BBC not planning to use Johnson in 2026 coverage

The BBC is not planning to use four-time Olympic gold medallist Michael Johnson in its athletics coverage this year.

Johnson’s Grand Slam Track league (GST) collapsed in December 2025, leaving athletes and creditors unpaid.

Contracted runners were promised lucrative prize money and salaries in the competition’s inaugural season, but the final event was cancelled and organisers later voluntarily filed for bankruptcy in the US.

Johnson has been a pundit and commentator for the BBC since 2001 but has not worked for the broadcaster since the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The Association of Athletics Managers, which represents a number of competitors, said in January that GST had debts of more than $30m (£22.5m).

Former world 1500m champion Josh Kerr was one of the British athletes invited to be part of the league, and legal documents filed with a bankruptcy court for the US district of Delaware claim he is owed $168,750 (£123,000).

The documents also allege that:

Speaking to BBC Sport, Olympic silver medallist Kerr said: “Of course I’m frustrated – I’m owed a lot of money.

“In any business, anyone is going to be frustrated [with that]. I just don’t particularly know right now where to push those frustrations and where they should sit.

Three GST events were held – in Kingston, Miami and Philadelphia – before the project collapsed in December 2025.

The legal filing in Delaware includes an accusation that Johnson paid himself $500,000 (£375,000) eight days before it collapsed – a claim GST has called “unfounded and false”.

In their filed objection on behalf of an official unsecured creditors committee (UCC), state lawyers said: “On June 4, 2025, just after the completion of the Philadelphia event, and approximately one week before announcing the cancellation of its Los Angeles event, Mr Johnson initiated a payment of $500,000 purportedly on account of an unsecured note.

“There are no board minutes which reflect authorisation of this insider avoidable transfer. Shockingly, Mr Johnson elected to secretly prefer himself over the athletes and other, non-insider creditors, while at the same time feigning to the public that he was selflessly looking to advance the interests of the athletes.”

A spokesperson for GST said Johnson put $2.25m (£1.8m) into the business on 23 May 2025 – a week before the event in Philadelphia.

In a statement, GST said: “Mr Johnson advanced millions of dollars for GST’s operating expenses, including athlete travel, accommodation and costs, only a portion which was repaid through the reimbursement.

Neita says she is still owed half of her prize money from GST.

“Even one penny being owed is a significant amount,” she said. “It’s kind of crazy. I sometimes think, ‘I really want my money’. An athlete deserves what they’re promised.

“But you know, unfortunately, the league itself and Michael Johnson, ran into trouble. I don’t know the full ins and outs of exactly what happened, but I would like to believe that it wasn’t with ill intent, and it was a league that was started up with the best interest of the athletes.

“I wouldn’t want it to be like, ‘Michael Johnson was a bad man.’ I don’t even think that’s what it is. He’s one of the most respected athletes in the world, especially in our sport.

Johnson has previously said there would be no GST events in 2026 unless athletes have received their prize money for its first year.

The American said he would “refuse to give up on the mission of Grand Slam Track” after the competition said it would move into a “court-supervised reorganisation”.

The committee of unsecured creditors is also fighting an attempt by Johnson and GST to pay athletes 85% of their money, but only pay certain vendors 1.5%. They include a British-owned broadcast production company (in partnership with an American broadcast company) owed more than $3m (£2.5m).

World Athletics has said it would only consider licensing or supporting any future GST events once its debts from the 2025 season are paid.

In a statement, the governing body said: “It is unconscionable that efforts would be made for Grand Slam Track to restart in 2026 without the settlement of outstanding financial obligations to athletes, vendors and service providers.”