Carsten Warholm (28) doubts he will join Michael Johnson's new Grand Slam track.
The short version
- Carsten Warholm doubts the participation in Michael Johnson's new Grand Slam tournament.
- Johnson's tournament offers big prize money and four additional events, but Warholm is skeptical about changing his schedule.
- Warholm believes that financial gains are not motivating enough to participate.
– Basically, I'm fighting to completely change the way we worked. But we did not reach a conclusion. “Right now, I tend to do it the way I've always done it,” says Warholm regarding: “Right now, I tend to do it the way I've always done it.” Launching the new sponsor To VG.
American track and field champion Michael Johnson has long criticized the fact that track and field is not reaching its commercial potential.
So, next year he will start his own series of events, called Grand Slam Track. It will be an addition to the Diamond League, which is now behind the largest non-tournament-related competitions.
He won eight World Cup championships and four Olympic golds.
This became known at launch this week:
- There will be four events, lasting over three days, annually starting in 2025. Los Angeles, host of the Olympics in 2028, will host one of them.
- The events will be for running exercises only – sprints, hurdles and medium/long distance running. Athletes are divided into six categories (see fact box).
- Johnson says he only wants the best athletes
- $30 million raised from investors and partners. The prize money is $100,000 for the winners and is reduced to $10,000 for eighth place – plus the seed money.
- Johnson warns that the prize money is much higher than a regular Diamond League event. There, the winner gets $10,000, while eighth place gets $500. As for the biggest stars, the start-up money is much higher.
The six categories
- Short sprints (100m/200m)
- Short hurdles (100 or 110m hurdles / 100m flat)
- Long Sprint (200m/400m)
- – Long hurdles (400m hurdles / 400m flat)
- Short distance (800m/1500m)
- Long distance (3000/5000m)
During the three-day event, athletes will compete in both exercises.
– Johnson opens the door to something that has been an issue in athletics, considering the money has never been that loose. You can see it already raising prize money at the Olympics, EC and Diamond League, says Warholm.
- At the Olympics in Paris he paid World Athletics $50,000 to the winners. No branches have ever done this before in the Olympics.
- Also at the European Championships in Rome, for the first time there was a cash prize of 50,000 euros for each gold medalist with the 10 best performers.
The big problem for Warholm is that in this case, he has to increase the number of events significantly – with four additional events where he has to run both the 400m hurdles and 400m flat in three days.
He has run so far this year Three competitions He is currently only confirmed to participate in the Diamond League in Monaco before the Olympics.
-His concept is a little at odds with our way of doing it. We like to run very fast as many times as possible. It's a physical effort that's hard to explain, but the effort that comes from running so fast and being in shape for competitions is pretty amazing.
The concept is difficult for me to accept. The financial aspect is not a motivating factor for us either, because we are managing things well with previous plans.
Currently, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the world record holder in the 400m hurdles, has signed a contract with the league as the first big name.
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