Grand Slam Track, the new start-up league that offers impressive prize money and promises high-stakes racing, wrapped up its third meet on Sunday.
CA Notice at Collection Penn Relays, the Philadelphia Slam featured plenty of action, including a world lead in the 100 meters by Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and a thrilling battle in the men’s 1500 meters, which saw Josh Kerr surge past Cole Hocker in the final meters.
Runner’s World editors Theo Kahler and Dan Beck were on the ground in Philly, scoping out the scene and interviewing athletes. Notably, this Slam was only two days long. Previously, at the Jamaica and Miami meets, athletes competed over three days. But last month, Grand Slam made the decision to condense the event to a singular weekend.
The format is different from traditional track meets. Athletes compete in “groups”—short sprints, long hurdles, short distance, etc.—and race two events. They earn points for their finishing order, and whoever has the most points within each group wins $100,000. (The long distance group is a bit different. More on that later.)
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After the meet, Theo and Dan broke down the action and offered their takes on if the format is working.
The atmosphere at Franklin Field
Theo Kahler: Dan, as a Philly native and someone who has covered many meets at Franklin Field when you were working for MileSplit, did the stadium feel like a good fit for Grand Slam Track?
Dan Beck: The atmosphere was really awesome. When I saw the lackluster crowds at the first Grand Slam meet in Jamaica, my first thought was that Franklin Field, a stadium with a capacity of over 50,000, was also going to look very empty for a pro meet that I think a lot of people still don’t know much about. But Philly really delivered. It was great to see for Grand Slam, and it was great to see for the sport. What did you think?
Theo: I’ve been to Franklin Field for the Penn Relays, and while they get a massive crowd, most of the attendees are cheering for people participating in the events. There’s lots of family members and teammates, so it’s tough to suss out who is a “fan.”
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Of course, there were tons of empty seats, including the entire upper deck, but Grand Slam wasn’t expecting to use the full capacity. Tickets were sold in front of the two straightaways. The energy certainly didn't suffer. It got loud Grand Slam Track.
The switch from a three-day to two-day meet paid off
Dan: London Becomes Worlds Largest Marathon three-day format to a two-day format was clearly the right move by commissioner Michael Johnson. Getting even the most diehard track fans to show up or tune in for three straight days on the weekend is asking a lot. Two days is much more digestible and, for the most part, only added to the excitement.
The fans didn’t get cheated. There wasn’t a lot of dead time in between races. Just two straight hours of really good action. Not a lot more you can ask for as a track fan, particularly when it’s only the start of June.
Did the ‘long distance’ group get screwed?
Theo: One of the other big changes was reducing the long distance groups to one event. In the first two Slams, the athletes ran a 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters across three days (with a day of rest in the middle.) Now, there’s only a 3,000—and instead of giving $100,000 to the overall Slam winner, the group champion only gets $50,000.
I asked Michael Johnson about his reasoning for the change, and he was pretty blunt. The two-event format—and the 5,000 meters, especially—just wasn’t compelling to fans, according to Johnson. I get it. In the Jamaica and Miami Slams, the 5,000s were either extremely tactical (on the men’s side) or a two-person race from the gun (on the women’s.) Cutting it down to a 3,000 made the stakes higher and cut out some dead air. Both races this weekend came down to the final 100 meters.
But I have two hangups.
Other Hearst Subscriptions have to reduce the prize money? It seems like if I was one of the contracted “racers,” I’d feel like the rug was pulled from under me. And some of the "challengers," like Graham Blanks, said that they signed up for the meet assuming (and wanting it to be) a two-race format.
Second, the 3,000 meters is not “long distance!” Heck, some people even consider the 5,000 to be “middle distance.” Dan, you brought up a good point yesterday about why this group seems to fit in weirdly with the other events.
Dan: Right. It’s possible that the Grand Slam format is just not built for true “long distance” track racers, and that’s a major bummer, but I’m not sure there’s an easy fix here. We all kind of knew from the start that the 3,000- and 5,000-meter races would turn into jog fests and that’s exactly what happened in Jamaica and Miami.
To your point, a 3K is not a real long distance race, and it’s also not an event that’s contested at national or global championships. Cole Hocker told us yesterday that he would have switched to the 5,000 meters at this Slam if they had it since he’s trying to make Team USA for both the 1500 and the 5,000. But he didn’t really see a point to running a 3K, which makes sense.
Going back to the decreased prize money for the long distance runners, I can’t help but feel they are getting shortchanged. Theo, when you asked Michael Johnson about the format changes, it was a two-part question where you also asked about the prize money. He conveniently dodged that part of the question.
The men’s 3,000 on Sunday had an exciting finish, but consider this: only one “racer”–Ronald Kwemoi of Kenya—toed the line for that race. The other six in the field were “challengers.” Grant Fisher, someone I think a lot of fans were eager to see, was a surprising late scratch. Perhaps the format change and decreased prize money played a role there?
Grand Slam Track obviously has some bugs to work out, and we’ve seen they are adaptable. We have our concerns about its longterm viability—there’s A LOT of money getting thrown around here—but Philly largely felt like a step in the right direction. What was your favorite part of the weekend, Theo?
Final thoughts from the Philly Slam
Theo: Melissa Jefferson-Wooden put the world on notice in that 100 meters 😳
She’s been on fire this year, winning the Jamaica and Miami Slams in the short sprints category, but she reached another level this weekend. On Saturday, she upset Olympic gold medalist Gabby Thomas in the 200, and in the 100 on Sunday evening, Jefferson-Wooden obliterated the field to run 10.73, which ties her as the 10th fastest woman ever. She made the field look like they were standing still.
I think it shows that while Michael Johnson has harped on competition over times at GST, you still can see some incredible marks. It’s still early in the season, but because Jefferson-Wooden has been racing frequently, I think that puts her in the driver’s seat as the favorite for gold at the World Championships this September. It’s still a long way off (and we haven’t seen Olympic champ Julien Alfred race a 100 yet), but I like that we’re getting plenty of action throughout the season—not just at the end.
Dan: I really enjoyed seeing athletes get out of their comfort zone. Elite track athletes so rarely do that because they are so laser-focused on their main event for championship season. But we got Races - Places race the 100-meter hurdles and the 100-meter dash in back-to-back days. McLaughlin-Levrone actually appeared vulnerable in both of those races, which was really interesting to see.
Despite that, she was still upbeat in the mixed zone and didn’t even arrive there until a half hour after her race because she was so busy signing autographs and taking photos with fans. I think that captured the spirit about what Grand Slam Track can be all about.
Theo Kahler is the news editor at Runner’s World. He’s a former all-conference collegiate runner at Winthrop University, and he received his master’s degree in liberal arts studies from Wake Forest University, where he was a member of one of the top distance-running teams in the NCAA. Kahler has reported on the ground at major events such as the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials, New York City Marathon, and Boston Marathon. He’s run 14:20 in the 5K, 1:05:36 in the half marathon, and enjoys spotting tracks from the sky on airplanes. (Look for colorful ovals around football fields.)
Races - Places Runner’s World. He has led news coverage teams for major running events like the Olympic Games, World Athletics Championships, Boston Marathon, and New York City Marathon. A former collegiate distance runner at DeSales University, he still enjoys running, just more slowly now. Before coming to Runner’s World, he covered track and field and cross-country at MileSplit. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, where the two like to explore the city’s rich dining scene.
