Undefeated Kenny Bednarek Breaks Silence on Noah Lyles’ Controversial Grand Slam Comments: “Want the Sport to Grow”

4 meets. 4 cities. 96 athletes (48 contracted racers and 48 invited challengers). A shared price pool of $12.6 million, with winners earning $100,000 per event. This was Michael Johnson’s idea of transforming track and field, and he is on it with the Grand Slam Track. Three slams down, the league has done fairly well. Now imagine the biggest names in track and field being a part of it. Noah Lyles. But the man does not want to. Why? Kenny Bednarek is the one spilling the answer!

Lyles asked Cam Newton in his podcast if he had heard of Grand Slam Track, and Newton said no. Quoting Lyles, he said, “You cannot tell me you know what it is. Shows me that whatever they’re doing right now is not strong enough for me to get my value on the side of marketing. And you’re not giving it monetarily. So what would I be doing it for?” Quite the statement, don’t you think? What would someone like Kenny Bennarek, who has earned so much from Grand Slam Track, react to this? Here’s how –

In his interview with CBC Sports’ Aaron Brown and Perdita Felicien from June 5, 2025, Kenny Bednarek was asked about these comments by Noah Lyles. Taking on them, the Olympian said, “I mean, like I said, he has a reason about why he doesn’t want to show up. But I mean, at the end of the day, we want the sport to grow. So if you want to be a part of that, then you’re going to be a part of it. If you want to do something else, then you’re going to do that. ” A lot of athletes who did not take part in the Grand Slam Track are a part of the Diamond League or have been participating in something else. Like Sha’carri Richardson, who opened her season in the Seiko Golden Grand Prix.

“Like I said, I don’t know exactly why he wants to do it. Maybe it’s not enough money. But at the end of the day, you know, we have athletes here that actually want to help grow the sport. So that’s all I got to say to that.” He continued while addressing the reason for Noah Lyles’ absence from the Grand Slam Track. In the podcast with Cam Newton, Lyles said that when Michael Johnson came to him with the idea of Grand Slam track, he supported it, but “he gave me a number and we said that number is not a fraction of what my worth is right now.”

Kenny Bednarek yet to be defeated in the Grand Slam Track

Kenny Bednarek opened the 2025 Grand Slam Track series in Kingston with dominant performances in both the 100 m and 200 m. In the 100 meters, he ran ahead of Jamaica’s Oblique Seville and Britain’s Zharnel Hughes, who came in second and third, respectively. Kung-Fu Kenny clocked 10.07 seconds for the win. He carried that momentum into the 200m, recording a time of 20.07s and leaving Hughes and Kerley trailing. 24 points on the sheet, 100K in the bank. 

A month later at the Miami Slam (May 2–4, Ansin Sports Complex), Bednarek once again topped the short-sprints standings by running a wind-aided 9.79s in the 100 m. He once again surged ahead of Oblique Seville, this time by five-hundredths. Zharnel Hughes clocked 20.13s and Andre De Grasse recorded 20.23s in the 200 meters. Kenny went sub-20 to record a time of 19.84 seconds and claim the Grand Slam Track title once again. 

Philadelphia rolled around at the end of May, and everybody knew what was going to happen. On May 31, he kicked off with a 19.95 s in the 200 m, once again holding off Zharnel Hughes (20.50 s) and Canadian veteran Aaron Brown (20.50 s). Fans knew he would win; what the fans did not know was that he had a lot of fuel in the tank. In the 100 meters, the man recorded a personal best of 9.86 seconds. Leaving behind Bryan Levell (10.02 s) and Christian Coleman (10.12 s). What do you think of his time in the next Slam?