Legend ran out of money – athletes as a rage: “Pay to me”

Michael Johnson founded the Grand Slam Track. Aop

Four -time Olympic champion and athletics legend Michael Johnson57, last year launched a new competition series called Grand Slam Track.

He promised to shake the entire athletic world and attracted the world’s best sprinters with up to $ 100,000 in profit bonuses per competition.

Now the ambitious project is seriously shaken.

Johnson confirms For Front Office Sportsthat the Grand Slam Track has drifted into a million -class economic crisis, as one of the key investors retreated from the project only weeks after the first competition in the series was held in April in Kingston, Jamaica.

– It was a huge blow to us. It caused serious problems in the cash flow and put us and athletes in a really difficult situation, Johnson says.

According to the site, athletes in the series have not paid at least $ 13 million in remuneration.

When Grand Slam Track canceled the fourth and last competition of the season in Los Angeles in July, the media was first told that it was not a money concerning, but now Johnson admits that the event fell into money problems.

“We have had a very difficult year financially,” Johnson said.

Many athletes have publicly expressed their frustration. American sprint star and Olympic medalist Gabby Thomas Comment on Grand Slam Track’s Tiktok release: “Pay to me.”

Also chairman of the International Athletics Association (WA) Sebastian coe Has expressed his concern and said that it would consider measures to put pressure on the league to pay for athletes.