A women’s sprinter runs with a baton.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, seen competing for the United States in the women’s 4×100-metre relay final at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris
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Putting Sydney McLaughlin in the final race of the final day of the inaugural Grand Slam Track event was a simple choice for organizers.
She’s American and mediagenic and a generational performer. Three trips to the Olympics and counting. Four gold medals, with more coming if she stays healthy and motivated. Every time she steps on the track she threatens the 400-metre hurdle world record.
Except Sunday afternoon she’ll be running the flat 400, which, as of right now, is her second-best event.
And instead of lining up against Grand Slam Track’s other 400m standouts, like current world leader Salwa Eid Nasser, 2024 Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino and 200m gold medallist Gabby Thomas, the new circuit’s format will pit her against other hurdlers in a race without obstacles.
That first matchup — a four-way battle royale among tip-tier elites — is a headliner at any track meet on the planet, and the kind of high-speed, high-profile showdown that intrigues hardcores and drive-by fans alike. It’s also the kind of race the new league teased when it promised to gather best-in-class performers in a unique format.
And the main event they’re delivering on Sunday?
It’s a series of choices.
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The four-time Olympic champion sits down with host Morgan Campbell just days away from the debut of the Grand Slam Track event in Kingston, Jamaica.
A smart performance decision to put 21 hours between the hurdles and the flat 400, to give fine-tuned athletes maximum time to rest.
A savvy marketing play to set up McLaughlin-Levrone — who has the fastest personal best in the field by two seconds — to conduct a quarter-mile clinic in the meet’s final race, and leave a stunning final impression on viewers in the 189 countries where the event is scheduled to air.
The verdict on the decision to keep McLaughlin-Leverone separate from Nasser, Paulino and Thomas this weekend depends on what happens next.
If organizers make sure that the four superstars are on a collision course, it’s brilliant. Building tension early in the year makes the late-season payoff that much more satisfying. If you’re a Grand Slam Track stakeholder, you’d love to end the year with Sydney versus Gabby versus Marileidy versus Nasser, all of them attacking the 48-second barrier.
But if you’re a boxing fan, you know that just because a matchup should happen, doesn’t mean it will. That’s why we never got Lennox Lewis against Riddick Bowe for a pro world title. And if Grand Slam Track, whose current format has McLaughlin-Levrone in a separate event category from Nasser, Thomas and Paulino, can’t find a way to get those four together this season, then it all looks cynical. Best on best with an asterisk.
Two women’s sprinters celebrate after a race while each holds the flag of the United States.
Gabby Thomas, left, and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone helped the United States win Olympic gold in the women’s 4×100-metre in Paris last year.
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No matter what I wind up thinking about the format, the races it facilitates and the ones it prevents, I’m impressed at the depth and breadth of talent lining up on the newly resurfaced track at Kingston’s National Stadium this weekend.
All three medallists from the women’s 100m hurdles in Paris are scheduled to compete — Masai Russell, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn and Cyréna Samba-Mayela. The men’s 100m features Kenny Bednarek, Fred Kerley, Zharnel Hughes and Oblique Seville. It could almost be a world final, in the first week in April.
Early season causes scheduling nightmare
This time of year, which marks the unofficial opening of the outdoor season, is thrilling for avid track fans, but a nightmare for anyone trying to gather a critical mass of talented performers for a top-level event. Nearly everyone is at a different stage in their buildup to the world championships in September. Hardly anyone’s schedule lines up with everybody else’s.
You want to see Andre De Grasse and the rest of Team Canada this weekend?
They’re at the Florida Relays in Gainesville. De Grasse trains in Gainesville now, and is scheduled to run the 200m, with Canadian 400m phenom Christopher Morales Williams competing in the next heat.
Trying to get a look at Olympic 100m champ Julien Alfred and silver-medallist Sha’Carri Richardson? They’re slated to run at the Miramar Invitational outside Miami.
Other big-name sprinters and hurdlers?
Noah Lyles? Kishane Thompson? Femke Bol?
They’re all someplace, but not the same place.
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