Michael Johnson hopes to promote track with new tour, which will stop in South Florida

Frustrated and saddened by sagging interest in track and field, Olympic sprint legend Michael Johnson is launching a league called Grand Slam Track. One of the four stops on the inaugural 2025 tour is in South Florida.

Johnson was in Miami on Tuesday to announce that the Ansin Sports Complex in Miramar will be the venue for the second event on the tour on May 2-4. Kingston, Jamaica, will host the opening Grand Slam Track competition April 4-6. The other two stops will be Los Angeles, home of the 2028 Olympics, and another city to be announced later this week.

The tour will contract 48 athletes, known as “GST Racers” to compete in four annual meets with a total of $12.6 million in prize money and then use appearance fees to bring in another 48 athletes (“GST Challengers”).

The athletes will be divided into categories by race distance from the 100 to the 5,000 meters and will compete for a $100,000 top prize, with money being awarded down to $10,000 for eighth place.

Johnson said South Florida was selected as a venue because the Ansin track, which has hosted international track meets in the past, is known for its quick surface and because Miami is a global city.

“Our league is a global league with athletes from all over the world, so we felt Miami was good location for us,” Johnson told the Herald. “There’s great culture there, music, food and for all our events, that is an important component.”

Miramar is in the heart of South Florida’s Caribbean community, hosts an annual Caribbean American Heritage Month and its residents have a tradition of following track and field, as many great sprinters have been from Jamaica, the Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago.

Johnson said the Ansin facility is ideal because the stadium capacity can be expanded to 7,000 seats with temporary stands, and there is plenty of open space around for hospitality areas.

“We are thrilled to have been selected as one of the host cities for the inaugural season of the Grand Slam Track,” said the City of Miramar Mayor Wayne Messam. “This event will not only showcase our city’s state-of-the-art facilities but also provide an opportunity for our community to come together and celebrate the spirit of sportsmanship.”

For years, Johnson has been worried about the future of track and made it his mission to revive the sport he loves so much.

“Our sport has declined not only in the U.S., but globally, as well,” Johnson said. “I think there’s this misconception that the sport is thriving outside of the U.S., and that’s not true anymore. It used to, but there’s been a constant decline.

“I’ve always been interested in how we might be able to reverse that and bring the sport back. I think the time couldn’t be better to take the sport and reinvent it for today’s sports fan and media landscape. It’s a great sport. People watch during the Olympics, and they love it and after the Olympics are over, it’s back in obscurity for three years.”

His goal with Grand Slam Track is to increase viewership year-round with marquee head-to-head competition among the sport’s biggest stars, taking a page from golf, tennis, UFC, and F1 motor racing.

Two-time Olympic champion hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of Team USA, the world record holder, is among the headliners who have signed with Grand Slam Track. Others include: Fred Kerley (USA), Melissa Jefferson (USA), Masai Russell (USA), Quincy Hall (USA), Kenny Bednarek (USA), Matthew Hudson-Smith (Great Britain), Cole Hocker (USA), Josh Kerr (Great Britain), Yared Nuguse (USA), Muzala Samukonga (Zambia), Grant Fisher (USA), Marileidy Paulino (Dominican Republic), and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (Puerto Rico).

Thirty-two athletes have signed so far.

“Fans will have the chance to watch the best of the best athletes competing head-to-head on a consistent basis, with the storytelling that helps them understand who the racers are,” Johnson said. “It will create that same excitement we saw during the Paris Olympics and instead of waiting another four years for it, you get it four times a year with Grand Slam Track.”

By having 48 contracted racers, it will guarantee their attendance, Johnson said, which he felt was vital. In 2023, the top 100 and 200-meter sprinters on the men’s side competed against other only once, at the World Championships, and on the women’s side, the top sprinters faced each other just twice.

“That has been a critical problem with the sport over the last several decades, in addition to lack of innovation and an updated presentation of the sport,” said Johnson, who has been a BBC television analyst since his retirement.

“The best athletes rarely compete against each other because they aren’t incentivized to do so. An athlete may sign up for a meet, but because they’re not contractually obligated to compete, they may decide the week or day before to pull out, and the fans are left disappointed.”

Johnson dreams of the day track and field enjoys the same kind of year-round following as tennis and golf. The professional track schedule consists of individual meets and the Diamond League, which includes a series of meets with a season winner.

“If you go to Wimbledon, you’re going to see the best tennis players. You go to The Masters, you’re going to see all the best golfers in the world there,” he said. “That is the hallmark of a professional sport, and we have not had that for quite some time.”

Johnson, 57, was one of the biggest stars of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, where he set the world record at 200 meters to complete the 200-400 sweep. He has secured more than $30 million in financial commitment for Grand Slam Track. His primary operating partner is Winners Alliance, an athlete-centric investment firm.

Grand Slam Track will be televised, Johnson said, and he is in talks with potential broadcast partners around the world.

Tickets for the Miami/Miramar stop will go on sale Dec. 6th, at 10 a.m. For more information, visit https://grandslamtrack.com/events