World Athletics, the governing body of track and field, is monitoring Grand Slam Track’s outstanding payments to athletes. The track league, which debuted this year, has yet to dispense any of the prize money from three of its meets after canceling the fourth and final event.
Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics, told The Guardian, “It’s not good. The one thing that World Athletics has always stood strongly behind is the athletes. So yeah, this is not a good situation. It’s a startup, but the athletes do need paying.”
World Athletics, the governing body of track and field, is monitoring Grand Slam Track’s outstanding payments to athletes. The track league, which debuted this year, has yet to dispense any of the prize money from three of its meets after canceling the fourth and final event.
Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics, told The Guardian, “It’s not good. The one thing that World Athletics has always stood strongly behind is the athletes. So yeah, this is not a good situation. It’s a startup, but the athletes do need paying.”
The outstanding payments total nearly $13 million, with some athletes being due more than $100,000 each.
Grand Slam Track reportedly told athletes’ agents and coaches that payments for the first meet, which took place in Kingston, Jamaica, back in April, would be deposited this month. Payments for the remaining meets, including Miami and Philadelphia, would be deposited in September.
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Coe would not directly answer whether World Athletics could intervene on the athletes’ behalf, instead saying, “Well, let’s just watch this space.”
“For these things to work, they can’t be vanity projects,” said Coe. “They have to be suffused in practicality and deliverability. I just want the events that are going to add lustre, that we can find space for, and we will encourage them to at least have the courtesy of spending that kind of time and that kind of effort, both intellectual and resource, in making sure they work.”
Grand Slam Track’s ground-breaking premise originally included paying the league’s athletes salaries as well as competition bonuses. It was poised to be the largest prize purse in track and field’s history, with founder and former Olympian Michael Johnson touting the athletes’ payments as one of his highest priorities.
“The track and field rich certainly aren’t as rich as the best athletes in the world in other sports and that’s what I’m here to change,” Johnson told Citius Mag in 2024 when the league was announced. “I’ve seen the frustration. The athletes are the best in the world. Not only are they not compensated in that way because there is no structure to do so but they’re not recognized as well as they should be for their greatness.”
As an increasing number of athletes and agents pressure Johnson and GST to finally release the money they are due, Coe added that he actually “hasn’t spoken with Johnson” in months.
