EN
HR
This year, when Michael Johnson, an athletics icon, launched his Grand Slam Track to usher in a new golden age for athletics, we were honestly perplexed. Athletics that distributes money like crazy and even includes betting in its world is a circus-like exaggeration. That's the Grand Slam Track collapsed after three of its four scheduled events, leaving only debts and a dull memory.
Only against the Diamond League? Officially, it wasn't an attack on the international federation, World Athletics, but a torpedo against the Diamond League, which perhaps has too many events, but certainly has a strong tradition. Just look at the attendance figures, the stadiums, and the television production. The spectacle is always guaranteed, and the variety of characters it offers is vast and captivating. There's no comparison. And then the Grand Slam Track also split the sport in two by eliminating jumps and throws... a suicide, because it was intended to be a business for a select few... There was talk of €12 million invested in the operation, which would then likely also have been used to initiate change within World Athletics. A project launched in the USA where at its trials in Eugene, a truly important and high-level competitive event managed to bring an average of just over 8,000 spectators a day... These are sobering figures.
Grand Prix, the father More than 40 years ago, the Golden Four existed, which included four high-level international meetings: Berlin, Brussels, Oslo, and Zurich. They were the richest and most attended meetings, because they had the money to hire athletes. Primo Nebiolo, then president of the IAAF - as World Athletics was then called - saw this circuit as a political threat, as it could slightly destabilise the federation. At the same time, he thought of a new circuit, called the Grand Prix, which could be beneficial to athletics worldwide. So he bought the rights to the Golden Four and created a new entity, now called the Diamond League, after having been the Grand Prix and the Golden League.
The accusations of Gabby Thomas, Olympic 200-metre champion, was, in a certain sense, the queen of the first stages of the Grand Slam Track. She won a few hundred thousand dollars, but claims she hasn't yet seen all the checks she earned. However, she rightly has a grudge against those who cheat in sport, and recently wrote on Instagram: "Doping coaches should be banned for life from coaching in the sport. Whether you were banned while competing as an athlete or caught distributing as a coach [for some, both]," she wrote. "If you train under a coach who is known for doping … you are complicit.” A very clear and understandable position.
The sad reality World Athletics always makes a great effort to clean up the environment, but vague accusations aren't enough; we need to be more precise. Indeed, the proclamations, in some way, "help" those who cheat and always manage to get away with it, because this guarantees them a new market. Of course, my analysis is cynical, but unfortunately it's true. We should also be wary of those who propose to include bets, because the bad habit starts there. We agree: athletes need to earn money, but that doesn't mean they should sell their souls.
Armand Duplantis of Team Sweden jumps 6.28 to set a new World Record in the Men's Pole Vault Final during the BAUHAUS-galan, part of the 2025 Diamond League at Olympic Stadium on June 15, 2025 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Gianni Merlo - AIPS President Photo by Linnea Rheborg/Getty Images
