Grand Slam Track is now staring down a staggering $19 million shortfall, with athletes, agents, and suppliers all claiming unpaid dues. What began as Michael Johnson’s vision to reward runners with record-breaking $100,000 prize money has now spiraled into a financial and reputational drain storm. As lawsuits loom and confidence wanes, Johnson’s camp has pushed back against the speculation with a pretty strong statement.

Talking to the Guardian, one of Johnson’s representatives revealed that the talks about Michael Johnson pocketing $2M while leaving the athletes unpaid were absolutely false. The spokesperson claimed, “The rumours that Michael Johnson has received $2m or profited in any way from Grand Slam Track are categorically false. In fact, Michael has actually put over $2m of his own money into the project.” But the team is still relentlessly striving to make GST a successful venture. The representative continued, “We are working hard in real time to secure additional funds, and Michael has asked for patience while we try to fix this.”

Even Johnson believes that he can return to the Grand Slam Track in 2026. He hopes to settle the debts by the end of September 2025. And according to the president of World Athletics, Sebastian Coe, the international governing body is closely watching the proceedings. Nevertheless, Johnson didn’t back down from admitting that he let his fellow athletes down, even though GST’s downfall was caused by the withdrawal of an important investor. 

Reflecting on the helpless situation, Michael Johnson said, “It is incredibly difficult to live with the reality that you’ve built something bigger than yourself while simultaneously feeling like you’ve let down the very people you set out to help. We promised that athletes would be fairly and quickly compensated. Yet here we are struggling with our ability to compensate them.”

But what exactly caused the issues in the first place? Well, the answer lies in $30M that the team never really received. 

Michael Johnson weighs in on the reason behind the GST chaos

During a conversation with Front Office Sports Today, Johnson revealed the not-so-well-hidden secret behind the fall of GST. He said, “It was widely reported that we raised 30 million, or we had 30 million in commitments, which we did. But we didn’t receive all of that because, as I said, one of our investors was unable to honor their full commitment. So we had, you know, we raised a significant amount of money. It cost a lot of money to do what we did this year.”

The prize pool of $12.6M was what attracted the athletes, while raising the stakes for Grand Slam Track. But the investor’s pullout shook the team’s world. Johnson continued, “It’s been a very difficult situation for us. I’m very proud of what our team was able to accomplish and all of the folks that worked on this and our athletes as well.” 

Athletes like Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Kenny Bednarek have yet to receive their prize money. As per The Athletic, $13M was received by the participants, with $19M still owed. But can Michael Johnson settle the financial scores before the next year’s Grand Slam Track event? And as we wait for new developments, do let us know about your thoughts on the GST’s stance.