Track and field has ample great performances to boast. But when it comes to payout or viewership, the picture is miserable. Noah Lyles, a vocal advocate of the issues, has often called it a “dying sport.” To overturn the situation four-time Olympic gold medalist is giving the sport a golf and tennis-style makeover by launching his league, Grand Slam Track. And guess what is its selling point?
It offers the highest combined prize pool for a season of track racing ever, an attempt to address the low pay issue in track and field. No surprise, Johnson had his eyes on the best of the sport. As Johnson had said about Noah, “Noah’s certainly one of those; I mean, Noah is the fastest… Those sorts of athletes are the people that we want to be part of this league.” However, as things stand, that did not become a reality.
Not only Noah Lyles but Sha’Carri Richardson is also not going to be a part of the league. Both the American sprinters are at the top of their game, with Richardson being an Olympic silver medalist and Lyles being the 100m Olympic champion. But neither of them was there on the 48 racers selected for the roster. This is surprising, indeed. Especially considering how these two have stood for athletes’ payouts. But can you guess how much potential prize money they might have missed? Let’s take a look.
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The league will host four annual Slams taking place between April and June. 6 men’s event groups and 6 women’s event groups. All competitors in each event group will compete in 2 events per Slam. The winner of the Slam for each event group will be the competitor with the highest point total across both events contested. Now the winner of a slam gets $100,000 prize money. So by not taking part in the league Noah and Sha’Carri are letting go of the chance to win $400,000 over the course of a season. But if Lyles and Richardson had been present alongside these racers, who would they have sprinted against?
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Do you think Sha'Carri Richardson and Noah Lyles made the right decision by skipping the Grand Slam Track event?
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In the short sprint category, Lyles would have faced competitors such as Fred Kerley, Kenny Bednarek, Oblique Seville, and Zharnel Hughes in both the 100m and 200m men’s divisions. In the female division, Sha’Carri Richardson also would have faced a competitive field of Melissa Jefferson, Daryll Neita, Gabby Thomas, and Brittany Brown.
Out of all these names, fans would’ve appreciated a rematch between Lyles and Seville at the National Stadium in Kingston, which is set to be the inaugural slam of the event. Why so? Back during the Racers Grand Prix, the Jamaican did prevail over his American rival, and fans did demand a certain rematch between the two in Paris, but Seville wasn’t any closer to Lyles during the finals. So the first slam of GST would’ve been a perfect stage for the two. Although Noah and Sha’Carri’s absence has taken away some glitz from the event, it has brough in some unique concepts in track and field.
THE FINAL FIVE! 🤩
The 2025 season is set with all 48 official Grand Slam Track Racers! pic.twitter.com/P51uVQce3t
— Grand Slam Track (@GrandSlamTrack) December 19, 2024
Johnson hopes that the Slams will have the same prestige as the Grand Slams in tennis or majors in golf. Interestingly, Johnson will be called the commissioner of the series, a title seldom seen in track and field. That hints at Johnson’s approach to GST. According to him, it has been built “from the playbooks of other sports”, where the most lucrative competitions are run by independent entities rather than federations.
“You take something like Formula One, the FIA does not run Formula One,” Johnson says, speaking to SportsPro in late July. “It’s Liberty Media that’s doing that, and they’re a for-profit, private organisation. Think about the NFL or the English Premier League, it’s not the football federation that’s doing that, it’s not the English FA that’s running the Premier League.”
“So the same situation, I think, was always going to be needed for track and field: to have a commercially-minded organisation that could actually come in, take this sport and commercialise it in a way that it needs. For Olympic sports, we typically look for the federations to do everything, and I think that it’s time for us to look elsewhere.” The league also aims to make the athletes more visible year round.
Right now, World Athletics’ Diamond League is the premier year-round competition, but athletes currently have no minimum requirement of meets that they need to compete in. This creates uncertainty for fans, who might buy tickets for events only to later find out that the sport’s biggest stars aren’t taking part.
To address that, GST will contract 48 GST Racers who will receive annual base compensation on top of their prize money earnings in return for competing in all four Slams. The other 48 athletes will be known as GST Challengers, who will be paid a set appearance fee to compete at individual Slams and be chosen based on factors such as recent performances and the most intriguing matchups.
Interestingly, the racers will be allowed to compete in their own sponsored and even customised kits. GST has also said it will not have a shoe sponsor. Unlike in the Olympics and World Athletics Championships, where athletes have to wear uniforms provided by their national governing body’s apparel provider, it will allow them to realise more value from promoting their own partners at the Slams.
Despite all these, was there any specific reason for the two track stars not participating? For now, as per sources, Richardson denied the proposal of a contract, owing to low appearance fees. However, when a fan questioned Lyles about his interest in GST, the track star provided a detailed explanation for his lack of interest in any offer from the meet.
Noah Lyles looks beyond the hefty prize money of the GST
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For the upcoming season, Noah is preparing to defend not one, but two titles at the Tokyo World Championships in 2025, and he is already taking his training seriously and focusing on everything necessary. So, when a fan was curious about his thoughts on competing in Grand Slam Track, the athlete mentioned with a candid confession, stating, “I will keep that in mind. Unfortunately, the track meet is already in a weird spot for my training. But I will definitely keep it in mind if we can make it work.”
Since there will be four slams in a single season of Grand Slam Track, Lyles has to travel to all four different locations. This wouldn’t only impact his athletic prowess but also hamper his schedule, which would be really tight owing to his training regime. However, Lyles’ interest in the event was tempered by another factor.
GST doesn’t have any major broadcasters, especially TV deals, so as there won’t be any coverage during prime time, it made the Olympic champion less bothered about wanting to participate. Lyles is all in for the fame, but he has always wanted track and field to be broadcast majorly, just like other big leagues such as the NFL, NBA, and others.
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“Personally, I just need to see a TV provider. The problem with our sport right now is we have great performances, but nobody’s able to see them. So, until I hear about a TV sponsor, I don’t know that I can make a decision on that yet. We could have the greatest performances at the Grand Slam Track, but, you know, if a tree falls in the middle of the woods and nobody there to see it, did it really fall?” Noah was clear about his argument. Interestingly, it seems that Noah is not even bothered about the monetary aspect, but he is looking beyond that.
“Being the Olympic champion, I’ve already come in with a lot of accolades and a lot of things where I don’t need monetary value, but I really need marketing value,” Noah had said in an interview with LetsRun.Com last month. With everything set for this edition of the GST, hopefully in future editions, if it gets a major boost, especially a TV deal, it might catch the attention of the American sprinter.
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Why would top sprinters like Richardson and Lyles skip a $400,000 prize event? What's your take?
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