Canada’s Marco Arop, the reigning World champion and Olympic silver medalist at 800m, has signed with Grand Slam Track as a Racer ahead of the professional track league’s inaugural season in 2025.

Here’s what you need to know:

– Arop completes Grand Slam Track’s “short distance” (800m/1500m) Racer group that includes 1500m Olympic champion Cole Hocker, 1500m Olympic silver medalist and reigning World champion Josh Kerr and 1500m Olympic bronze medalist Yared Nuguse. 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.

– Arop is coming off a year in which he ran a North American record of 1:41.20 to earn the Olympic silver medal and moves up to No. 4 on the all-time list. Only Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi (1:41.11 at the Lausanne Diamond League and 1:41.19 in the Olympic final) ran faster this year.

– After the Olympics, Arop made a run for the 1000m world record but ended up running 2:13.13 for No. 5 on the all-time list.

– Arop has also been vocal about chasing David Rudisha’s 1:40.91 world record for 800m, which he and his coach have dubbed “Project 99.”

Arop As The X-Factor At Slams

Arop brings a bit of disruption to the long distance group, which was primarily made up of 1500m specialists before his signing. He boasts a 1500m personal best of 3:38.36 from March 2023. Arop has not run any high caliber 1500m races outdoors and typically only uses one or two at the start of the season to test his strength.

If a Slam starts with the 800m as the first of the two events, Arop could take it to Hocker, Kerr, Nuguse and the Challengers and earn up to 10 points with a victory, which would then signal to the rest of the group how many places they’d need to beat him by in the 1500m to come away with more points by the end of the second event. This could get even more interesting with other possible 800m Challengers at events like Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi or American record holder Bryce Hoppel.