Grand Slam Track denies Michael Johnson earned $2m from scrapped series

Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track organisation has denied the former American sprinter has pocketed $2m from the series while his athletes have gone unpaid, calling the speculation “categorically false” – and claimed he was facing financial losses himself.

Johnson is facing the prospect of legal action from athletes, agents and the suppliers who helped stage three GST meetings, with sources claiming they are owed as much as $19m (£13.9m). It is understood that two athletes claim they had to withdraw from buying a house when prize money was not paid, and many privately believe they will never receive their money.

However, a representative for the four-time Olympic champion has told the Guardian that contrary to the speculation he had been paid $2m (£1.45m) during the event, he had actually lost more than $2m of his own money before pulling the plug. “The rumours that Michael Johnson has received $2m or profited in any way from Grand Slam Track are categorically false,” the spokesperson said.

“In fact, Michael has actually put over $2m of his own money into the project. We are working hard in real time to secure additional funds, and Michael has asked for patience while we try to fix this.”

The series was launched with great fanfare in Jamaica in April, with athletes promised $100,000 (£73,300) for winning their events at each of the four meetings, as well as additional money for being an official “racer”.

However, it was cancelled before the fourth event was due to be held in Los Angeles, with Johnson revealing that GST had lost the backing of a big-money investor after Kingston struggled to attract fans. The next two events, in Miami and Philadelphia, were seen as a success but by then the financial situation was dire.

Johnson still believes the series can return in 2026 and hopes to settle GST’s debts by the end of this month. However, lawyers are already understood to be looking at the situation. Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, has said the international governing body is watching the situation closely.

Last month Johnson – who is not working as a pundit for the BBC in Tokyo – admitted he had let athletes down. “It is incredibly difficult to live with the reality that you’ve built something bigger than yourself while simultaneously feeling like you’ve let down the very people you set out to help,” he said.

“We promised that athletes would be fairly and quickly compensated. Yet, here we are struggling with our ability to compensate them.”