By Lily Bowen / Editor-in-Chief
Currently, most professional track athletes care about two things: running as fast as possible and the World Outdoor Track and Field Championships (or Olympics) each summer. Other racing goals and opportunities are largely secondary. This order of priorities has generated incredible performances–a 4:07 women’s mile and the first Olympic medal in years for an American man in the 10k come to mind–but it’s also leaving the spirit of the sport behind. Pros now commonly skip the World Indoor Championships–what should be one of the most competitive meets of the year–if it’s not the perfect weekend in their training schedule. Many meets outside of championship season have devolved into glorified time trials, with runners mindlessly trailing a pacer or pacelights in search of that extra second or two, instead of focusing on competing with the runners around them. It’s impressive, sure, when someone drops an unbelievable time, but it’s also a little boring, a little soulless, and a lot less interesting than track could be.
Enter Grand Slam Track, a new professional track league launched by Olympic-champion sprinter Michael Johnson. The league recently contested its first “slam”: a three-day track meet with a novel format held in Kingston, Jamaica. As anticipated, the meet was widely streamed, generated lots of excitement and press coverage, and confirmed what many already believed: this new league could be just the overhaul professional track needs. Here are five reasons why.
#1: Innovative Format
The league is the first of its kind within the sport of track and field. It signs 48 athletes, or “racers,” per season across six different event groups–short and long sprints, short and long hurdles and short and long distance. Each racer commits to competing in four “slams”–what the league calls their meets–throughout the season.
At each meet, the racers go up against 48 “challengers,” athletes not signed by the league. These athletes fill out the field for each event group and, like the racers, are eligible for prize money. Unlike a traditional pro track meet, where athletes typically contest only one event, each event group at a “slam” races twice–either in the same day or on back-to-back days. Points are tabulated across both events for each group, and the individual with the most total points in each group is crowned champion.
This sort of multi-stage racing brings a new element of suspense and anticipation to track. Viewers likely won’t know the final standings as soon as runners cross the line, unlike with single races. This format will also give athletes who are strong across a couple of events but not necessarily a specialist in either a chance to shine.
#2: Signing bonuses and big prize purses
It’s no secret that pro track isn’t the most lucrative of professional sports. Most pro runners struggle to support themselves on their running alone; the majority of professional runners work at least part-time, and many have entire careers outside of running. And what runners do earn in race appearance fees and prize money is often minimal–even some highly anticipated meets shell out just one or two thousand dollars to winners.
Grand Slam Track is hoping to help change this financial reality for its competitors. The league has secured substantial funding from various sponsors and donors, allowing it to give each of its 48
signed racers significant signing bonuses. In addition to this compensation, each of the racers and challengers are eligible for the (large) monetary awards at each “slam”: $100,000 for first in each event group, $50,000 for second, $30,000 for third, all the way down to $10,000 for the last place finisher (out of eight) in each group. This prize money will not only help the league ensure its athletes are financially supported, but it will also help draw the world’s best talent to the meets and keep the fields competitive.
#3: Frequent high stakes races
Photo by Howard Lao
Even for devout track fans, the sport is primarily relevant once a year–at the World Outdoor Championships. There are simply no other meets with high enough stakes to really compare. However, with the amount of prize money available at each “slam,” that is liable to change.
As established, the opportunity to race for $100,000 is a big one for most pro runners, and athletes will also have the added motivation of competing for an event group title. This will encourage both runners and spectators to treat each “slam” as a high-stakes meet in its own right–something worth each athlete’s “A”-game and each fan’s excitement–rather than simply another meet in the lead-up to championship season. Through its unique format, Grand Slam Track has the potential to transform the sport from one that is pertinent once a year to one that generates excitement, for runners and fans alike, multiple times a season.
#4: A space for rivalries
Compared to other professional sports, track has relatively few well-known rivalries, especially on the global stage. Most runners and many fans seem of the opinion that rivalries marr the spirit of international track competition, and that they are in poor taste on the part of the athletes involved.
But rivalries are as old as sports themselves, and they have fueled media coverage of other pro sports for decades. For these reasons and more, Grand Slam Track not only allows rivalries, but encourages them. They even gave special consideration to “existing rivalries” when deciding which athletes to sign as racers for this season. While rivalries may not always be shining examples of good sportsmanship, the truth is that they help make track exciting. They generate narratives that captivate current fans and help draw in new ones, they encourage athletes to not just run, but really compete, and they can raise the stakes of an already high-stakes competition. And by providing a space for rivalries within the league, Grand Slam Track will let fans enjoy the drama of them while still allowing the spirit of global championship events to be preserved.
#5: No pacers, no pace lights, just racing
Track has had enough glorified time trial “races,” and Grand Slam Track agrees. For this reason, the league has committed to having no pacers or pace lights for their distance races: just the eight racers against each other. So while their meets may not deliver the absolute fastest times in these events, fans can look forward to strategic running, calculated moves, and fiery last laps–all the hallmarks of truly exciting and competitive racing. In an era of record attempt after record attempt, this resurgence of strategic racing is precisely what track needs.
After Grand Slam Track’s initial “slam” in Kingston proved a rousing success–if the hype it generated on social media is anything to go by–the league is looking to keep the excitement going with their next meet on May 2 in Miami. Only time will tell, but hopefully, Grand Slam will prove to be the rebrand that helps pro track revive its soul and competitive spirit.
