Remember the LinkedIn post by Patrick K. Magyar? His message for Michael Johnson was crystal clear. “From Grand Slam to Grand Flop – A Lesson in What Not to Do with Athletics.” Animosity from the former Zurich Diamond League director put Michael Johnson on high alert regarding his dream of bringing success to “the UFC and Formula One of athlete racing.” Yes, that also includes the monetary aspect of the sport. However, the sporting community seems to have some doubts regarding Johnson’s newest venture.

Rodney Green happened to capture the fans’ query in his question during a recent episode of Ready Set Go. He acknowledged the fact that Grand Slam Track is reshaping track and field. After all, to stay in the competition, some Diamond Leagues even raised their prize pool. The Diamond League General Assembly approved a base prize pool of $9.24M. That’s about one-third more than the total prize pool between the period 2021-24. So, does this actually make Johnson an enemy of the Diamond League and other meets? 

Well, not really! According to the four-time Olympic gold medalist, a little competition is always healthy. But it’s not really a competition between Grand Slam Track and the Diamond League. Johnson said, “In this sport, we all love competition, and so there’s always from a fan perspective, always, everything is a competition, right? I mean, because competition is at the core of this sport. But we’ve never seen this as a competition between us and the Diamond League. We’ve never seen this as, you know, when and I’ve said that from day 1. We don’t see the Diamond League as competitors.” 

Wait… Is this feeling the reason behind the date clash between the Miami Grand Slam and Diamond League Shanghai? Johnson and his team put their races in April, May, and June, because that’s when the fan-favorite athletes are staying in the US. However, on May 3, 2025, the Shanghai Diamond League and the Grand Slam Track in Miami had a conflict. They both had events on the same days. As expected, Johnson faced heavy criticism from fans and insiders alike, accused of splitting the sport and forcing athletes to choose sides. But now, he has come clean about it. 

The 57-year-old revealed, “We worked with World Athletics. We have a relationship with World Athletics. And we worked with World Athletics to make sure that from a calendar standpoint, that there aren’t conflicts on the calendar between our meets and Diamond League meets, or other Continental Gold Tour meets, and etc, etc. We have a commitment to them, they have a commitment to us that we’re gonna continue to work on the calendar to make sure that there isn’t that conflict.”

Michael Johnson’s words made it pretty clear that he wants no friction with the Diamond League meets, and he even worked with World Athletics to try and avoid the recent conflict. But do you know what Patrick Magyar and Petr Statsny had to say about Grand Slam Track?

What do the Diamond League big guns think of Michael Johnson’s venture?

Just like Michael Johnson, the CEO of Diamond League AG, addressed the necessity of healthy competition. “Competition is good in many ways… We do welcome these new projects in general,” claimed Statsny. But there was a catch! He wasn’t appreciative of the calendar clash. He continued, “[But] we do not welcome date clashes, which unfortunately seem to be happening in ’25… The roster of athletes is fairly big, but it’s not unlimited.”

Even Magyar had some harsh words for Johnson. He stated, “If you disrespect half the track & field family… If it’s more about your ego than the sport… If you believe money alone rules athletics… Then what you create is not a vision. You create a Grand Flop.” Of course, the director had an elite level of admiration for the eight-time world champion. But those feelings still had some limits. 

While Johnson’s debate circled around the athletes’ paycheck, Magyar’s argument focused on the former sprinter’s fee. According to him, Johnson didn’t care about athletes getting fair deals, but about his own fee. Needless to say, the words were hurtful. But we have to commend Johnson’s will to shake things up. Why don’t you join us in the comments for a discussion on Grand Slam Track?