It’s the track and field equivalent of hope and change.
Word emerged recently that Olympic sprint legend Michael Johnson was launching a “track league” in 2025 backed by Winners Alliance to “revolutionize” the sport, with $30 million in seed money. In April came news of the 776 Invitational set for late September, a women-only meet created by Alexis Ohanian, the Reddit co-founder and husband of Serena Williams.
Both projects aim to yank American track and field out of a decades-old doldrums, where public interest has waned and crowds dwindled.
At the NBC-televised Los Angeles Grand Prix meet Saturday, for example, only half the stands were filled — a concrete stadium on only one side of the 400-meter oval. (Drake Stadium at UCLA has a seating capacity of 11,700.)
A baker’s dozen of world-class athletes had questions and concerns about the Johnson effort as they spoke with Times of San Diego.
But they were mostly excited about the 776 women’s meet (named for the founder’s investment company).
“That’s so cool,” said Sage Hurta-Klecker, 25, a former NCAA indoor mile champion. “I just hope I can put together a good enough season that [includes me] in the conversation.”
Two-time Uganda Olympian Halimah Nakaayi, 29, the 2019 world champion at 800 meters (who also won Saturday), said: “Yeah, I love to inspire women and any activity concerning women — I’m interested to take part in it.”
And Olympic sprinter Jenna Prandini, 31, told me: “What Gabby did was amazing to bring that to us. So if I had the opportunity [to compete], of course.”
Gabby is Olympic sprint medalist Gabrielle Thomas, 27, who joined Ohanian on stage in April to talk up his meet — with no venue or date announced.
(She had to educate him, however. In early chats, he reportedly asked the Harvard grad: “Can the track be laid out like an F-1 circuit, so it’s not like an oval every time?” Thomas replied: “That’s a terrible idea.”)
On Saturday, Thomas added little other information.
“I don’t know too much,” she said. “We don’t have anything set in stone right now. I know we’re targeting after the Olympics” and even after the last Diamond League meet Sept. 13-14 in Belgium.
Is she recruiting anybody for the meet?
“We want everyone to be there — everyone who wants to be there,” Thomas told me. “All the top women should be at that meet.”
Five-time NCAA champion Anna Cockrell, 26, now a professional who won the 400-meter hurdles Saturday, would like to compete there — but worries about her event being left out.
She said she’s spoken very briefly with Ohanian about the event, which could lead to a series of meets.
“From what I understand, I don’t know if there’s a hurdle race so I’m interested but if there’s no hurdles … I don’t know if I’ll be there,” she said.
Another hurdler — world-record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone — said after winning the L.A. Grand Prix 200-meter dash that the 776 meet “sounds like a really awesome amazing opportunity and I’m sure it’s going to be great.”
But she and her coach, Bobby Kersee, “haven’t thought that far ahead.”
Ohanian didn’t respond to numerous requests for comment.
Neither did former world-record holder Johnson, who declined to speak to me Saturday as he watched the meet with fellow Olympic greats in the VIP area.
But his effort to jump-start fan interest in track drew mixed reviews among world-class athletes I spoke to at UCLA.
‘”My opinion is somewhat … skeptical,” Rai Benjamin said after clocking a world-leading time in the 400 hurdles.
“I feel like we have a product that already works,” he said, fretting that the new circuit could result in a thinning of the sport’s available prize money.
For a track league to compete with the World Athletics series of professional meets called the Wanda Diamond League, he said, “You need a venue. And from what I’ve read, I don’t think they have a TV deal.”
Benjamin, 26, asked: “What’s the ROI on that for his investors and how much money can they actually flush out for this?”
His fellow long hurdler Cockrell noted “all this conversation about the WNBA and women’s basketball. I think a big difference has been you can watch it, and now we have all these people that want to watch [Caitlin Clark and the WNBA].”
But she’s among many track athletes decrying the recent announcement that FloTrack would take over U.S. broadcast rights to air foreign Diamond League meets starting in 2025 — with subscriptions costing $29.99 a month or $149.99 a year. (NBC/Peacock has rights now.)
“I’m glad that we have people wanting to invest and start these leagues,” Conckrell said. “That is a step in the right direction, but it’s … about: How do we get people to watch it?
“It’s hard to get fans who don’t know anything about the sport to pay that much to watch it. So whoever can solve that problem, you got my vote.”
Kyree King, winner of the 100 Saturday, said a project like Johnson’s is “exactly what we need. We need competition with these other meets because they just think they can do whatever they want — you know, pay whatever they want to, do whatever they want.
“There’s more competition if there’s more money over here and these fans in America deserve to have the top-of-the-line athletes come out and race in a league that they get to come to and they get to see — not only in Eugene or in L.A. or something like that.”
King, 29, said the league needs consistent meets “so that we can create more fanfare, … create more money. We can make this sport way bigger.”
World champion Michael Norman, the San Diego-born star who won the 400 Saturday, said he needed more information about the Johnson league (with no name yet but details expected in June).
“I’ve only heard that he’s gotten some initial money for a start-up, but I want to see … the plans and the details,” he said. “Is this like a cash-grab type of scenario?”
Norman says professional track “should kind of go away from appearance fees and just make the pot bigger for winning.”
He said more top stars would be enticed to compete — with headlines following — if meets offered $60,000 first-place prizes instead of athletes “going back and forth with the meet director fighting for like $10,000 while other athletes are just struggling to get to the meet.”
World bronze medalist 400 hurdler Trevor Bassitt, 26, said he’d love to join Michael Johnson’s league.
“It seems like a great thing for the sport. … I don’t know anything. But knowing Michael Johnson, I think he knows what he’s doing — pitching to some of those high-level athletes,” he said.
Kirani James, a 31-year-old Grenadian with a set of gold, silver and bronze Olympic medals in the 400-meter dash, hopes to compete until the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
He sees positives in the Johnson league, saying more events could “uplift this sport.”
“By the end of the day, you know, the more track events we have, the better for us athletes because there’s a lot of athletes here that are talented [but] sometimes you can’t get into a Diamond League based on your rankings.
“But that doesn’t mean that you’re not worthy. They can only fill 8-9 lanes.”
Fellow Olympic champion Matt Centrowitz, 34, took third in the 1500 Saturday but plans to hang up his spikes after this season.
Would he consider hanging on another year to compete in the Michael Johnson league?
“Not so much,” Centro said. “I think it kind of compels me to maybe get involved somehow but maybe not racing.”
McLaughlin-Levrone, a two-time Olympian expected to star at the Paris Games, said a lot of things are in the works to build the sport.
“I hope that they can do that,” the 24-year-old said of the 2025 league. “I don’t know all the specifics about everything going on, but I’m sure we’ll find out more and see it unfold in the months to come.”