Michael Johnson Track League unveiled - Grand Slam Track will require athletes to double in siloed event groups

The sydney “hate” just feels forced now. People still complaining that she doesn’t want to race when she’s committed to 8 non championship races now.

In the comments under femkes coach talking about femke not competing in this series, people are still just talking about sydney not wanting to race and not caring about growing the sport. Femke gets to race however she wants, but Sydney will never avoid criticism. Unless she runs in the diamond league I guess.

But who cares about the diamond league? The diamond league themselves don’t even care. They’d rather sell out to flotrack and price people out than commit to the accessible product they’ve had thus far.

It’s clear many things need to change in track if they care about current fans and drawing new ones. I take no more pride in being an original fan who cares to watch the sport in its “pure,” established form than I would in being a fan of a bigger sport that more people care about, even if it takes a shake up to drive that change.

Maybe this league isn’t that change, but it’s worth it to try.

It seems you are mistaken and the athletes stay within their event silos. I just don't think it's interesting to watch short hurdlers in the flat events (with the exception of a Holloway/MacLeod), and I don't think they're as fast as you think.

There's like 15 people in the world making "more than enough money" off of track and field.

I have no idea who that is. Why should I care to change a sport to cater to a casual fan that needs "advertised matchups" and that doesnt care about history or meet records? There are thousands that watch track and field from Bislett stadium in Oslo every year, going back 70+ years.

If the concept of world records, individual athletes isn't something they like there are a ton of different sports to choose from. Just because most people in the world like a sport with a ball in it doesn't mean we should introduce it to track.

That can be solved without bastardizing the sport. Not every athlete needs 100 million a year.

Very disappointed, although thinking a little I don't know why I would expect anything different. This is an American sprinter's view of T&F (with the grouping, the doubling) and clearly a view that primes stars (and wannabe stars) who happen to be athletes rather than athletes who are stellar. Sidney is a heck of a runner, but I enjoy Mondo's love of the sport much more, even if they are comparable all-time greats in terms of the quality of their performances. Maybe MJ's proposal is fine and it will be successful in the US, where track and field is and will always be niche because there is no culture of T&F (unlike Europe). Personally, I love to see meets in Oslo, Zurich, Brussels, etc., and all the money in the world cannot make Doha (and, unfortunately, lately, Eugene) less than a sad spectacle for T&F in my opinion. And the storytelling is why I stopped watching T&F while I lived in the US before streaming became common. I could not stomach all the stories that seemed to be more important than the competition (did you know Alyson Felix is a mother?)

I would have gone with a team concept. Most people watch the Olympics, the NFL, the NBA, etc because of their allegiance to a team, whether it is their country, their city, their university, etc. Soccer and basketball are wildly popular because of the team-based nature of the sport: stars are important, but within a team. The slams and ranking system work for tennis because of the nature of the competition (one on one matchups); it was a good attempt to import some ideas, but it has been hard to apply to T&F (the ranking and qualifying times is an odd hybrid, let's face it). I enjoy relays and like the team competition at NCAAs (it would be more fun with fewer but deeper teams). Rather than having Ingebritsen doing 800s or having multiple groupings of sprinters, I'd prefer to have about 10 teams (say, Barega, Hoppel, Warholm, Holloway and a few others vs Ingebritsen, Mondo, Kejelcha, Benjamin and a few others vs ...) and have them do a few regular season competitions and then a Final Four kind of event. Something like the Continental Cup used to be but in a league + playoff format and without the continental elements; more like NBA or NFL franchises.

Yeah, agreed. Most likely/hopefully this will be a thing for sprinters and for american middle distance runners almost not good enough for the DL.

This seems like an attempt to reinvent the wheel. The essential problem is governing bodies aren't doing their job to promote the sport. USATF is lost cause and World Athletics has decided expanding to China and Africa is better strategy than in the US. This effort will compete directly with Diamond League for athletes, though many US athletes may find it appealing to compete closer to home. Michael Johnson may be bright guy with idea and connections to get it off the ground but not sure it's what is needed.

I agree with this, which is the sad part. Rather than fixing the problem they try to reinvent the sport.

Hope every american gets to visit an european capital city (or random european cities as someone said) a summer evening and sit in a packed decades old stadium that has seen tens of world records be set, to watch some track and field. Maybe its not the sport, just that you don’t get to experience that, and that you dont have any good way to stream that either.

I like it. It sounds like one of the weird ad-hoc sports shows they had in the 70s and 80s. What's wrong with gimmicks? World Athletics is criminally joyless and hair-splitting. Someone's gotta do something.

Nice idea but it will fizzle out quickly. Where is this money coming from? Unless they have Middle East oil money, this idea isn’t going to generate cash flow quick enough to be viable. Is Michael Johnson really that great of an entrepreneur? In his interview with Citius today, he makes himself sound like captain of industry. Why isn’t LRC more involved instead of Citius? Did Brokojos turn Johnson down? Too many Johnson’s in one Grand Slam?

I’m all for it and one the best things is that letsrun has nothing to do with it, and that they are clueless and flat-footed. A few years ago rojo started a thread about Citius and asked what’s their endgame. Lol you just got left standing in the blocks!

"I'll triple the 800m, 1500m and hammer throw if I have to!" - Eric Holt

The insistence on doubles comes from the actual press release. All athletes who run have to - that is how the meet is scored. As for the random distances, if the league wants competitive matchups in each event, they are gonna need to add some in-between distances to ensure parity. It's true - Hoppel vs Jakob is gonna be boring. But if we add more than just the 800, 1500, 3000, 5000, you add more opportunities for actual competitive matchups across the board that fits in with the scoring requirement of doubling.

Have the distance crew do a 5k and an 8-12 man Devil Take the Hindmost race (remove whoever's in last place after each lap).

Don’t love all the specifics of the grouping, no field events, doubling. But the overall idea of meets in the US that concentrate the best talent in the western hemisphere (including athletes based here like Kerr) is a great idea.

Let’s be real, the only reason there are DL meets in Asia and the Middle East are because of rich sponsors trying to boost that regions reputation. None of those meets feature competitive local athletes and have terrible TV/travel times

this feels like a pretty terrible idea because it's too US centric. It won't kill the Diamond League, if anything it seems like it'll just be a much more costly version of the current US circuit.

The US circuit is frankly not good. I admire Paul Doyle, Jesse Williams and so on trying to do their best. The reality is only these meets feel at all like big Pro Meets — Millrose, Pre Classic, NYC Grand Prix. After that, you have a moderate step down to the LA Grand Prix and the New Balance Indoor Meet. From there, all the college meets, bronze/silver pro meets, semi-Pro meets, brand-sponsored meets etc. cannibalize each other and we're in a desperate need of consolidation. So if this event adds 2 legit meets into the equation that isn't a bad thing. I think the 2 USATF meets may take a hit (which is a worry), but Millrose/Pre are 100% safe. For all the good athletes in the US, there being 3-5 decent to really good meets is pretty sad. Not to be mean, but hoping this league kills the pro side of these college meets (Tom Jones, LSU Invite etc. are awful showcases for pros) or afterthought American pro meets that have a bunch of races with a max of 1-2 interesting competitors, little buzz/coverage etc.