Grand Slam Track athletes dispute Johnson: millions still haven't reached their accounts
Athletes who competed in Grand Slam Track and the agencies representing them have disputed competition founder Michael Johnson's public claim that obligations to the athletes have been settled. According to information reported this week by BBC Sport and other media outlets, some athletes still have not received the money owed to them under the reorganization process, even though Johnson had told The Telegraph several days earlier that he had managed to secure payment for the athletes. Johnson's representatives subsequently acknowledged that the money has not yet reached the athletes' accounts, but maintain that the four-time Olympic champion did not intentionally provide incorrect information. According to currently available information, approximately 11 million dollars intended for various creditors, including athletes, is being held by a third party while steps related to the bankruptcy and reorganization proceedings are carried out. The deadline by which that money will be forwarded to the final recipients has not yet been publicly confirmed.
The dispute over the wording that the athletes had been "paid" has raised a new question in the months-long financial crisis of the ambitious athletics league Johnson launched with the aim of creating a more stable and lucrative professional platform for elite runners. The issue is not only whether the money has been secured or approved within the court proceedings, but also whether it has actually reached the athletes who have been waiting for it since the 2025 season. Among the well-known names listed among the creditors according to court documents and media reports are British middle-distance runner Josh Kerr and Olympic 400-metre silver medallist Matthew Hudson-Smith. It had previously been reported that both were owed amounts exceeding 100,000 British pounds, while U.S. bankruptcy documentation listed a debt of 147,500 dollars to Hudson-Smith. Hudson-Smith himself told reporters in early August, ahead of the European Championships in Birmingham, that he did not know whether the amount owed to him had been paid.
Johnson said everyone had been paid, athletes and agents say otherwise
Michael Johnson spoke about the consequences of Grand Slam Track's collapse in an interview with The Telegraph on August 8, 2026, and claimed that he had managed to resolve the issue of paying the athletes. In the same interview, he stated that around 11 million dollars had been paid to athletes across the three events that were held and emphasized that settling obligations to them was his priority before any attempt to relaunch the project. However, after the interview was published, it quickly became apparent that the term "paid" was disputed. Associated Press reported Hudson-Smith's statement that he could not confirm that he had received the money, while agencies representing a larger number of athletes told BBC Sport that the funds had not arrived and that they had not received a clear schedule for future payments. Johnson's representatives then confirmed that the funds were still not in the athletes' accounts, explaining that his earlier statement had not been an attempt to mislead the public.
It is important to distinguish between two financial references that appear in reports at approximately the same amount of 11 million dollars. Johnson spoke about the total amount that, according to his claim, had been secured or paid to athletes for appearances during the three meetings that were held, while more recent reports separately mention around 11 million dollars intended for creditors that is currently being held by a third party. These amounts cannot automatically be regarded as the same money or as proof that individual debts have been settled in full. The court-approved reorganization plan, approved in April 2026, provided for athletes to receive approximately 4.9 million dollars out of around seven million dollars in remaining claims, or approximately 70 percent of the amounts recognized as being owed to them. Therefore, the current debate primarily concerns the difference between funds that have been approved, raised or transferred into the distribution system and money that has actually reached creditors.
Bankruptcy proceedings in Delaware changed athletes' expectations
Grand Slam Track filed a voluntary petition for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code on December 11, 2025, before the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The official case website, administered by Stretto as the noticing and claims agent, lists the GST, Inc. case under number 25-12188 before Judge Karen B. Owens. At the time proceedings began, the league reported very limited cash and liabilities amounting to tens of millions of dollars. Associated Press reported in December 2025 that the organization had between 200 and 999 creditors and estimated liabilities of between 10 and 50 million dollars, while later filings and reports referred to more than 40 million dollars in total debts to athletes, suppliers and other creditors. The financial crisis, which during 2025 initially appeared to be a problem involving delays in individual payments, thus developed into a formal court-supervised reorganization process.
In April 2026, the court approved a plan that sought to find a compromise between different groups of creditors. According to a Front Office Sports report and documents from the proceedings, athletes were allocated a distribution of around 4.9 million dollars, while suppliers and other unsecured creditors were expected to receive a significantly smaller share of their claims. The plan was adopted after lengthy negotiations and strong objections from some creditors to the initial distribution proposals. Athletes who voted on the plan supported it, even though it did not guarantee repayment of the full amount the league owed them. This fact further explains why the claim that "everyone has been paid" is facing resistance: even under the court-approved model, the planned payment to athletes did not necessarily mean a 100-percent recovery of every amount originally promised.
How Grand Slam Track went from a major project to financial collapse
Johnson presented Grand Slam Track as a new professional league intended to give athletics a clearer competition format, more direct head-to-head contests between the biggest stars and substantially larger rewards than athletes often receive outside the Olympic Games and world championships. When the project was announced in 2024, the plan was to bring together 48 contracted athletes, known as "Racers", and another 48 invited competitors, "Challengers", at four major meetings each year. Organizers announced more than 12 million dollars in prize money for the first season, while the winner of an individual competition group at a single meeting could earn 100,000 dollars. The concept attracted a number of Olympic and world champions, including Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabby Thomas, Marileidy Paulino, Josh Kerr and other prominent athletes. Johnson, one of the most successful sprinters in history, placed his reputation and long-standing presence in athletics at the center of the project.
