Michael Johnson says Grand Slam Track athletes have finally been paid after the league's financial collapse
Santa Monica, California, USA – Michael Johnson, a four-time Olympic champion and founder of Grand Slam Track, says the athletes who were still owed money by his league following its 2025 financial collapse have now been paid. In an interview he gave to The Telegraph in early August 2026, with the key comments reported by The Independent and Inside the Games, Johnson described the collapse as the result of a “catastrophic capital problem” after expected financing fell through. He stressed that his priority was to settle the debts owed to athletes before beginning discussions about a possible future for the project. Court documents, however, show a more complicated picture: the confirmed reorganization plan provided for certain athlete claims to be paid at approximately 70 percent of their allowed value, while other creditors received a significantly smaller share. Johnson's claim that the athletes have been “paid” therefore needs to be distinguished from a claim that all originally contracted claims of all creditors were settled in full.
From a project that promised to transform track and field to a canceled Los Angeles final
Grand Slam Track was launched with the idea of offering professional runners a more stable and generous earning system between major championships, in a sport where a large number of elite athletes still depend on sponsorship agreements, prize money from individual meets and occasional bonuses. According to the league's official announcements, its core included 48 contracted “Racers”, among them Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabby Thomas, Josh Kerr, Grant Fisher, Marileidy Paulino, Kenny Bednarek and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, while additional challengers joined them at individual meets. The format focused exclusively on running events, with two appearances per athlete during each “Slam” and prize money intended to rank among the largest in professional track and field. The league staged three competitions in spring 2025, in Kingston, Jamaica, Miami, Florida, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The final meet was scheduled for Los Angeles in late June, but on June 12, 2025, Grand Slam Track officially announced the conclusion of its pilot season and the postponement of the Los Angeles event, saying it wanted to focus on long-term sustainability.
At the time of that announcement, the organization publicly spoke of a “transformational” first season and plans to return in 2026, but financial problems soon became the main issue. Johnson later acknowledged that the project had lost access to key expected capital and that the investor's withdrawal created a gap the league could no longer close through ordinary revenue. According to documents and reports from the bankruptcy proceedings, Grand Slam Track faced major costs related to the prize pool, travel, accommodation, television production, venue rental and other operating obligations, while revenue failed to keep pace with the planned level of spending. Associated Press reported in early 2026 that more than 300 athletes, companies and other creditors were seeking approximately $40 million, while the Association of Athletics Managers had previously warned that total unpaid debts exceeded $30 million. The financial crisis therefore very quickly overshadowed the sporting side of the project, including the fact that in only a few months the league had managed to bring together a large number of reigning Olympic and world champions.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy and a plan that did not guarantee athletes the full amount of their claims
GST, Inc., the legal entity behind Grand Slam Track, filed a voluntary petition for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code on December 11, 2025, before the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. According to the official Stretto case administrator portal, the proceedings were conducted under case number 25-12188 before Judge Karen B. Owens, with the goal of reorganizing the business, stabilizing its finances and attempting to preserve the company's ability to continue operating. Chapter 11 does not automatically mean liquidation: a debtor may continue operating while, under court supervision, negotiating with creditors and proposing a plan for distributing available funds. For Grand Slam Track, this was particularly important because the creditors included the athletes themselves, whose names and unpaid amounts became part of the public record. AP reported in January that some of the larger individual athlete claims included those of Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabby Thomas, Marileidy Paulino and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden.
The bankruptcy plan was ultimately confirmed on April 16, 2026, and according to the official notice became effective on May 29. Under the confirmed plan, athletes classified in the “Critical Athlete Claims” category could, subject to the prescribed conditions, receive a cash payment of approximately 70 percent of their allowed claim, but no more than 70 percent. This is an important detail when interpreting Johnson's current message that competitors have been paid: the court plan did not promise everyone a 100-percent recovery of the amount recorded in the bankruptcy proceedings. According to a Front Office Sports report following confirmation of the plan, approximately $4.9 million was allocated for distribution to athletes against roughly $7 million in qualifying claims, while vendors and other unsecured creditors were expected to receive a significantly smaller percentage of their claims. It can therefore be said that the bankruptcy proceedings resolved a key portion of the outstanding obligations to athletes, but not that the financial collapse was erased without losses for everyone who had done business with the league.
