Grand Slam Track’s Big Swing: What to Expect from Its Kingston Launch

The start of the outdoor season is a wonderful time to be a track fan. By the end of last season in September 2024, we had a pretty good idea of the pecking order in each event. But what has changed during the offseason?

Which stars have been rejuvenated by coaching changes? Which stars have suddenly gotten old or are battling injury? Which future stars are about to emerge? There are a lot of unknowns floating around — except maybe in the women’s 400 hurdles, where it’s a pretty safe bet that Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is still the world’s best — which is what makes early-season meets so intriguing.

That applies doubly to Grand Slam Track, the new venture that will make its debut this weekend with its first three-day meet in Kingston, Jamaica. The whole league is premised on unknowns, including some fantasy track hypotheticals that will soon become reality. What can the world’s best hurdlers run for a flat 100 meters? What happens when you put Olympic 800 champ Emmanuel Wanyonyi in an unrabbitted 1500 against Olympic 1500 champ Cole Hocker? What about Olympic 200 champ Gabby Thomas against Olympic 400 champ Marileidy Paulino? We don’t get to see this sort of thing at your typical Diamond League.

Then there are the existential unknowns confronting Grand Slam Track. Is the demand for professional track as big as GST thinks it is? And even if it is, is their format — one which requires each athlete to double and asks fans to devote nine hours to track over three straight nights — the correct way to tap into that demand? What will it take for notable GST holdouts such as Noah Lyles, Sha’Carri Richardson, Kishane Thompson, and Jakob Ingebrigtsen to get on board? Most importantly, can the league generate meaningful revenue and become sustainable? GST founder Michael Johnson did well to raise $30 million, but when you’re paying out $12.6 million in prize money per year (plus appearance fees, lodging, and business-class travel for 96 athletes per meet), the bills add up quickly. Nobody expects GST to turn a profit in year one, but all those investors are going to want to see signs of progress.

LetsRun.com will be in Kingston this weekend to document it all. Before then, let’s run through the biggest questions ahead of this weekend’s debut — some where we know the answer, and others we can only guess at.

*TV/streaming information *Schedule & entries *1500/800 Feature Preview: Fantasy Track Becomes Reality: Hocker, Kerr, Nuguse, Wanyonyi & Arop To Clash Twice in 24 Hours in Kingston

How does it work?

A refresher: Grand Slam Track’s big thing is that athletes have to compete twice per meet. Each meet features 12 event groups with eight competitors per sex: men’s and women’s 100/200, 200/400, 800/1500, 3000/5000, 110H/100, and 400H/400.

Kevin Morris photo

The prize money is enormous: $100,000 for 1st, $50,000 for 2nd, and $10,000 for 8th (last) in each event group. And in reality, every athlete is leaving each meet with at least $12,000 because GST is also paying out appearances fees — $2,000 per meet for Challengers, or a larger, undisclosed total to its 48 Racers (the four athletes per event who have committed to run all four GST meets). Compare that to the Diamond League, which offers $10,000 for 1st, and you can see why so many top athletes were eager to sign with Grand Slam Track.

Determining who gets that prize money is a little complicated. Because of GST’s two-race format, the standings for each meet are determined by an athlete’s combined results across both races, with GST employing a 12-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 scoring system (the same as NCAAs, but with 12 points for the win instead of 10). So if Cole Hocker finishes 1st in the 1500 and 4th in the 800, he gets 17 points.

The scoring system is one of the more controversial aspects of Grand Slam Track. One of the things track has going for it is that it is a simple sport that has existed since the earliest of times. Who is the first person to the finish line? In every race, there is a clear winner and loser, and with few exceptions, you know as soon as the race is over. The best moments in track are sudden, visceral, and easy to understand.

The worst moments in track are when the race ends and you need to start scouring the World Athletics scoring tables and world rankings lists to see whether Parker Wolfe has enough points to go to the Olympics. And with its scoring format, GST is manufacturing a version of that for every event (albeit far less complicated). If their commentators/production crews are on top of things, they should be able to convey the winner of each event group within seconds of the race finishing. But that’s still a different than what fans are used to, where there is a definitive winner and loser in each race.

