A $50,000 first-prize check to go with the gold medal at the Paris Games -- combined with the “recent rapid-fire introduction of track meets featuring enhanced prize pools” and a new track league fronted by former Olympic gold medalist sprinter Michael Johnson -- “represents the biggest publicly touted cash infusion into the sport in decades,” according to Pells & Graham of the AP. It could be a “lifeline” for track athletes, who have “struggled for attention since Usain Bolt left the spotlight.” The sport has seen a “widening gulf between haves -- such as Noah Lyles, Sha’Carri Richardson and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone -- and the have-nots since the heyday of the 1980s.” Johnson’s Grand Slam Track league will sign athletes to actual contracts, then “add appearance fees for some others,” with “plans to bring 96 runners together four times a year to compete for $100,000 first-place prizes.” Johnson said that he had “secured more than” $30M to bankroll the league, which will “start in 2025.” In addition to the $50,000 first prizes for the Olympics, World Athletics this month announced the start of the Ultimate Championship in 2026, which will “bring together the best in the sport to compete for a prize pot” of $10M and first prizes worth $150,000. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian also recently went “public with plans for an all-women’s track meet in September” that will feature Olympic silver and bronze medalist Gabby Thomas and “promised the largest purse ever for a female-only track meet” (AP, 6/25).
