Anderson Emerole caught up with Grand Slam Track Commissioner Michael Johnson live from Brussels to catch up on recent developments with his new professional track league, Grand Slam Track. Michael shares his excitement for the growing roster of top-tier racers and the positive response from athletes eager to join the league.

He also discusses the role of broadcasting in expanding the sport's reach, including ongoing negotiations for the best partners, and the importance of including new technology and content creators.

Michael also shares insights on upcoming host cities, the balance between Grand Slam Track and other major leagues, and the importance of securing high-profile athletes. Tune in for a look at how Grand Slam Track is shaping the future of athletics.

For more, you can listen to our first episode with Michael Johnson where he announces Grand Slam Track, discusses the league’s structure, reveals prize money details, and explains how it all works.

The following excerpt has been edited lightly for clarity. You can listen to the full interview with Michael Johnson on the CITIUS MAG Podcast – available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your shows.

CITIUS MAG: How are you feeling about the talent you've signed on as racers so far?

Michael Johnson: Feeling great. We were waiting until Paris to understand who truly is the fastest. Paris revealed a lot to us, and we got busy talking to athletes and agents, helping them understand what we're trying to build and how they can be a part of this. It's been a great response to what we're building, we always thought that would be the case. The proof now is that athletes have shown they are excited about this and are excited to be a part of the league.

CITIUS MAG: It seems like every week you're getting new names. Are a lot of people starting to dive into the conversation?

Michael Johnson: Grand Slam Track is new, there's no doubt about that. And people want to understand it first before they dive in. And now that athletes are seeing other athletes who have signed on to the league, it makes them feel more comfortable, which is good. That's been a real positive.

But for me, there will always be those that, before anybody else signed on, said: ‘I get it. I love the concept.’ Nobody else signed on before Sydney. She was the first to say ‘I’m in.’ Josh right behind her. Major respect for those athletes who got it right away and were not waiting on others or waiting to see what was going to happen. They were like, ‘I get this. I want to be a part of it.’

CITIUS MAG: One hesitation that we've heard in conversations with athletes is broadcast. Do we have an idea of how this is going to be shown to fans?

Michael Johnson: We are committed to making sure that we grow this sport through our television partner. We're working on that now. The good thing for us at the very beginning is that all of the television potential partners out there: globally, streamers, linear television, broadcast partners, are interested. They get it and understand what we're trying to build. It's important that we make sure we partner with the right organization that's going to help us build this audience over the next few years. It's also important for us, given how we're structured and the amount of money we've raised for this and what we're valued at, to have television. We have to reach the broadest audience that we possibly can.

That's the big question, and certainly with track, there’s been a struggle to get quality broadcast partners putting the sport in primetime. We’ve got quality broadcast partners, but can you get into the primetime slots that you need in order to reach the broadest audience? I understand that people are concerned about that. We have to be in that position, failure is not an option for us. The good thing is that they're all interested. We're having very positive conversations and we're confident that we will have the right partner.

But it's a complex negotiation because, the thing I think people don't really understand, is that it's not just about getting a broadcast partner. It's not just about the dollars as well. It's about getting the broadest reach. It's about carving out certain rights so that athletes themselves can actually post clips of videos from the race – that's going to help us reach a broader audience. CITIUS MAG, we need to be able to partner with folks like you, content creators, and be able to reserve those rights so you guys can actually post. That’s going to help us, that’s going to help our broadcast partners as well.

There's also some new technology that continues to come up, things like Apple Vision Pro. If you want that on that platform, you have to carve that out of your broadcast rights. There is data involved that's collected when you're working with broadcast partners, and that data is valuable.

CITIUS MAG: Have you taken input from content creators or storytellers to build a vision of what we might see in Grand Slam Track?

Michael Johnson: That's a really important part of how we're going to grow the audience. We have two things we have to do.

We have to retain the avid track fan who has dedicated untold hours trying to find this sport, and are dedicated to jumping through all sorts of hoops to find it and support it. We've got to give them more and better than they've been getting. That's one thing that we're committed to.

The other thing is we've got to go out and bring in that casual audience, those people who watched track and field during the Olympics and now have forgotten about it. In order to do that, we have to take cues from sports that are doing it right today and how they're presenting their sport to an audience. We have to take cues from what's great about this sport already and make sure we retain how it's presented from that perspective.

