It’s been a while! Not quite a year ago I made the tough decision to part ways with my writing of this very newsletter to pursue an opportunity to put those words into action. On one of my first days in this new role it hit me—I was no longer theorizing about how I would change the sport, but actively in a position to do so.

Now two days out from the inaugural event in Grand Slam Track there are knots of excitement in my stomach like it’s going to be me spiking up again. As our marketing often says, this is high-stakes racing! And for the entire team—and particularly for Michael Johnson!—this is a high stakes weekend.

When the initial announcement about us having secured financing was made, the track community unanimously rejoiced. External investors saw value in our sport! It was the validation of something that those of us deeply involved already felt; there is unbelievable untapped potential for track to become a mainstream sport outside of the four year Olympic cycle.

Why that hadn’t already happened probably seemed like a mystery to those who enjoyed the thrill of the Stade de France in Paris. But a closer look under the hood of what makes this thing run reveals a long list of challenges that, when addressed, could thrust the sport into the mainstream limelight.

Here is the sparknotes summary:

• The sport is historically difficult to follow. There are too many meets, even more athletes with unpredictable schedules, and a lack of accessibility for fans to view them.
• Most races do not matter except as stepping stones to build towards a single pinnacle event at the end of the season. With minimal prize money in between there are no stakes along the way.
• There is a lack of incentive for top athletes to race one another, meaning there is a lack of interest or intrigue throughout the majority of the season. As a result, attention has shifted towards focusing on the clock rather than competition, because time has become the best barometer for comparison, rather than… you know… actual comparison.
• Fans often enjoy great races in retrospect, regularly learning of great results once they have already happened via a Citius Instagram graphic. The anxious energy of the unknown possibilities unfolding before you live are therefore eliminated.

Piece all of that together and what we get is an incredible sport that has stagnated and struggled to adapt to the way modern fans consume sports. And since that initial announcement, fans have been asking all the right questions that address the above concerns. Slowly, over the course of the last ten months, Grand Slam Track has answered how we intend to address and improve each of them.

We know nothing is going to be handed to us and that Grand Slam Track will have to earn current fans’ trust and capture the attention of a new audience along the way. But we can’t expect to grow the sport by doing the same thing, and continuing to bang our heads harder against the wall.

Trust me, I heard the critiques along the way of why no one would sign. But whether it was the doubling, race groups, Racers vs. Challengers, season long contracts, multiple venues, broadcast deals, content days, prize money determinations… they signed.

There is an appetite not just from those viewing, but from those competing. I remember sitting across from Josh Kerr a few hours after he had won the Prefontaine Classic in his hotel’s lobby with a 12 page printout of the deck I would use traveling from meet to meet all summer.

We had no dates, no locations, and no one for him to race. Yet within 48 hours he signed because as badly as fans want change the athletes are craving it more.

The vision upon which Grand Slam Track was built is to deliver a great final product – the racing.

This weekend the entire men’s 1500m podium will face off against the 1-2-4-5 finishers in the 800m. The Olympic 400m champion will race against the Olympic 200m champion…twice! 68 athletes ranked inside the top 10 in the world, including 32 medalists from Paris, will all be competing with big money on the line.

The athletes are excited and fans should be too. The time to speculate about how to get the best of the best to race each other more often is over—now it’s actually happening!

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