Michael Johnson Breaks Silence on Grand Slam Track Future After Clearing Athletes' Unpaid Dues

Grand Slam Track founder Michael Johnson has spoken publicly for the first time since the ambitious venture was rocked by a financial crisis that ultimately brought the league to a halt.

The track league faced severe cash-flow problems and poor attendance during its inaugural 2025 season, accumulating tens of millions of dollars in unpaid debts and leaving athletes and vendors without promised prize money and appearance fees.

The growing financial turmoil forced organisers to cancel the scheduled June 2025 season finale in Los Angeles and place the entire 2026 season on indefinite suspension in August 2025.

Unable to overcome its financial difficulties, Grand Slam Track eventually filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2025, marking a dramatic setback for Johnson’s attempt to reshape professional track and field.

Michael Johnson explained that one of his biggest concerns throughout the crisis had been the financial obligations owed to athletes who had committed themselves to Grand Slam Track.

The three-time Olympic champion said ensuring that competitors received the money they had been promised became a personal priority, particularly as the league’s financial problems attracted increasing attention.

According to Johnson, he has now worked through those outstanding obligations and believes the situation has been stabilised, allowing him to move forward from one of the most difficult chapters in the project’s history.

Michael Johnson also reflected on why he had largely remained silent while the league was facing intense scrutiny. He said he understood that public statements would have carried little weight while the financial problems remained unresolved, and that his priority was therefore to focus on taking practical steps to address the situation rather than attempting to shape the public narrative.

Michael Johnson indicated that completing that work has now allowed him to speak openly about what happened. He described the period as one of the most demanding of his life, noting that the difficulties surrounding Grand Slam Track came alongside a major personal upheaval.

"It's been one of the most challenging periods of my life. Going back to the beginning of 2025, which was the year for us to launch Grand Slam Track, that year started off with my wife and I being evacuated from our house because of the Malibu fires, which was a very difficult time,” Michael Johnson told the Telegraph.

“And so we spent several months there in six different homes moving around, all while I was trying to launch this league.”

Michael Johnson also reflected on his experience as an entrepreneur, noting that his challenges with Grand Slam Track were not his first encounter with the difficulties that come with building a business.

Having launched and developed ventures since retiring from athletics, he said he understood that creating something new is rarely straightforward, particularly when the goal is to transform a sport that has operated in largely the same way for decades.

He explained that his approach to the crisis was heavily influenced by lessons from his competitive career. Rather than becoming distracted by the setbacks, Johnson said he concentrated on the issues within his control, identified the most important objectives and remained focused on finding a way forward.

Johnson acknowledged that his reputation as a winner had sometimes created the impression that he had experienced nothing but success throughout his career.

However, he said that setbacks and difficult periods had also played an important role in shaping him, giving him valuable lessons that he could draw upon when Grand Slam Track encountered its financial difficulties.

“And like, you know, this is not my first shot at entrepreneurship. I've built businesses over my life since my athletic career. It's always hard. It's always challenging. It's always difficult. It's never easy when you're trying to revolutionise a sport that has been the same for decades; that's going to be hard, too,” Michael Johnson said.

“The thing that I've learned, largely from my time as an athlete, is, you know, when things get difficult, you put your head down. You get focused, and you get really clear on what the goal is, what I can control, and what I can't control. My goal, once I found myself in this very difficult and challenging situation, was to get these athletes paid and get the vision back to a point where it could at least have a future.”

Michael Johnson said resolving the financial issues had been a necessary first step before he could seriously consider whether Grand Slam Track had a future.

Looking ahead, Johnson maintained that his commitment to athletes remains unchanged. He wants to use his experience and influence to help create better opportunities for competitors and improve the wider sport, although he admitted that the exact form of that involvement remains uncertain.

He also indicated that the response from athletes has encouraged him, with some expressing interest in seeing the Grand Slam Track concept return.

Despite the intense media attention surrounding the league’s collapse, Johnson suggested that his focus has remained on actions rather than public perception.

He believes he has fulfilled the immediate responsibility he set for himself by resolving the payments owed to athletes, allowing him to turn his attention towards the future and explore how he can continue contributing to athletics.

“I could not even entertain a future for Grand Slam until I could get athletes paid and get a neutral space for Grand Slam where, you know, we don't have any liabilities anymore, and we've satisfied all of those and got the athletes paid. So, now that I've been able to accomplish that, now I can think about, you know, what a future for track might look like,” he said.

“I'll tell you what I'm committed to. As long as I am in a position to help athletes in this sport, I will try to create a better sport for them. As long as I can do that, I'm going to I'm going to do that. I'm committed to that. How I do that, we'll see.

“Forecasting is probably better at this point in terms of what's going to happen next, but as long as I can help athletes in this sport, because I think that they deserve so much more. As long as I can do that, I'm going to do that.”