Top 10 Track Stars Incredibly Left Out of Grand Slam Track 48 Racers!
Can the Grand Slam Track launched this year by four-time US Olympic Champion Michael Johnson be truly described as the new global home of professional track competition without some track stars whose faces have become synonymous with the sport?
On Thursday, Johnson announced the final list of five track athletes to complete the list of 48 that will be called Racers and open to receiving an annual base compensation for racing in each Slam, are eligible for full prize money, will also receive annual contracts and be included in the league collective, group licensing and new revenue opportunities.
The 48 Racers do not include some of the athletes who made the athletics event of the Paris 2024 Olympics a huge success with their incredible performances.
Sportsnow.com.ng takes a look at 10 top stars that should have been included in the list of racers.
Women
Julien Alfred: How can you have a track competition without one of the biggest sprinters in the world today? How can you have a competition without the World Indoor Championships 60m winner and the Olympics 100m champion? Are you flabbergasted? Yo sure are just like this writer is.
Shar Carri Richardson: The odds on favourite to win the 100m gold at the Paris Olympics was reigning World 100m champion, Richardson but Alfred ensured it was not. The two have started a rivalry that the Grand Slam track would have helped to promote and which would have also help promote the competition and give the sport greater global visibility. Only Michael Johnson can explain Richardson’s absence.
Faith Kipyegon: Perhaps the biggest name in women track in the last three years or thereabout has to be the Kenyan Kipyegon, who won the Olympic 1500m for the third straight edition in Paris. Aside setting a world record, the 30 year old also won the Diamond League 1500m title for the fifth time in Brussels.
Beatrice Chebet: Chebet was everybody’s choice as female track of the year after successfully completing the 5000/10000m double at the Paris Olympics as well as setting the world record over the 10,000m but World Athletics felt Alfred did better with her 60m indoors and 100m title at the Olympics.
Femke Bol: If Johnson was talking about encouraging rivalry in track and field, what better rivalry can you look for beyond a Sydney Maclaughlin-Verone and Bol. Aside meeting at major events, the duo has never competed in the same event in the European or American circuit. Grand Slam Track would have made this possible unless the signing of the American came with a condition that Bol should not be a part of it.
Men
Letsile Tebogo: The most talked about athlete at the Paris Olympic and post Olympics circuit was the Botswanan athlete, Tebogo who claimed Africa’s first ever sprint title at the Olympics and was almost unassailable until he was defeated at the Diamond League final in Brussels.
Grant Holloway: Holloway turned Olympics silver medal in Tokyo to gold in 2024 but could not overcome the 12.80 world record he came closest to breaking in 2021 with his 12.81 run. This year, Holloway ran 12.86 and has hinted he is definitely going after the record. The Grand Slam Track could have provided him the opportunity to break his compatriot, Aries Merritt 12.80 world record set in 2012.
Noah Lyles: Certainly the most celebrated sprinter before the Paris Olympics, Lyles will certainly be the one to watch any day albeit he failed to complete a sprints double in Paris, coming third in the 200m event after winning the 100m gold.
Emmanuel Wanyonyi: How do you plan to have an 800m race without Wanyonyi, the Olympics champion and Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati who stormed to the world lead in July with his 1:41.46 at the Monaco Diamond League meeting? Johnson got Olympic silver medalist, Marco Arop but will not get the rivalry the world wants to see on the track in the men’s 800m!.
Karsten Warholm: Warholm is the fastest 400m barrier runner the world has ever seen, winning the world title in the event three straight and has dominated the event until this year when he could not repeat as Olympic champion, settling instead for the silver medal behind USA’a Rai Benjamin who is not also among Johnson’s Racers in his Grand Slam Track competition.
Warholm holds a 5-4 head to head record against Benjamin and a 12-2 record against Alisson Dos Santos whom Johnson has signed on among the top three in the event.
