Olli Hoare Talks To Jakob Ingebrigtsen About Grand Slam Track: “He Just Didn’t Like How It Was 800/1500”

In the last three months, Michael Johnson‘s Grand Slam Track has signed three of the biggest 1500m stars to compete in its new four-meet professional track series set to launch next year. Cole Hocker, Josh Kerr, and Yared Nuguse — the entire 2024 Olympic podium in the men’s 1500 meters — have all signed up as “Racers” in the 800/1500 category, meaning each has committed to run the 800/1500 double at all four GST meets in 2025.

The big question now is what happens to the man who finished fourth in the Olympic final in Paris: Jakob Ingebrigtsen. If there is a face of the distance events on the Diamond League circuit, it is Ingebrigtsen, who has spoken frequently about his desire to race and win as much as he can on the circuit. Since 2019, Ingebrigtsen has raced 38 times at Diamond League events — an average of more than six per year.

But with his biggest rivals committed to GST next year (though they still retain the option to run Diamond Leagues), will Ingebrigtsen stay on the Diamond League circuit, switch to GST, or try to do a combination of both in 2025?

Publicly, Ingebrigtsen has not talked extensively about his plans when it comes to GST, though before last week’s Zurich Diamond League, he said be believes GST is helping to grow the sport.

“I think the Grand Slam and other potential concepts are helping the sport and for us athletes to grow and to do what we love,” Ingebrigtsen said. “More racing and more opportunities is better. But with that being said, I think it’s difficult to lock yourself to one or the other. So I think it’s going to be exciting to see. But more races, in general, is a very good thing.”

On Thursday, we received some insight into Ingebrigtsen’s plans on the latest episode latest episode of the Coffee Club podcast. One of the hosts of the show, Australian miler Olli Hoare, said he was cooling down with Ingebrigtsen after the Zurich Diamond League on September 5 and asked him about Grand Slam Track. Hoare recounted the conversation on the podcast with On Athletics Club teammates Geordie Beamish and Morgan McDonald:

Hoare: I asked him about Grand Slam and what he thought about it. And he said for guys like us, it’s no good. He said he’s not interested. You never say never with these things. He might be a Challenger, he might do the 3k/5k or something like that, but he’s not interested in doing it because he doesn’t want to be in America at that time of year. He’d rather be training. And I think he gets pretty good incentives from the Diamond League in appearance fees, which was interesting to hear him talk about it.

Beamish: What did he mean by “guys like us”? What does that mean?

Hoare: 800/1500 for him is like, I don’t want to run the 800. He said if it was like a 3k/1500 grouping, he’d love it. But he said he might go as a Challenger for the 3k/5k, for example, and win $100,000 and then just leave. He said he likes the freedom of doing that because he would be a Challenger. There would be no issue with getting that.

But to be locked into a contract, he doesn’t want to go to [REDACTED], he doesn’t want to go to [REDACTED], he doesn’t want to go to LA, he doesn’t want to go to New York. As a European runner for him, all these races are in Europe, all the big races are in Europe. The Olympics was in Paris, it’s just so easy. And then he does a training block in Flagstaff, races Eugene, goes home. If you see it through his perspective of that, it makes sense because he doesn’t want to be staying in the US for that period of time. He wants to be back home training.

I think he didn’t like the grouping of it. I think he just didn’t like how it was 800/1500.

Ingebrigtsen has a few options when it comes to Grand Slam Track. I present them to you in order, from what I think is most likely to least likely:

Option A: Ingebrigtsen joins part-time as a Challenger. This would allow him to run one or two GST meets in either the 800/1500 or 3000/5000 but would not lock him into the entire series.

Option B: Ingebrigtsen joins full-time as a Racer in the 3000/5000 category. Ingebrigtsen, who has won the last three global titles at 5000 meters, would dominate this event but would not get to race the likes of Kerr, Hocker, and Nuguse unless one of them switches categories.

Option C: Ingebrigtsen joins full-time as a Racer in the 800/1500 category, locking in four 1500 matchups against his three biggest rivals — but also forcing him to race the 800 four times, a distance that Ingebrigtsen rarely runs because it does not play to his strengths.

Option D: Ingebrigtsen does not race in Grand Slam Track at all.

Based on his comments so far, expect Ingebrigtsen to hop into at least one GST event next year. Presumably one of the GST events will be in Europe. It would make sense for him to show up and race the 3000/5000 at that meet, where he would would be heavily favored to take home the $100,000 first-place prize.

What’s going to be interesting is whether Ingebrigtsen runs a GST event in the 800/1500. GST will not use pacers, and racing Hocker, Kerr, and Nuguse in an unpaced 1500 would be a great opportunity to experiment with tactics before next year’s World Championships in Tokyo. Will he take the opportunity? We’ll have to wait and see.

You can watch/listen Hoare’s comments in their entirety in the video below: