Competition in the new league, founded by American sprint great Michael Johnson, begins in April 2025.
2024 us olympic team trials track field day 10
Patrick Smith
Nikki Hiltz, whose breakthrough 2024 included winning the Olympic Trials 1500 meters in meet record time (3:55.33) and finishing seventh at the Games, is joining Grand Slam Track, a new track league launching in 2025.
Hiltz will be a “racer” in the short distances. They’ll compete in the 800 and 1500 meters at four meets between April and June.
Grand Slam Track is designed to get the best athletes in track racing each other. The focus of the meets is competition, not time, and its format is different from that of other track meets, with two races over the course of a weekend.
Athletes compete in one of six categories: short or long sprints, short or long hurdles, or short or long distances. Each category will have eight athletes—four racers who are signed up for all four meets in their category (eight races total), and four “challengers,” who will fill out the field at each meet but won’t necessarily appear at all of them.
The league is busy signing racers, like Hiltz. Grant Fisher, who won two bronze medals in Paris, in the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters, was also announced on October 15.
So far the league has signed Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the world-record holder in the 400-meter hurdles; Cole Hocker, Josh Kerr, and Yared Nuguse, the three medalists in the men’s 1500 meters in Paris; and Olympic gold medalists Masai Russell (100-meter hurdles) and Quincy Hall (400 meters), among others.
Grand Slam Track was founded by Michael Johnson, 57, who won four Olympic gold medals and held the world records in the 200 and 400 meters. He’s been a frequent critic of track and field over the years, taking to social media to lament that track couldn’t draw more regular fans and that athletes raced so infrequently. Johnson has secured $30 million in initial funding from investors.
That money is resulting in generous payouts for the athletes. Racers are getting base payments—appearance fees, essentially—to join the league and run in all four meets, although the terms of those deals are private and depend on the athlete.
Additionally, each racer has a chance at substantial prize money. In the best-case scenario, if an athlete wins each of the four meets, their prize money would total $400,000. In the worst-case scenario, if a runner finished last in each race, that athlete would earn $40,000.
In a conversation on October 11, Hiltz told Runner’s World that they appreciated the opportunity.
“This is exactly what our sport needs,” Hiltz said. “This league is everything I love about this sport. There’s no rabbits, there’s no pace lights. It’s purely racing, which I love so much. And, yeah, a huge prize purse, which is so exciting. It’s just something I’m really stoked to be a part of.”
Hiltz’s agent, Hawi Keflezighi, said as soon as he heard about Grand Slam Track, he reached out to organizers about getting the athletes he represents into the league. The format gives American athletes a chance at high-profile competition, with at least two of the meets on home soil. They can nail down their schedules far in advance. And it is financially rewarding for them.
“I’m all in, a big believer in Grand Slam Track,” Keflezighi said. “Not everything is perfect; I’m sure we can find some imperfections from different perspectives, but this is a great opportunity for the athletes and the sport.”
In the past, it would have taken four victories on the Diamond League to win $40,000. In response to the arrival of Grand Slam Track and other high-profile meets, like Athlos, a meet for women hosted by tech entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian in September in New York, the Diamond League announced a larger prize purse for the 2025 season, although the exact breakdown per race was not provided. Of the 15 Diamond League meets in 2025, only one, in Eugene, Oregon, is in the U.S.
Hiltz is heartened by the interest in track coming out of the Olympics in Paris and heading into the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. They did not compete at Athlos but watched it online.
“I was kind of skeptical of, like, how is this going to go?” Hiltz said. “Is there going to be a big turnout? What’s it going to look like? And then I watched from home, and I was like, wow, that’s a lot of people to commit to a Thursday night track meet.”
Hiltz, 29, who took a 25-day break from running after the Olympic final on August 10, has resumed training. They plan to run the Merrie Mile, an outdoor road mile in December in Hawaii, and then turn their attention toward indoor track.
The World Championships, which begin on September 13 in Tokyo, are the primary focus of 2025 for most track athletes. Grand Slam Track has to put its meets in the early part of the year, between April and June, to avoid conflicting with the U.S. outdoor championships, July 31-August 3, which will select Team USA for Tokyo.
michael johnson
Courtesy of Grand Slam Track
Michael Johnson is the founder of Grand Slam Track, which will start competition in April.
Hiltz trains in Flagstaff, Arizona, and their coach is Mike Smith. Smith recently announced he would be stepping down from his head coaching role at Northern Arizona University in June 2025 and would begin coaching a Nike pro group. Hiltz, whose primary sponsor is Lululemon, will be allowed to keep training with Smith.
Previously, pros training under Smith often had to do workouts and travel to important meets independently, while he was with his college team. Now, he’ll be much more available to his pros. Hiltz said they were eager to have additional pro training partners in the 1500 meters: “I think that’s what I’m really looking forward to, more time with my coach,” they said, “and then hopefully get some more 1500 specific people in the group, too.”
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