An early sign that Grand Slam Track was in “major, major” financial trouble came in a TikTok comment.
The startup track league posted a supercut of sprinter Gabby Thomas over the summer after she competed in its event in Philadelphia. Thomas quickly hopped into the comment section:
“So dope!! Pls pay me.”
As it turned out, Thomas’s predicament was not unique. Grand Slam recently declared bankruptcy and owes tens of millions of dollars to runners and a handful of companies.
In a video interview Thursday, Front Office Sports asked Thomas precisely why Grand Slam Track failed.
“There probably are a few reasons,” Thomas said. “If I had to put it all in one thought—too much, too fast.”
Grand Slam promised revolutionary paydays and first-class treatment, but failed to complete its schedule amid a cash crunch last summer.
Thomas—the 2024 Olympic champion in the 200 meters—raced six times across Grand Slam’s three events, winning the “long sprints” category in Kingston, Jamaica.
That should have netted her a six-figure payday, plus whatever salary she was owed as a Grand Slam “racer.” But Grand Slam ran out of money last summer and fell millions into debt, failing to pay its athletes and calling its future into doubt.
All told, Grand Slam now owes athletes and vendors $31 million and has just $7,500 in the bank. A recent bankruptcy filing showed that Thomas was one of the company’s largest creditors, owed $249,375 in total.
Founder Michael Johnson told FOS last year that a prospective investor pulled out and caused a “major, major cash flow issue.” The Athletic later reported that the investor was Dodgers/Chelsea owner Todd Boehly and that the company never had the $30 million it had claimed to raise.
Thomas is also an “athlete-advisor” for Alexis Ohanian’s Athlos, which launched far more cautiously in 2024 with six races that had six women each. Ohanian aims to expand in 2026 with a team-based model.
Thomas told FOS that compared to Grand Slam, “I think Athlos did it the right way… We took our time with it.” (She did not compete at the second edition of Athlos while recovering from an Achilles injury.)
Even before Grand Slam’s flameout in 2025, Ohanian had been taking shots at Grand Slam online, complaining that it was signing athletes to overly restrictive contracts.