And we imagine ties will be fairly commonplace. GST explains how they break ties:

In the case of a tie, the competitor with the highest individual finish will be awarded the higher place. If there is still a tie, the lowest combined time of both races for each competitor will be used to determine place. In the event there is still a tie, the tied competitors will split the corresponding combined prize money equally (e.g. two competitors tied for 2nd place will split the 2nd place and 3rd place prize money).

It will be interesting to see if the new format hits or misses with the fans. It will also be interesting to see whether the composition of the field, rather than individual excellence, ends up being the key to winning the $100k. Most of the fields are pretty balanced across disciplines, but in the women’s 200/400 group in Kingston, there are six women who are 400 specialists, one 200 specialist, and one and two that are 200 specialists (granted, one is Gabby Thomas, who can run a great 400). So you’d think the 400 runners would have an advantage as they are likely to place higher in the 200 than the 400 runners do in the 200.

What is the best event in Kingston?

The event we at LetsRun.com are looking forward to the most in Kingston is obviously the men’s short distance (800/1500). You’ve got the entire Olympic podium from the 1500 (Cole Hocker, Josh Kerr, Yared Nuguse) against the gold and silver medalists in the 800 (Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Marco Arop) plus the American 800m record holder/Olympic 4th placer Bryce Hoppel. We haven’t seen a head-to-head race between the reigning Olympic 800 and 1500 champs since David Rudisha and Taoufik Makhloufi faced each other in 2016. In Kingston, we will see it twice in two days.

The men’s 800/1500 in Kingston is so intriguing that wb have a separate article focusing on just that event that you can read here: Fantasy Track Becomes Reality: Hocker, Kerr, Nuguse, Wanyonyi & Arop To Clash Twice in 24 Hours in Kingston. So we won’t discuss it much here. Instead, let’s focus on the best women’s event group, which is the long sprints (200/400). Here are some of the big names who will be lining up for that event:

• Gabby Thomas, USA – Olympic 200m champ.
• Marileidy Paulino, Dominican Republic – Olympic 400m champ.
• Salwa Eid Naser, Bahrain – Olympic 400m silver medalist.
• Nickisha Pryce, Jamaica – Ran 48.89 collegiate record to win ’24 NCAA 400m title. Then ran 48.57 (#8 all-time) to win London DL before getting sick at the Olympics.
• Alexis Holmes, USA – World Indoor silver, 6th in Olympic 400m.
• Dina Asher-Smith, GB – ’19 World 200m champ, 4th in ’24 Olympic 200m.

So you’ve got the Olympic champ and 4th-fastest woman ever in the 200 (Thomas) against the Olympic champ and 4th-fastest woman ever in the 400 (Paulino). That alone is an incredible matchup. Then you add in the third-fastest woman ever in the 400 (Naser) and Pryce, who was looking like a potential Olympic medalist herself last year until a stomach virus in Paris. Plus Dina Asher-Smith stepping up for just her third 400m race in the last 11 years (she ran 54.76 outdoors in 2022 and 52.31 indoors in January).

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Paulino is riding a 12-race win streak in the 400 that dates back to August 2023, so she will be favored in her specialty event. If I knew everyone was in top form, I’d pick Thomas for the overall victory. She is the best 200 runner in the field, and she is better at the 400 (49.68 pb from 2023, 49.30 relay split at the Olympics) than any of the 400 specialists are in the 200. The concern is that Thomas had a very busy offseason after triple Olympic gold in 2024. But she is usually in shape at this time of year — last year she ran 22.08 (plus a windy 10.88 100m) at the Texas Relays on March 30 and a 50.37 400 on April 20. And she looked pretty good last week running roughly 50-flat in the 4 x 400 at Texas Relays.

My pick for the overall win, however, is Salwa Eid Naser. She opened up her outdoor season last weekend by running 48.94 in the Dominican Republic, then doubled back with a 22.45 pb in the 200 later that day. Clearly she’s fit, and she’s got the doubling thing down. With competition to push her, we could see some even faster times in Kingston.

GST clearly knows they’ve got something with this group as the women’s 200 will be the very first race of the meet on Friday, while the 400 will be the final race of day 2 on Saturday.

One complaint: it’s a real shame that Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won’t be racing any of these women this weekend. Two years ago, we got SML vs. Paulino in the Paris Diamond League and it was awesome. But the two have not raced since as SML rarely runs Diamond Leagues and has focused on the 400 hurdles at the major championships.