Johnson: “I got the athletes paid”, but the court record leaves an important nuance
In August 2026, Johnson measured his success primarily by the fact that, according to him, athletes were no longer waiting for money. Reports carrying his interview say he stated that he had managed to “get the athletes paid” and that around $11 million in total had been paid to athletes over the life of the project, which he presented as an exceptionally high amount for professional track and field. That figure refers to total payments to athletes throughout Grand Slam Track's existence, not only the final distribution under the bankruptcy plan. Public documentation simultaneously shows that some claims in the reorganization were settled only partially, meaning the phrase “athletes have been paid” describes the closing of an outstanding process and an accepted compromise more accurately than the complete payment of every originally contracted obligation at its nominal amount. That distinction is precisely what matters for understanding the conclusion of one of the most financially ambitious private projects in recent track and field history.
For the athletes themselves, delayed payments were not merely an accounting issue. Associated Press, in a report on the consequences of the bankruptcy, described the example of American hurdler Eric Edwards Jr., whom the league still owed more than $19,000 according to documents available at the time, an amount important for covering housing, transportation and training expenses. His case demonstrated how differently a delay involving tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars can affect athletes depending on their sponsorship agreements and other sources of income. While the biggest track and field stars have greater commercial capacity to absorb a financial blow, many elite competitors do not have multi-year contracts guaranteeing them security. As a result, the Grand Slam Track dispute grew beyond the issue of a single private league and opened a broader debate about how sustainable a high-prize-money model can be when it is not backed by stable and timely available sources of capital.
The disputed $500,000: Johnson rejects the allegation of a secret payment to himself
One of the most sensitive parts of the entire case concerned approximately $500,000 that Johnson received in June 2025, several days after the last meet was held and immediately before the formal end of the first season. The committee of unsecured creditors claimed in a March 2026 court filing that Johnson, at a time when the company was in severe financial distress, had put himself ahead of other creditors. Johnson firmly rejected that characterization. In his interview with The Telegraph, reported by The Independent, he explained that Grand Slam Track's corporate credit card had reached its limit and that he had used his own card to finance travel and accommodation for athletes and accompanying personnel for the events in Miami and Philadelphia. According to his account of events, the disputed $500,000 was neither a secret personal payment nor a bonus, but reimbursement for part of the costs he had previously covered personally so that the events could take place at all.
Johnson additionally said that he had personally loaned the company around $2 million and had given up his own salary so that available money could be directed toward athletes and operating expenses. Bankruptcy documents did indeed record a multimillion-dollar claim connected with his loan, while AP had previously reported that Grand Slam Track owed him more than $2.2 million. At the same time, as part of the compromise that made the reorganization possible, Johnson agreed to return, or ensure the return of, $500,000 to the bankruptcy estate for distribution to creditors, without admitting wrongdoing. That fact does not confirm the creditors' claim that he acted unlawfully, but it does show that the disputed transaction became an important part of negotiations over the final plan. For Johnson, according to his own words, it was also the most personally difficult allegation because he believed the public had been given an impression opposite to his attempt to keep the league alive with his own money.
World Athletics had previously publicly pressured the league to settle old obligations first
Grand Slam Track's financial crisis did not remain merely a matter between the company and private creditors. World Athletics, the international governing body for track and field, publicly criticized in early February 2026 the idea of spending funds on recruiting athletes for a potential new cycle of competitions while old obligations from 2025 remained unresolved. According to Associated Press, the federation supported the position of the Association of Athletics Managers, which opposed allocating money for future engagements before athletes, vendors and service providers had been paid. World Athletics said at the time that it would be unacceptable to restart the league without resolving the existing financial obligations. Although Grand Slam Track was not a competition owned by World Athletics, its results and appearances took place within the broader international system, meaning the issue of financial reliability had a direct impact on its relationship with the sport's leading governing body.
