Once focused solely on blazing speed on the track, the spotlight has now shifted to verbal sparring. Last year, Noah Lyles shattered the U.S. Olympic Trials record in the men’s 200m with a scorching 19.53-second finish, eclipsing Michael Johnson’s 1996 mark of 19.66. But in recent months, the conversation has turned away from performances to pointed criticism, especially of Johnson’s Grand Slam Track (GST) league. Lyles expressed skepticism about the league’s appeal and questioned its financial backing. “Money is not the thing that’s going to drive me every time… who are your outside sponsors, who are your non-track and field sponsors… I haven’t even heard a block’s sponsor,” he said, throwing sharp jabs at GST. According to Lyles, several concerns about the league ultimately kept him from signing up. And Michael Johnson has an answer for him…
In March, Lyles pointed to the league’s lack of visibility as its biggest flaw. He argued that pouring money into athletes wouldn’t matter much if there wasn’t a wide enough audience to see them compete. When the league abruptly folded, canceling its final event in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties, Lyles remarked, “I’d say my predictions were kind of dead on. unfortunately.” He added that the sudden shutdown meant the league failed to complete even a single full season or reach its intended goals. However, Michael Johnson has offered a contrasting perspective.
First, while announcing the end of Grand Slam Track’s first season, Michael Johnson stated, “We feel that we’ve proven everything that we needed to this year in the first three slams.” But his tone shifted when he addressed Noah Lyles’ repeated criticism, notably from the very same stage where Lyles slammed the league’s sudden shutdown. In an interview with Sports Business Journal, Johnson directly called out the sprinter: “Noah does a lot of talking about Grand Slam track. So let’s just address Noah. Noah’s problem is, according to him, ‘I’m the fastest man in the world. I’m the fastest man in the world.’ If your position is, if you’ve got to keep trying to explain to people that you’re the fastest man in the world because of something that you did last year, we are the answer to your problem, because you have to continue to prove to people that you’re the best.”
Credit: x/Michael Johnson
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