Two New Wealthy Track Startups Are Feuding Over Athlete Deals

It’s a new era in sports: Rich investors are fighting over track.

A week after Alexis Ohanian launched his first Athlos track event in New York City—and said the event would return in 2025—the Reddit cofounder called out rival track league Grand Slam Track on social media.

Directly tagging the league’s founder, legendary sprinter Michael Johnson, and billionaire investor Bill Ackman, Ohanian wrote Wednesday that while it’s “great to see more people investing in athletics,” it’s “disappointing you’re requiring these women to get permission from you & Bill in order to compete in other leagues. It’s not very athlete-friendly.” He followed with another post, also directed at Johnson: “You’re an Olympic legend and I hope you’ll reconsider. It’s so much better for the sport to give these women more options and not fewer—especially while it’s still so under-invested-in.”

“I personally see prohibiting athletes from competing in another league as a sign of weakness,” Ohanian posted later.

Grand Slam Track is set to begin next year and includes some athletes who participated in the recent Athlos women’s event, including Olympic gold medalist Masai Russell. World record holder Sydney McLaughlin was the first athlete committed to Grand Slam.

A Grand Slam spokesperson told Front Office Sports that the league’s athletes are allowed to compete in other competitions, like the Diamond League and Athlos, and do not need permission to do so.

FOS obtained a copy of a contract that Grand Slam offered at least one athlete. The relevant section reads that athletes need to “obtain prior written consent” to “engage in a Competing Sports League’s event.” The contract defines a “Competing Sports League” as any track league with more than two events—excluding the Diamond League—“or other professional sports leagues like the National Football League.” The contract explicitly says that athletes do not need Grand Slam’s permission to race at the Olympics, world or national championships, and “primary sponsor meets and other traditional track meets.”

It’s unclear whether any athletes have agreed to these terms, or whether Grand Slam is continuing to include this clause in negotiations with athletes.

Grand Slam Track gave a fiery statement that attacked Ohanian without mentioning him by name. “It’s unfortunate that in this pivotal moment to elevate the sport, there are some newcomers who think the way to do this is to create controversy through distortions,” the spokesperson for Grand Slam Track said in a statement to FOS.

The statement also contested Ohanian’s claims that Grand Slam Track is strict about other leagues and not “athlete-friendly.”

“We’re supportive of Grand Slam Track athletes competing in Diamond League events and any other one-off events that may arise. As the first track league to ever pay athletes a fair base salary and awarding the most prize money in the history of the sport, we continue to be in active conversations with athletes and agents to create a contractual framework that always puts the athletes first,” the spokesperson said.

Athlos was only one event in 2024, which would put it safely on the right side of this version of the contract, but the language appears to be designed to slow any competitors from expanding beyond two events. Grand Slam has said it plans to have four events per year starting in 2025.

Athlos and Grand Slam Track are new on the track scene, but they are quickly making a huge financial impact. Athlos set a total prize purse of $663,000 for just six events. Grand Slam Track has said all athletes will get a base salary on top of prize money starting at $100,000 for first place. Then there’s Duael, a new head-to-head bracket-style event that will have a $500,000 purse. All of this pressured the Diamond League into announcing in September that it will increase its prize money in 2025. Regular-season winnings will jump from $10,000 for first place in 2024 to $30,000 to $50,000 this year in 2024. All told, the Diamond League says that it will increase its prize money by one-third next year.

A source familiar with the Ohanian-Johnson-Ackman situation said there is “no truth whatsoever” to the claim that athletes need Ackman’s personal permission to compete in other events. The billionaire chairs the board of Winners Alliance, described as the lead investor and operating partner of Grand Slam Track, and isn’t involved in the day-to-day operations of the league. Winners Alliance is part of the Professional Tennis Players Association, cofounded by Novak Djokovic. Founded in 2022, it raised $40 million earlier this year on top of an initial $26 million. Most of the $30 million Grand Slam Track has raised comes from Winners Alliance.

Ohanian also suggested that Grand Slam Track copied Athlos when the two track events launched earlier this year.

“It’s been so cool watching his first tweets about GST literally as I was coming off the stage after our Athlos announcement at the Business of Women’s Sports Summit,” Ohanian posted Wednesday night. “I don’t blame him for not wanting to bring us up! No one likes being second.”

While both are active on X/Twitter, neither Johnson nor Ackman have responded to Ohanian on the platform. 

“I think more investors coming into the sport and giving these athletes more opportunities is a great thing,” Ohanian posted later on Thursday. “The sport has been so underinvested in, it just feels wrong to prohibit these athletes from getting more money/exposure/etc — almost feels predatory tbh to lock them in this early on.”

A representative for Johnson did not respond to a request for comment, while Ohanian and Ackman were not immediately available for comment.