By Chris Chavez
October 22, 2024
Grand Slam Track has signed 2024 Olympic silver medalist Daniel Roberts and 2021 Diamond League champion Devon Allen as its first Racers in the men’s “short hurdles” category ahead of its inaugural 2025 season.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Roberts and Allen become the first men to sign with Michael Johnson’s new league who will be racing the 100m and 110mH four times throughout 2025. They will be joined by two more Racers and will go up against four rotating Challengers across the four Slams. Each athlete will receive points for their finishing position in the two races. After the two events, the athlete with the highest point total will win the Slam and the $100,000 prize for first place.
- Roberts has made five consecutive U.S. national teams in the 110mH, winning three national titles in the process. He had an international breakthrough in Budapest last August, winning a World Championship bronze medal in 13.09. He backed that up this summer with an Olympic silver medal in 13.09 once again. Roberts became the 26th man in history to dip under 13 seconds with his 12.96 second showing at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials.
- Allen is the third-fastest athlete in history over 110mH, thanks to his 12.84 second clocking at the 2022 NYC Grand Prix. A two-time Olympian, Allen returns to the track after spending the 2023 season with the Philadelphia Eagles of the NFL. Allen had planned on pursuing his third Olympic team last year, but was unable to recover in time from his third ACL tear in December 2023. He’s now locked into eight races against the best hurdlers in the world in 2025.
- On paper, Allen has a significant edge over Roberts in the flat 100m, having run a wind-aided 10.12 and a wind-legal 10.20 in 2022. Roberts has a PB of 10.45 from 2021.
Kevin Morris / @KevMoFoto
What they had to say:
- Roberts said via press release: “Track has been my life for as long as I can remember, and it’s about always moving forward. Grand Slam Track feels like the right place to keep evolving as an athlete, and I’m ready to embrace that. I’m grateful for this opportunity and am ready to keep taking my sport to new heights.”
- Allen, also via press release, said: “Whether I’m on the field or on the track, I love competition. Grand Slam Track gives me a way to return to racing and face some of the best athletes out there. I’m thankful to MJ and the team for calling me back to the track. I’m ready to get back to what I love, and test myself against the other fastest men in the world.”
Kevin Morris / @KevMoFoto
Potential candidates for the next two Racer slots:
Grant Holloway, United States
Holloway is the most obvious pick for Grand Slam Track, not just from a star power standpoint, but from the perspective of pursuing “only the fastest.” The three-time World and 2024 Olympic champ is the second-fastest man in the history of the 110mH (12.81, 2021), and he also owns an impressive 100m PB of 10.21 from 2022.
Lorenzo Simonelli, Italy
Simonelli had a stellar age-22 season in 2024, highlighted by a World Indoor silver over 60mH and a European title in an Italian record of 13.05 seconds. He didn’t run a flat 100m this year, but he ran a PB of 10.25 last April and ran in the prelims for Italy’s European Championship-winning 4x100m team in June.
Sasha Zhoya, France
Zhoya falls into a similar boat as Simonelli, as he will be entering 2025 coming off of a breakthrough season at 22 years old in 2024. He caught fire after going out in the Olympic semifinals, including a PB of 13.10 at the Zurich Diamond League and later winning the Diamond League Trophy in Brussels. He hasn’t raced a flat 100m in a while, but his PB of 10.41 from 2019, which he ran five days after his 17th birthday, shows plenty of potential.
Who Else Has Signed With Grand Slam Track So Far:
– Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (June 18th)
– Josh Kerr (June 27th)
– Cole Hocker and Yared Nuguse (Sept. 4th)
– Fred Kerley and Kenny Bednarek (Sept. 12th)
– Melissa Jefferson (Sept. 19th)
– Masai Russell, Cyrena Samba Mayela and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (Sept. 25th)
– Alison Dos Santos and Clément Ducos (Sept. 26th)
– Muzala Samukonga (Sept. 26th)
– Quincy Hall and Matthew Hudson-Smith (Oct. 10th)
– Nikki Hiltz (Oct. 15th)
– Grant Fisher and Ronald Kwemoi (Oct. 15th)
– Luis Grijalva (Oct. 22)
– Jessica Hull (Oct. 22)
– Marileidy Paulino (Oct. 22)
– Shamier Little, Jasmine Jones and Rushell Clayton (Oct. 22)
– Marco Arop (Oct. 22)
– Devon Allen and Daniel Roberts (Oct. 22)
– Jereem Richards (Oct. 22)
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Chris Chavez
Chris Chavez launched CITIUS MAG in 2016 as a passion project while working full-time for Sports Illustrated. He covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and grew his humble blog into a multi-pronged media company. He completed all six World Marathon Majors and is an aspiring sub-five-minute miler.
