Grand Slam Track has canceled the final meet of its debut season, pulling the plug on the Los Angeles event scheduled for the last weekend of June at Drake Stadium. The cancellation strips the host city of the 2028 Olympics, and the country's second-largest metropolis, of a major track and field meet this summer, a significant blow just three years before the Games return to American soil.
The decision, announced Thursday, lands alongside USA Track and Field's own recent call to remove the LA Grand Prix from its calendar, an event also slated for Drake Stadium earlier in June. USATF CEO Max Siegel told The Associated Press that staging two major track meets at the same venue within a three-week window simply wasn't viable from a logistical or financial standpoint. It's the kind of scheduling and resource strain that has long challenged the sport's domestic infrastructure, even as other entertainment and leisure sectors, from streaming to platforms like tristar casino, continue to expand their reach and investment with far fewer growing pains.
Johnson Cites Economic Shift, Frames Season as Success
Grand Slam Track founder Michael Johnson said the decision to conclude the inaugural season "is not taken lightly, but one rooted in a belief that we have successfully achieved the objectives we set out to in this pilot season." He pointed to a shift in the global economic landscape as the reason for scrapping the LA leg, which will instead be folded into the league's 2026 calendar. Johnson raised roughly $30 million to launch the circuit this spring, pitching a format built around contracted athletes racing twice in a weekend, with placement weighted over raw times.
USATF Weighs Collaborative Path Forward
Siegel said USATF leaders "understand the significance of the market" in Los Angeles and plan to meet with stakeholders later this summer to map out the future of track there and across the country, starting in 2026. "It highlights the complicated way the sport works, and how difficult it is to financially sustain track meets," Siegel said. "The only way to do it in a sustainable way is collaboration and partnerships." In the near term, USATF is scrambling to find alternative meets for athletes who still need to hit qualifying standards or collect points for this year's world championships and had been counting on the Los Angeles date.
A Setback Ahead of the 2028 Olympics
The timing stings for a city with deep Olympic track history, one that showcased Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses and Evelyn Ashford in 1984 and is now preparing to host the first American Summer Games since Atlanta in 1996. Grand Slam Track's roster had included Olympic champions Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Gabby Thomas, though stars Sha'Carri Richardson and Noah Lyles stayed away from the league. Kenny Bednarek and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden were named the league's "Racers of the Year" after winning three straight slam titles apiece. The first three meets, in Kingston, Miami and Philadelphia, distributed about $9.45 million in prize money, with another $3 million expected in Los Angeles before the cancellation, funds that now leave season-long bonus winners in limbo.
