Michael Johnson’s revolutionary track league has finally struck a media deal for its inaugural season.
Grand Slam Track (GST) will kick off in April with the first of four meets in Kingston, Jamaica, and all 2025 slams are set to be broadcast on The CW network and streamed on Peacock.
The league has signed 48 racers, including the likes of Fred Kerley, Devon Allen, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Gabby Thomas, to compete in the four-event circuit.
Johnson, a four-time Olympic gold medallist himself, has raised upward of $30million and the league is promising $100,000 first prizes and a prize pool of more than $12.6m in addition to undisclosed amounts to those who participate.
But while GST boasts some of the fastest track athletes on the planet battling it out for massive money, one man who is yet to join them is Noah Lyles.
The Olympic 100m champion suggested on a number of occasions last year that he would not sign up unless the league secured a broadcast partner.
Well, now they have – and that leaves one question on the mind of many fans: Does this mean Lyles will race with Grand Slam Track in 2025?
Ahead of Super Bowl LIX, talkSPORT put that question directly to Johnson, who was making an appearance on Radio Row in New Orleans.
“We’ve already signed our 48 racers,” he said.
“We have 48 challengers that we now will assign for each individual slam, they can come in if they want. So yeah, we’ll continue talking to Noah.
“But look, for me, the 48 Olympic champions, world champions – fastest people in the world that we’ve signed to this league – they’re all accomplished in their own right.
“That’s enough, if we have nobody else but those athletes, this is the first time we’ve ever had the fastest together.”
Johnson then went on to make a bold claim about the future of GST, suggesting things are only going to get bigger and better after the inaugural season.
“We don’t need anyone else. We will take all of the fastest people, but we don’t have to have them,” he continued.
“Ultimately, we will get everyone. This is year one, this is where you want to be if you’re a premier track and field athlete.
“One of the things that Noah was rightly complaining about, is the fact that outside the Olympics, it’s hard for people to find this product, this sport, because it’s not on network TV.
“Not only are we on free-to-air network TV on CW, we are simultaneously streaming on Peacock… There may not be any sport in existence right now that is more accessible than Grand Slam Track.”
While Johnson remained coy on trying to tempt Lyles to GST, he did make a prediction for a potential race between the 100m champion and NFL star Tyreek Hill.
The two have been talking trash in recent months, with the Miami Dolphins star suggesting he would win a race against the gold medalist.
Hill and Lyles were even said to be in talks over a 50 or 60-yard sprint, but nothing has come to fruition yet.
Asked by talkSPORT if a race could happen on GST one day, Johnson hinted it was a possibility and made it clear who he thinks would win.
He explained: “We’re going to incorporate the fun stuff into our events.
“If you think you’re fast, we’re going to give you the opportunity to come and show it, we can create these races where it’s fun and exciting, and it’s part of the show.
“I’m not putting somebody like Tyreek against world class (track) athletes.
“The Tyreek-Noah (conversation) has become a thing, so we would create something for them that’s really cool. But if it’s a track event, that’s not a race. Noah is killing him.
“There’s track speed, then there’s football speed.”
