Athletics continues to search for its golden goose and revolutionary proposals continue to emerge to improve the spectacle of the world’s oldest sport and to increase the prize pool. Olympic champion Michael Johnson is launching his own ‘Grand Slam Track’ league with astronomical prizes for participating athletes and he’s doing it outside of World Athletics (the global athletics federation), which has Diamond League as its flagship.
In this sense, this Thursday morning it was held at New York the new meeting Athlosexclusively dedicated to women’s participation and limited to certain track events at distances between 100m and 1,500m and access is by invitation. This revolutionary competition is driven by the entrepreneur Alexis Ohanianco-founder of Reddit and wife of a tennis player Serena Williams. “I asked these girls about the amount of their top prize at the end of the season for winning and they said $30,000. At that moment I replied that I would double their profits and in a test,” the businessman explained to Reuters, referring to the generous loot he put on the table and doubled what was offered by Diamond League in their finals in Brussels.
Faith Kipyegon He was one of the great protagonists of the New York meeting with his victory in the 1,500m with 4’04”79, two weeks after taking the diamond in the Belgian capital. The Kenyan runner pocketed $60,000 for his success in New Yorkcontrasting with the $10,000 he gets for winning a normal meeting of Diamond League. A frenzy of prizes up to the first six classifieds with $25,000 for second, $10,000 for third, $8,000 for fourth, $5,000 for fifth and $6,000 for sixth. Furthermore, participants shared the 10% of income of meeting ticket sales, television rights and merchandising. Another star is the Olympic 400m champion, Marileidy Paulinowho won in 49”59. The Ethiopian Tsige Duguma He won the 800m with 1’57”43, Marie-Josée Ta Lou He won the 100m with 10”98, Brittany Brown in 200m with 22”18 and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn in the 110 hurdles with a 12”36.
Following all these initiatives with good economic returns, World Athletics announced a large increase in the awards of Diamond League for the 2025 season, with prizes from $30,000 and $50,000 during the season and in between $60,000 and $100,000 for the grand final scheduled at Zurich before the World Cup Tokyo 2025.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Jason Root, a professional writer working with Today Times Live, the premier news website. I specialize in sports writing, covering the biggest stories in the world of athletics. With an eye for detail and a passion for storytelling, I provide engaging and informative articles that capture the key elements of any event or issue. My work has been featured on numerous respected websites and publications around the world.