The first season began in Kingston, Jamaica, from April 4 to 6, 2025, continued in the Miami area from May 2 to 4 and in Philadelphia on May 31 and June 1. The fourth event, planned for Los Angeles in June, was canceled before it took place. Financial difficulties became increasingly visible after the first meeting, and during the summer of 2025 more and more athletes and suppliers reported delays. Johnson publicly acknowledged in August 2025 that the organization had failed to meet payment deadlines and said at the time that a new season would not take place until the obligations from 2025 had been resolved. In December, the Chapter 11 protection filing followed, making it clear that the problem could not be resolved solely through a new short-term investment or payment deferral.
According to Johnson's explanation from August 2026, the key blow to the project was the loss of expected investor capital. The Telegraph reported that the withdrawal of planned financing created what Johnson described as a catastrophic capital problem. During the crisis, he said, he personally used a credit card to cover travel and accommodation expenses for athletes and members of their entourages and lent the company around two million dollars. He also claimed that he had waived his own salary. These claims form part of his response to criticism that, as the founder and most recognizable face of the league, he should have identified the seriousness of the problems earlier and prevented new obligations from being created.
The disputed 500,000 dollars and Johnson's explanation
A particularly controversial point in the bankruptcy proceedings was a 500,000-dollar payment Johnson received in early June 2025, immediately after the last meeting that was held. The committee of unsecured creditors claimed in a court filing in March 2026 that Johnson had thereby placed himself in a more favorable position at a time when Grand Slam Track was already unable to properly meet its obligations to athletes and suppliers. League representatives rejected the claim that it had been a concealed personal payment, stating that Johnson had previously used his own money to finance operating expenses, including athletes' travel and accommodation. Johnson repeated in his most recent interview that the 500,000 dollars represented reimbursement of expenses, not salary or a preferential distribution of profits. As part of the reorganization agreement, he agreed to return that amount for distribution to creditors.
That episode remains important because the financial credibility of the entire project has for months been assessed through its treatment of athletes who had been promised high and timely compensation. In professional athletics, prize money, appearance fees and contractual payments for many athletes are not merely bonuses but a key part of annual income used to finance coaches, travel, medical care and preparation. Associated Press described in early 2026 the case of American hurdler Eric Edwards Jr., who according to bankruptcy documents was owed more than 19,000 dollars and who took on additional work because of financial pressure. At the same time, the creditor list also included globally renowned names with much larger claims, including McLaughlin-Levrone, Thomas and Paulino. Differences in the status and commercial value of those athletes do not alter the organizers' basic obligation to pay contracted amounts in accordance with the rules and the court-approved plan.
World Athletics had previously warned that debts must be the priority
Grand Slam Track's financial problems did not remain merely a matter between the private league and its creditors. World Athletics, the global governing body for athletics, publicly supported the position of the Association of Athletics Managers in early February 2026 that the organization should not spend money recruiting athletes for a new season until old debts had been resolved. According to an Associated Press report, the federation made it clear at the time that athletes, suppliers and service providers who participated in the project had to be treated fairly and paid before any serious consideration of the competition's return. World Athletics recognized Grand Slam Track results for world ranking purposes during the first season, even though the league was not part of the Diamond League series. For that reason, the issue of the financial integrity of private competitions has broader significance for athletes' confidence in the professional system.
In court documents from spring 2026, Grand Slam Track left open the possibility of returning despite the bankruptcy proceedings. The reorganization plan provides for continued capital raising and an attempt to organize at least one event in 2027, with the possibility of shutting down the business if sufficient new funding cannot be found. Such a scenario means that the league's reputation in the coming months will depend heavily on the implementation of the promised distributions to existing creditors. Potential investors, athletes and business partners will have to assess not only the attractiveness of the competition format but also the ability of the new structure to prevent a repeat of the 2025 liquidity crisis. For a project founded on the promise of bringing greater financial security to professional athletes, the actual payment of existing debts has become a crucial test of credibility.
The most important question now is when the money will actually arrive
As of August 15, 2026, publicly available information does not confirm that all Grand Slam Track athletes have received the funds they expect from the reorganization proceedings. The latest reports state that approximately 11 million dollars for various creditors is under the control of a third party, but no precise schedule for individual payments has been published. Johnson's side maintains that his description of the situation stemmed from the fact that the money had been secured for distribution, while athletes and their agencies define payment as the moment when the funds actually arrive in their accounts. Until that difference is resolved through concrete transfers and confirmed settlements, the dispute over his statement is unlikely to disappear. For Kerr, Hudson-Smith and the other creditors, what will matter will not be the status of the funds within the proceedings, but the amount they ultimately receive and the date on which they will be able to use it.
Sources:
- Stretto / official GST, Inc. bankruptcy case website – information on the Chapter 11 proceedings, case number, court and deadlines (link)
- Associated Press / WKYC – Matthew Hudson-Smith's statement and information about his claim and Johnson's assertion regarding payments (link)
- BBC Sport / Yahoo News – Johnson's interview, explanation of the financial crisis and earlier reports about debts to athletes (link)
- Inside The Games – latest claims by sports agencies that the funds have still not arrived and information about approximately 11 million dollars being held by a third party (link)
- Associated Press – information about the scale of the debts, creditors and the financial impact of unpaid obligations on athletes (link)
- Associated Press – report on the Chapter 11 protection filing and the league's financial condition in December 2025 (link)
- Front Office Sports – confirmation of the reorganization plan in April 2026 and the planned distributions to athletes and suppliers (link)
- The Guardian – court dispute over the 500,000-dollar payment to Johnson and the response from Grand Slam Track representatives (link)
- World Athletics – official results and dates of the Grand Slam Track meetings held in Kingston, Miami and Philadelphia (link)