.
This has the potential to be massive
Apart from the Olympics, World Championships and regional Championships (such because the European Championships that simply concluded final week), the largest monitor and area stars compete annually within the Diamond League.
The difficulty with the Diamond League is that not each “champion” participates in all occasions. There’ll all the time be massive names collaborating, however very not often there will probably be actual aggressive match-ups.
By contracting (probably) the 4 finest athletes in every occasion class, followers know that every of the Slams may have 4 of the most effective competing in opposition to one another – in a contest for actual cash, the place outcomes rely. Plus 4 different elite athletes chosen for every occasion.
Grand Slam Observe continues to be on the lookout for streaming or broadcasting companions. Or if they’ve discovered them already, they haven’t introduced it.
Every “day” of a Slam will probably be two and a half to 3 hours lengthy.
Different attention-grabbing issues
– No pacers or tempo lights. It’s concerning the competitors, not the instances.
– No bibs, no security pins!
– Racers may have their very own sponsored equipment – not their nationwide or their membership equipment. That is extraordinarily attention-grabbing for the sponsor.
Personally, as a large monitor fan, I look ahead to these Slams. I consider the important thing would be the means to certainly join the athletes that individuals need to watch, for the rivalries that make this sport nice.
I’m unhappy to see no area occasion included – however I consider if this enterprise is profitable, each for the athletes, the followers and the league, possibly new Slams may be created or perhaps a league for then (Grand Slam Area? You’re welcome Michael Johnson).
Are you a monitor fan? What do you consider the Grand Slam Observe?