Johnson now says that resolving obligations to athletes was a prerequisite for any discussion about the future. In his latest statements, he did not give a firm promise that Grand Slam Track would return in the same form, under the same name or in a specific year. The tone is more cautious than in 2025, when the organization was still publicly speaking about a return in 2026. As of August 11, 2026, there is no confirmed schedule for a new Grand Slam Track season, so the future of the project remains open.
High prize money showed the model's potential, but also the risk of relying on investor capital
The greatest paradox of Grand Slam Track is that the project simultaneously demonstrated how strongly a lucrative financial offer can attract elite runners and how quickly such a system can become unsustainable if planned capital does not arrive on time. The league offered amounts that, for many athletes, were higher than the prize money available at most regular meets, and Johnson said he wanted to create recognizable head-to-head matchups, more frequent television appearances by stars and a clearer seasonal narrative. From a sporting perspective, the organizers could point to a series of races featuring reigning Olympic and world medalists and full stands during parts of the program in Philadelphia. From a business perspective, however, high fixed costs, production, logistics and promised prize pools demanded financial security that the young league was unable to maintain. When the expected capital disappeared, obligations to athletes and partners remained, while there was very little room for rapid adjustment.
The case therefore remains an important lesson for private sports projects seeking to rapidly change the economics of traditional disciplines. Heavy investment in athletes can increase their bargaining power, but only if funding sources are aligned with long-term contractual obligations and realistic revenue. Otherwise, the very athletes the new system is intended to protect can become its unsecured creditors. Johnson's claim that the athletes have finally been paid closes one of the most controversial points in the story, but it does not erase questions about risk management and whether a similar project can be rebuilt with a more credible capital structure.
What comes after Grand Slam Track's financial collapse?
For Johnson, the past eighteen months, by his description, represented one of the most stressful periods outside his competitive career. He said he had experienced sleepless nights and wondered whether athletes believed negative headlines about his decisions, demonstrating how deeply the crisis affected his personal reputation as well. At the same time, the fact that the reorganization plan was confirmed and became effective in May 2026 gives the company a legal framework for emerging from Chapter 11, but does not in itself guarantee a return to competition. A new sporting cycle would require new capital, an operating plan, the trust of athletes and vendors, and a relationship with World Athletics that would not reopen the dispute over old debts. For now, Johnson speaks about the future in conditional terms rather than as a confirmed return.
Sources:
- The Independent – August 8, 2026 report on Johnson's interview, his explanation of the financial collapse, the $2 million loan and the disputed $500,000 payment (link)
- Inside the Games – August 10, 2026 report on Johnson's claim that Grand Slam Track athletes have been paid and his explanation of travel and accommodation expenses (link)
- U.S. Bankruptcy Court / Stretto – confirmed GST, Inc. reorganization plan, including the treatment of athlete claims and the approximately 70-percent distribution for the Critical Athlete Claims category (link)
- Stretto – official GST, Inc. bankruptcy case 25-12188 portal, with the filing date, court, judge and key procedural deadlines (link)
- Grand Slam Track – official June 12, 2025 announcement on the conclusion of the pilot season, three completed meets and postponement of the Los Angeles event (link)
- Associated Press – report on the scale of the debts, the consequences of nonpayment for athletes and Michael Johnson's claim against the league (link)
- Associated Press – report on the reaction of World Athletics and the Association of Athletics Managers to the league's plans while obligations from 2025 were still outstanding (link)
- Front Office Sports – report on confirmation of the reorganization plan and estimated distributions to athletes and vendors (link)