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Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Gabby Thomas have officially signed up for the much awaited Grand Slam Track League. With their approval, only ten spots remain for a total of 48 athletes in the track league promoted by former sprinting legend Michael Johnson.
Travis Miller, who is the NBC sports director, recently posted a list of the 38 athletes, as he posted on his X handle,
"Who else do you want to see sign with Grand Slam Track?"
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Fans were split in two as they expressed their reactions on the list. One of the users expressed his anguish on the list, as it had very few African athletes on it.
"This would be american leaque, african athletes have sit-out on this on," the fan said.
Another user was not impressed with the logic of the previous user as he replied,
"Here comes my fellow Africans with complain over everything"
Some users provided suggestions in terms of how to include more African athletes. One of the users wrote,
"Ta Lou for sure and some more Aussies like Oli Hoare and Michelle Jenneke, plus Benjamin Robert from France"
Another user seemingly agreed with the comment.
"They need to add more non-Americans to the list. Like Shericka Jackson, Oblique Seville, Kishane Thompson, Julien Alfred, Letsile Tebogo, Marie-Josee Ta Lou etc, the fan stated.
However, some users alleged that the Grand Slam Track League looked more of a local American league.
"Add some more American flags," one fan wrote.
"Grand slam is USA trials with a few invites. I will always hate on elitist access restricted track events, " commented another user.
The inaugural season of the Grand Slam Track League, which includes athletes like Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabby Thomas, Kenny Bednarek, Marileidy Paulino, Ronald Kwemoi, etc., will commence from April 2025. The first meet will be held at Kingston in Jamaica.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone on signing with Grand Slam Track
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was one of the first athletes to have openly backed the Grand Slam Track League, way before the Paris Olympics had even begun. Moments after participating at the invitational races in the Diamond League finals held at Brussels, the 25-year-old sprinter opened up about her decision to sign up for the Grand Slam Track League.
"Yeah, I think it'll be fun. Honestly, being able to do two events and kind of just challenge yourself also using some of those as training blocks, I think it's just going to be really cool to see that dynamic and see the sport grow in popularity. So, I'm excited to be a part of that in any way.” [1:38 onwards]
When asked if there is a possibility of her participation in 200m and 400m events in the future, McLaughlin-Levrone replied,
"It's always a possibility absolutely. So, I think yeah that's the exciting thing is I'm blessed with the ability kind of to switch some of these events and do different things and so yeah love challenging myself that's definitely a possible duo right there.” [3:38 onwards]
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won two gold medals at the Paris Olympics. She broke the world record for the sixth time in women's 400m hurdles, clocking 50.37 seconds to win the Olympic gold medal. She later contributed to yet another gold medal for Team USA in the women's 4x400m relay at the Paris Olympics.