The two both ran the Memorial Van Damme in Brussels last year, but because SML didn’t qualify for the DL final, she wound up running in a different section from Paulino. Now the same thing is happening in Kingston: Paulino will run the “long sprints” 400 on Saturday, while SML will run in the “long hurdles” 400 on Sunday. It’s going to be frustrating for track fans to watch SML wallop a bunch of hurdlers in the latter race rather than running in one of the most stacked 400s of the year.

The good news is that SML, Paulino, Thomas, and Naser are all GST Racers, which means they are committed to all four Slams. And Racers are allowed to change event groups. Considering GST likely shelled out an enormous sum to sign SML, let’s hope they can nudge her towards the 200/400 in a future Slam. Or hell, just keep her in the 400H/400 group but have her race her 400 against the 200/400 women instead.

Can Grant Fisher earn one of the biggest wins of his career?

Grant Fisher is quickly becoming one of the most decorated distance runners in American history. He was an NCAA champ at Stanford. He owns American records in the 3,000, 5,000, and 10,000 meters (with the first two doubling as world indoor records). And he is the reigning US champ/Olympic bronze medalist in the 5,000 and 10,000.

One thing he’s never done? Win a Diamond League. While he has beaten every top 5k/10k man save for Jakob Ingebrigtsen at some point over the last four years, he’s only finished within one second of the win once during his Diamond League career (the London 3,000 last year, which was perhaps not as strong as normal as it was the last DL before the Olympics). He has accomplished a lot but has never recorded a win over a top-tier international field.

Grant Fisher’s Diamond League results

That is not to say Fisher hasn’t won big races. Sweeping the 5k and 10k at last year’s Olympic Trials was significant, and his world record victory in the 3000m at the Millrose Games — in which he outkicked Olympic 1500 champ Cole Hocker — was the most impressive win by any runner during the entire 2025 indoor season.

Fisher over Hocker was the race of the year so far (Kevin Morris photo)

It would be tough for Fisher to surpass that in Kingston, but he will face Diamond League-quality fields in the 5000 on Friday and the 3000 on Sunday. Olympic silver medalist Ronald Kwemoi of Kenya and Ethiopians Hagos Gebrhiwet and Telahun Bekele figure to be Fisher’s top competition.

As a 3:28 1500 guy, Kwemoi could be dangerous in Grand Slam’s unrabbitted format, but he has not raced since September so his shape is a question mark. Being in shape isn’t usually an issue for Gebrhiwet, a serial winner on the circuit. He won two Diamond Leagues last year, including a 12:36 in Oslo that moved him to #2 all-time, but he flopped in his only race of 2025, running just 7:44 for 7th in the 3000 in Lievin on February 13. Bekele is another fixture on the circuit and we know he’s in shape after running a 26:52 at The TEN that was worth more like 26:35 given he missed the start of the race.

As formidable as those guys are, Fisher has to be the favorite. He medalled in two events at the Olympics last year and has looked even stronger so far in 2025 — he is just seven weeks removed from running 7:22 and 12:44 indoors.

That said, Fisher will have backed off his training some since then — he admitted to LetsRun in December that he did not expect to be in “prime shape” for the Kingston meet given his long-term goal is to peak for Worlds in September. And to win in Kingston, he’ll need to be pretty sharp, since the unrabbitted format places a greater emphasis on closing. Considering Sunday’s 3000m will be held at 3:49 p.m. in the afternoon in sunny, 80+ degree weather, with the entire field having a 5k in their legs already, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a winning time above 8:00.

Whether Fisher wins or not, he views GST’s style of racing as a great opportunity to prepare himself for Worlds in September.

“In the past, my tactics have been a little shaky in championships,” Fisher told LetsRun in December. “More opportunities to race the best guys in that setting is only a good thing for me.”

Where are the Jamaican stars?

This one is actually easy to answer: most of them will be in Miramar, Florida this weekend. Yes, it’s true.

The most famous Jamaican active sprinters are, in some order: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shericka Jackson, and Kishane Thompson.

Fraser-Pryce, 38, and Thompson-Herah, 32, are both coming off injury and have yet to race in 2025. You can understand why they might be selective with their races at this point in their careers.

But Jackson and Thompson will both be racing this weekend — just not in Kingston. Rather than racing on their home track, they are flying to Florida, where they will compete at the Miramar Invitational on Saturday instead.