We have to listen to people who are on the front lines: content creators who are succeeding in bringing people into the sport. We have to take cues from them as to what they want to see, what they're doing right as well.

CITIUS MAG: You’ve announced Los Angeles so far. What might we expect from the cities that haven’t been announced yet?

Michael Johnson: That's coming very soon, in the next few weeks we will announce the other cities that we're going to be in. We have a heavy focus on the U.S., that is a real priority for us. We feel like there's a real opportunity to grow the sport in the U.S. It’s been a constant mystery for decades now how the U.S. can absolutely dominate the medal table at global championships and have the best athletes in this sport, yet we can't grow the fan base in the U.S. I think we can do that now, it's a real focus for us.

We will get there in time and we will get there in our own time. That's how we're going to build this league. People can always ask and be hungry for the information and that is their right, and it is our right and our responsibility to announce these things in a responsible way. And so those cities that we're partnering with, they are valuable partners for us. We owe it to them to announce it in conjunction with them.

CITIUS MAG: You've been signing on a lot of racers and we know there's going to be challengers as well who aren't actually signed on as racers to the league. How are you going about working with potential challengers? Is that part of the thought process right now, or will it come later in 2025?

Michael Johnson: That's coming right now because in each group we only have four races. So there are groups right now where we're pretty much full. There's a conversation that foretells the excitement that we're going to be generating with this league and how it's structured. The conversation around who's going to be our fourth racer. And in our group, it's a team. There's probably three or four people that could legitimately go in that spot, and that means that a couple of people are going to end up being challengers. So it's a really cool conversation, and it's a great debate for fans to get into: who they think should get that fourth spot, and who's going to be left as a challenger.

But our challengers are valuable to us as well. And it's a really interesting and unique spot for them to be in where they get to compete for $100,000 in prize money at each one of our Slams. They will get a modest appearance fee. It gives them the opportunity to get into the Grand Slam Track system, and maybe get to someday being a racer.

CITIUS MAG: How do you see Grand Slam Track and the racers who are competing fitting in if they're going to compete in the Diamond League or any other meets and competitions throughout the year?

Michael Johnson: It's a common question. Our athletes, our races are not exclusive. They will run in Grand Slam Track. They will also compete in other meets around the world, Diamond League meets and of course, championships. And we'll be supporting them there.

I'm unapologetic about my perspective that we sit at the top of the sport, at the top of the pyramid with the highest prize money and the most high-profile athletes. I feel like there's a responsibility for us to uplift the sport, all of the sport. Field events, which we don't have – we have a responsibility sitting at the top of this sport to promote field events which we will do and we have been doing. Promote other meets, even the Diamond League, whether the Diamond League sees us as a competitor or not, we see them as part of the sport. So we're going to uplift the Diamond League.

Someone asked Josh at the press conference something about this question. And he said: ‘Look, I competed in two Diamond League meets last year, and I’ll probably compete in two Diamond League meets next year.’ So nothing changes for Josh. Nothing is going to change for a lot of other athletes. I think the amount of races the highest-level athletes compete in the Diamond League is overestimated. We have four races; no athlete is going to be able to sustain an entire season off just four races, so they got a race somewhere else.

Everybody's different and everybody's got to figure out their season and that's up to them. But as far as we're concerned, what we are doing is putting together innovative presentation competitions, which are the best of the best athletes competing against one another and we treat them as true professional athletes where they're contracted to be there. So that our fans who are watching on television, our fans who are interested in buying our tickets, will know that the best offerings are going to be there. That has not existed in the sport, it does now at Grand Slam Track. And as far as I'm concerned, we’re filling a void that didn't exist. So in terms of who or what we're competing against? Nothing, the way I see it.

CITIUS MAG: For me, just as a fan, knowing that I’m going to see Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Josh Kerr, Fred Kerley – guaranteed? That’s hard to beat.

Michael Johnson: It’s September. If I buy a ticket to a Lakers game in March of next year, I know right now LeBron is going to be there and is going to be playing unless he's injured. And that's the case for most sports. And that's how you build a true fan base for that sport, they need to know that people are going to be there.

Television is another important thing. No television broadcast wants to get involved in and pay big rights fees for a sport if they don't have the guarantee that the best athletes are going to be there.

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