Grand Slam Track puts Diamond League on alert

The Grand Slam Track aims to change the world of athletics and with its premiere in 2025 it has put the Diamond League on alert.which took some strategic steps in terms of awards and calendar so as not to be overshadowed by the new circuit sponsored by former American sprinter Michael Johnson.

This new circuit, which will have four stops, the first of them in Los Angeles and the other three in places to be determinedaims to bring together the best elite athletes in the world thanks to a budget of around 30 million and with the Winners Alliance as its main sponsor, a multinational company currently dedicated to changing the rights and marketing of athlete and born in 2022 with the support of the Association of Professional Tennis Players (ATP).

The prizes are juicy as the winner of each discipline in each event will take home 100,000 dollars, an amount that will decrease depending on their position in the competition up to 10,000 for the eighth place finisher.

The emergence of this Grand Slam Track, which will not accept hares in races and will also not have tournamentstrack events only, will divide the athletes into several groups in such a way that everyone has to compete twice, once per event, with the competitions lasting three days.

The tests are divided into short sprints (100 and 200 meters), sprints with hurdles (110 meter hurdles and 100 meter dash), long sprints (200 and 400 meters), long sprint with hurdles (400 and 400 meter hurdles), short distance (800 and 1,500 meters) and long distance (3,000 and 5,000 meters).

The elite athletes selected by the organization will sign an annual contract that will see them compete in the four Grand Slams of the year in addition to promoting the League through their various public profiles.

Since its global launch in April 2024, the Grand Slam Track has already announced an impressive list of athletes who will be part of next year’s competition. That list includes American sprinters Fred Kerley and Kenny Bednarek, Brazilian hurdler Alison dos Santos, British middle distance runner Josh Kerr and Olympic 400 hurdles champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, also an American.

Since the emergence of this Grand Slam Track, the Diamond League has not been slow to move, making several moves that are clearly intended to counter its new rival.

The first, announced on September 18, is to increase the financial prizes in 2025 to the highest level in history, more than nine million dollars, which is almost a third more than the amount paid during the affected period due to the pandemic from 2021 to 2024 In this way, the General Assembly of the organization estimates the cost for the next year at 9,240,000 dollars.

In addition to that figure, including promotional fees for top athletes, approximately $18 million will be paid to athletes during the 2025 season and many more millions will be invested in athlete services such as travel and transportation, accommodation, and medical and physiotherapy provision.

Under the new structure, the total prize money awarded per game will be $500,000 in each of the fourteen games of the regular season and $2,240,000 in the Diamond League final. Total prize money per discipline is between $30,000 and $50,000 in series meetings and between $60,000 and $100,000 in the final.

Prize money is completely equal between men and women with exactly the same rates for male and female athletes. The increase also applies to all 32 Diamond disciplines, which will benefit athletes from different types of athletics.

The second step, two months earlier than usual, is the announcement of the 2025 calendar, something that always happens at the end of the year.

Xiamen and the test shared between Shanghai and Suzhou are the first two stops in a total of fifteen, which will reopen in China a circuit that will end with a two-day final in Zurich (Switzerland), before the Tokyo World Championships, which They start on September 13.

In between, the Diamond League will visit Qatar, Morocco, Italy, Norway, Sweden, France, the United States, Monaco, Poland and Belgium, showing a more global character than the Grand Slam Track.

With these moves, the Diamond League organization hopes to retain the greatest number of stars and continue to dominate the biggest international athletics competition behind only the World Cups.