Michael Johnson admits the Grand Slam in suspense until 2025 debts are paid for | Athletics
The piece of the Grand Chelem will not take place in 2026 unless the athletes receive their award for this year, explains the founder Michael Johnson.
The quadruple Sprint Olympic champion confirmed that the return track circuit has not been able to pay millions of fees of appearance and price of its inaugural season and will not go before these debts are authorized.
Grand Chelem was launched in 2025 as a well -paid alternative to Diamond League, focusing exclusively on events and offering wages for athletes contracted with up to $ 100,000 for the winners of the race. The concept attracted the best names, including British Olympic sprinters Daryll Neita and Matthew Hudson-Smith, and the 1500m world champion Josh Kerr, with the promise of fast payments and a daring new stage for elite races and medium races.
The season started with meetings in Kingston, Miami and Philadelphia, although the latter was cut from three days to two as costs increased. The Los Angeles final, scheduled for June, was completely canceled after the organizers failed to obtain promised investments. Johnson said that this decision had been designed “to avoid new losses” and start the “long company stabilization process to get back on the right track”.
“It is incredibly difficult to live with the reality that you have built something bigger than you feeling simultaneously that you had dropped the very people you decided to help,” Johnson said in a statement on Friday. “We have promised that athletes would be paid fairly and quickly. However, we have trouble here with our ability to compensate them. ”
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Industry Outlet Front Office Sports reported last month that the Grand Slam owes around $ 13 million to competitors. Johnson blamed the crisis of “circumstances independent of our will” after committing the funding failed to materialize, but insisted that the League did not intend to withdraw.
Instead, he said, the great slam “sets up systems and partnerships” to ensure that such ventilation never happens again. “Although I am not unrelated to the setbacks and to overcome obstacles, this current situation of not being able to pay our athletes and our partners was one of the most difficult challenges that I have ever encountered. The 2026 season will not occur until these obligations are fulfilled – and this is my number one priority. ”