The sprint fields in Miramar are usually pretty good, and the highlight this year is a showdown between world 200m champ Jackson and Olympic 100m champ Julien Alfred in the 300 meters. But you would think a big-time athlete looking for a race this weekend would be more inclined to race at GST, given it is offering significantly more prize money and exposure (GST has broadcast partners around the globe; last year’s Miramar meet was streamed on Masai Russell‘s YouTube channel and broadcast plans for the 2025 edition have yet to be announced).

That is not how things are playing out. GST has strong fields, but worthy athletes are choosing to compete elsewhere — like Christian Coleman, who will be at the Florida Relays in Gainesville instead. The question is, why?

There are a number of possible reasons. Sources have told LetsRun.com that Coleman wasn’t thrilled about Michael Johnson’s comments about him during his whereabouts episode in 2019, so it may be tough to get him to run GST. A top sprint agent told LetsRun.com at NCAA indoors that some stars aren’t on board with doubling requirement, particularly this early in the season. Some athletes might want more control over their schedules. Some work with agents or coaches who are loyal to the Diamond League or rigid in their approach.

The coaching aspect certainly seems to have played a role when it comes to Alfred. Irish 400 star Rhasidat Adeleke told the Irish Examiner that her coach Edrick Floreal was one of the reasons why she didn’t sign up for GST, saying he “had his reasons.” Floreal coaches Julien, too (though it’s notable that Dina Asher-Smith, another Floreal athlete, will be in Kingston).

Jackson and Thompson, meanwhile, are coached by Stephen Francis at MVP Track Club. One of the greatest sprint coaches ever, “Franno” likes to do his things his own way. And in 2025, that way apparently means not running GST Kingston — none of his group, which also includes Olympic 110 hurdle medalist Rasheed Broadbell (also competing in Miramar) and the Clayton twins, Tia and Tina, will be competing at GST.

(LetsRun.com reached out to Adrian Laidlaw, who represents Jackson and Thompson, for an explanation on why they are racing in Miramar but did not receive a response).

GST will still feature plenty of Jamaicans: Olympic 100 finalist Oblique Seville, World U20 100 champ Alana Reid, world 110 hurdles champ Danielle Williams, and 800 runner Natoya Goule-Toppin are all slated to compete, among others. But having MVP’s athletes not only skip the meet, but fly across the Caribbean to compete in Florida instead is a serious blow to Grand Slam Track. It demonstrates one of the challenges facing GST director of racing Kyle Merber, who surely would have loved to have those athletes in the field this weekend. The GST prize money is great, but not necessarily enough to attract the biggest stars who are already pulling in seven figures per year (or close to it). There are other factor those athletes (and their coaches) are weighing when it comes time to set their racing schedule.

Will anyone watch?

This is the question that will make-or-break Grand Slam Track in the long run. We won’t have a definitive answer for a while — if GST is working as designed, the audience will grow over time — but we’ll see in Kingston how deep GST’s initial promotion efforts have penetrated.

Kingston’s National Stadium has been resurfaced in Jamaican colors for 2025 (photo courtesy Grand Slam Track)

So far, I’ve been impressed with GST’s marketing efforts within the track community. Announcing a new batch of Racers or Challengers every week or so has kept the series in the conversation over the last six months, and their social media accounts have made good use of the content generated at the league’s media day in October.

But I reside deep within the track bubble. GST’s aim is to convert Olympic track fans into track fans, period. And that is a nut no one has been able to crack so far — at least not on these shores. On Wednesday, I sent out a message to five of my college friends — all of whom are serious sports fans and former DI runners. Two of them had never heard of GST — and two others only knew about it because I explained it to them on a run a few weeks ago.

Grand Slam Track has done a good job signing up broadcasters, with TV/streaming partners in 189 countries (though notably, not Australia). All meets in the US will be streamed live on Peacock, with Saturday and Sunday’s events also shown live on TV on the CW. That’s great news. But the broadcast times could limit the European audience — the TV windows on Friday and Saturday are 5-8 p.m. local time in Jamaica, which is midnight to 3 a.m. in Central Europe.

