Josh Kerr on Grand Slam Track: I want to enjoy being the best in the world and not worry about going after an Olympic title

So he is essentially saying: I hate losing to people who are faster than me every time I race so I will prefer to race inferior competitions with no pacemakers but great pay so that I can win finally.

Demonstrably wrong.

It’s disingenuous. His priorities have changed and that is buried in his answers. It is ok to admit. Old priorities:

- I was obsessed at being Olympic/World Champ

-I did not prioritize racing the best or racing in front of my home fans for a while before somewhat relenting in recent years

-In fact, I dodged opportunities to race the best and at home (eg DL Final, Pre Classic, numerous London DLs etc) to chase paydays (5th Ave Mile, BU British Mile record) or easy wins (Portland meets)

-I did not prioritize racing often either, running about 1/2-2/3 the races of my competitors

But don’t now pretend it is hard to race the best or race often and that’s why you’re doing Grand Slam Track. The true Grand Slam of 1500 will be Pre Classic/Oslo (can be both if spaced out more), Monaco, Worlds, DL Final. There’s always a chance for a hot race in one of the others which would be easy information that the meet will happily share as they talk to Josh’s agent.

The best thing about Kerr winning Budapest is seeing ego balloon up so much. These interviews are getting so ridiculous.

Why does it have to be ego for him to have his own opinion? Many other sports are structured this way so you can't say it doesn't make sense. A lot of you you guys just don't like him

Agreed all around. Nothing wrong with cashing in on this new opportunity and while he didn’t have to say “I’m doing it for the money” he also didn’t have to create a fairy tale.

Obviously he anticipates them attracting the sort of racers that he's hoping to race. Unless you're a diamond league regular, then the seasons really are about a couple big races and otherwise everything is done in service to global championships. This would at least result in more "big" races each year if they can attact talent rather than putting it all in one basket. They only improvement I can see this providing over the DL is avoiding dealing with annoying/difficult meet directors who may be heavily influenced by shoe companies and agents, which is a common gripe among athletes.

His answers to questions in that interview make sense to me.

I still can't get over the fact that he didn't do the Diamond League final last year. Incomprehensible.

The whole thing is like the LIV Golf Tour.

The attraction is less competition, more $$$$$, an easier schedule (less dates, less travel, more guaranteed $ for that travel, etc.).

It'll suck as hard as LIV does, if not more.

The opening media event excited me for grand slam track. The more I read about it however, the less excited I am. Watching Kerr race the same handful of people in an 800/1500 double several times a year is way less interesting to me than the 800m or 1500m at monaco this week. I can see the series connecting more to casual fans, but i'm less than optimistic until I see how the 100m field turns out to be, because the attraction of those events will be what makes or breaks this league. I can see why MJ wants to make non championship meets more meaningful, but there is already an easy solution to that without a convoluted series. Make the sport more like combat sports. Any time a 100m world champion races, the 100m world championship title is up for grabs. The world championship or olympics every year would just serve as a meet where every single champion must race to defend their title, or lose it. Pre mile would have been a world championship race. This weeks Monaco 800m would be a world championship race, etc.

This sport would be better if the olympics weren't the pinnacle of it

dude, i had to stop following his instagram. it was getting weird.

I don't think you need to worry about athletes showing up and not being in the best shape. I think Kerr was saying that he wants to be able to race the best in the world 4x throughout the year instead of having to put all his eggs in one basket (Olympics or WCs). If you're only focused on the Olympics, your whole season can be derailed by 1 injury in July.

I think "race the people I want to race" means that 4x a year, he is guaranteed to compete against the top athletes in the world in the same race, and he'll know who those athletes are WELL ahead of time. Compare that to arguably the most prestigious Diamond League 1500, Monaco, where we're 2 days out from the meet and just got the start lists.
If you only know who's racing 2 days in advance, it's kinda hard to build up hype for it. Athletes want consistency in their job, but right now many don't know if they'll be racing until a few weeks/days until the race. Pre did a fantastic job this year announcing Kerr/Jingy/Nuguse well in advance. Also Pre this year is a good example because most of the athletes there were contractually obligated to race it, it was still months away from the Olympics, and it was absolutely fantastic.

They won't be racing inferior competition, and there's just too much money for them to slack off. It's not like the 1500 is gonna be Kerr and half a dozen 3:32 guys, with Kerr in 3:31 shape so he can outkick them. If that was the case, half a dozen random 3:30 guys would just show up and take home $100k. Half the field is made up of athletes with contracts and the other half are invited based on their world ranking. There's just a 0% shot that you don't end up with a bunch of at least 3:30 guys trying to get that $100k. Maybe Kerr will be in 3:28 shape instead of 3:27 shape, but there's nothing stopping Jakob from showing up at the meets as a challenger just show he can beat him.

Eug DL was not picked up by Flotrack. Mexico City might be the replacement since it always sells out.

You're missing that it's unrealistic to assume that Grand Slam Track is going to avoid the realities of the sport in terms of injuries, withdrawals and so on. We can be annoyed that startlists are finalized so late (Monaco did give us the big names on July 2), but would you rather we see an out-of-form Kipsang locked in, Wightman having to race semi-injured or withdraw and so on. I think the current Diamond League when it scraps the politics does lead to us seeing a very good product in the distance races. I think Grand Slam Track will do the same, but the doubling format will make this more of a North American affair.
I'm sure Kerr won't come in out of shape, but if you think these guys are doing 4 separate peaks or that Kerr will be in tiptop 800m shape for this to win in April, I think you're kidding yourself. Ultimately I have hopes for this, but I'm not buying what Kerr is selling in his comments here.

Oh please, you don’t think these guys have an idea of who is racing where/when behind the scenes? And for someone like Kerr who supposedly wants to race the best in the world, Jakob committed to running Monaco several months ago, so there’s really no excuse for him not to be there. The reality is he doesn’t want to race against the best guys very often and his actions have proved it over and over again.

Kerr is STILL ducking. Look at his schedule after becoming world champion: 1. runs Zurich to qualify for Eugene and loses to Nuguse, 2. skips Eugene because he is “tired” but still runs 5th ave against easy comp, 3. doesn’t commit to World Indoors until it’s confirmed that Jakob is out with an injury, 4. runs Eugene knowing Jakob is coming off injury and hasn’t raced in 8 months, 5. skips Euros and now Monaco.

The guy does not want to race the best and that’s a fact. He knows Jakob and Nuguse are unlikely to participate in the Grand Slam because the 8 and 15 are bundled together, so of course he’s going to run it. The money helps too obviously but his explanation is utter nonsense.

Kerr is a great athlete but I cannot stand the stuff he says.

Well, that is not the best in the world.

because he would have lost to Jakob (big) and he wanted us all to live in the belief that he is better than him…