World Athletics Boss on Why $10 Million Ultimate Championship Will Not Flop Like Grand Slam Track

Amid the failure of Grand Slam Track, a new innovation in athletics that sought to change the course of the sport, there is skepticism among athletes over new events.

Grand Slam Track was the brainchild of American sprint legend Michael Johnson and it sought to reward participants with the biggest prize money with winners of each event receiving $100,000.

However, the event ran into headwinds as financial challenges forced it to cut short its programme and up to now, athletes who participated in the first three legs are yet to be fully paid while Grand Slam Track has filed for bankruptcy.

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It is from this backdrop that World Athletics president Sebastian Coe has sought to assure athletes that the Ultimate Championship, a new track event set to begin next year, with the highest payout in the sport will not suffer the same fate.

The Ultimate Championship is a three-day, high-profile meeting of Olympic and World champions alongside Diamond League winners that will be organised in Budapest, Hungary, in September 2026 and has a prize pot of $10 million.

Winners in each category will walk home with $150,000, the highest single payout from an athletics event in the world. Each event will feature eight athletes for field events, 16 athletes for individual track events and eight teams for relays, with invitations decided by the world rankings, augmented by World and Olympic champions.

“I have always welcomed new thoughts about formats, investment and innovation. I take comfort from the fact that people want to invest in our sport which means we are creating a platform that is an investable proposition,” Coe said during an interview with journalists as quoted by Pura Vida Sports Africa.

Coe then went into details on what makes the Ultimate Championship different and what he thinks other innovations like Grand Slam Track should have done to avoid the pitfalls that befell them.

“I’ve always made it clear that you need to have clear, concrete ingredients in that mix. Innovation without a sustainable business plan or a financial model or world class execution will probably only impact on one key client group, and that’s the athletes,” he added.

“There are over 20 people here (at World Athletics/Monaco headquarters) and elsewhere working on giving our best shot at the innovative product that Ultimate Championship will be… you have to have innovation, but it has to be a fusion of reality and practical application.”