The other question is, how many fans will show up in Kingston? The 35,000-seat National Stadium was packed last week for the fabled Boys and Girls “Champs,” but pro meets there have not been as popular historically. The biggest international meet in Jamaica is the Racers Grand Prix. You can get a good look at the crowd in the clip below. Last year’s attendance was quite strong — GST would kill for this sort of turnout:

But the year before, the crowd was not nearly as big:

What will Grand Slam Track look like? Three days of competition gives GST more inventory to sell to broadcasters, but also makes it more challenging to create big in-person crowds. If you go to their ticketing site, well under half of the grandstand seats have been sold in Kingston.

A few final race-specific questions…

• How fast will Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone run in the 400 meters? Sorry, MJ. I know you want everyone to care about head-to-head results instead of times. But when a megatalent like SML isn’t actually racing against the 400 specialists who could challenge her, the only way I can compare her against the best is by looking at the clock. SML ran 48.74 in 2023 and 48.75 in 2024, each time agonizingly close to Sanya Richards-Ross‘s 48.70 American record (she would have broken it in NYC last year if it wasn’t so windy). But it’s the first weekend in April, so it’s understandable if SML isn’t in that kind of shape just yet.
• Who fires the first shot in the men’s 100 meters? The men’s 100m is the final event of Day 1, and it features some big names in two-time Olympic medalist Fred Kerley, 2023 Worlds medalist Zharnel Hughes, 2024 Olympic finalists Kenny Bednarek and Oblique Seville, and sub-9.9 men Ackeem Blake and Courtney Lindsey. There’s a nice US-Jamaica rivalry here, and a chance for someone to put down an early marker against a strong field in track’s most famous event.
• What will Mary Moraa run for 1500 meters? Reigning 800 world champ Moraa is very much a 400/800 runner, with pbs of 50.38 and 1:56.03. She has never run a 1500 in her life. Now she’s going up against Olympic silver medalist Jessica Hull and World silver medalist Diribe Welteji. I don’t know how it will end, but I’m intrigued.
• How does Jacious Sears do in her first professional 100m? Running for the University of Tennessee, Sears announced herself last spring with a 10.77 100m in Gainesville in April, but missed the championship portion of the season due to injury. She returned with an impressive indoor season, running 7.02 for 60m, but was upset by Celera Barnes at USA Indoors, then skipped World Indoors in favor of Grand Slam Track. Saturday will be her professional 100m debut, and she will receive a baptism by fire against Olympic medalist Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, Olympic 4th placer Daryll Neita, and Olympic 200m medalist Brittany Brown.
• Will Agnes Ngetich run away from everyone in the women’s 3000/5000? Ngetich is an aerobic beast, running a world record of 28:46 for 10k on the roads last year and 63:04 in the half marathon (#2 all-time). Her most logical path to victory is to hammer her GST rivals into oblivion, but will that work in a 5000m race that will be run in 80+ degree temps in the midday sun on Sunday? (Editor’s note from Rojo, who is a former D1 coach: Yes. It’s easier to break a field in hot conditions than ideal conditions, but that assumes you are a good heat runer and are acclimatized to the heat). She’ll have to run very fast to drop the likes of Ejgayehu Taye (14:12 pb) and Tsige Gebreselama (14:18 pb).
• What will be the winning time when the high hurdlers run the 100m? Of the eight men in the 110H/100 field, only one has run faster than 10.40 for 100m in their career: Omar McLeod, who ripped a 9.99 back in his Olympic champion year of 2016 (McLeod is now 30 years old; his fastest time last year was 10.32). Considering there is $100,000 on the line, I expect most of the guys will have incorporated more 100m training than usual ahead of Kingston, so I expect multiple guys under 10.40. But does that mean a winning time of 10.20 or 10.35?

Discuss Grand Slam Track on the LetsRun.com messageboard:

MB The problem with Grand Slam is already showing at Meet 1 
MB Mr. Kyle MERBER – I am excited for GST but the distance races better not turn into JOGFESTS
MB So What’s Going On With Grand Slam Track?

More: Fantasy Track Becomes Reality: Hocker, Kerr, Nuguse, Wanyonyi & Arop To Clash Twice in 24 Hours in Kingston Olympic 1500 medalists Cole Hocker, Josh Kerr, and Yared Nuguse will face  each other and Olympic 800 medalists Emmanuel Wanyonyi & Marco Arop and American record holder Bryce Hoppel twice in the span of less than 24 hours.