Michael Johnson has been accused of paying himself $500,000 at a time when he knew his doomed Grand Slam Track league owed millions to athletes.
According to claims made in a court filing in the United States, the four-time Olympic champion, 58, is alleged to have made the payment days before telling athletes that the last of four GST events had been cancelled last June due to insufficient funds.
The Johnson-backed project filed for bankruptcy late in 2025, owing six-figure debts to a number of leading tracks stars, including British runners Josh Kerr and Matt Hudson-Smith and 400m hurdles world record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the US.
Now, a group of unpaid vendors has sought permission to sue the individual leaders of GST, which includes Johnson and lead investors Winners Alliance. Their claim features the accusation that Johnson recouped a chunk of the money he pumped into the league on June 4, 2025 despite being aware it was in deep financial peril before the aborted meet in Los Angeles at the end of that month.
‘Mr Johnson initiated a payment of $500,000 purportedly on account of an unsecured note,’ lawyers said in a filing at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
‘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. ‘
Michael Johnson has been accused of paying himself $500,000 despite knowing his Grand Slam Track league owed millions to athletes
The group, described in the filing as an ‘official committee of unsecured creditors’, is fighting against a plan proposed by GST to pay ‘general unsecured vendors’ only 1.5 per cent of what is owed, while paying ‘critical athletes’ and ‘critical vendors’ 85 per cent of their claims.
Johnson vowed to ‘save’ track athletics when he launched his league in 2024, with the promise of lucrative prizes and elite billing. However, a key backer withdrew after the first event in Jamaica in 2024 and the plan quickly unravelled, with GST filing for bankruptcy in December. It incurred estimated liabilities of between $10m and $50m to more than 200 creditors.
In a statement last August, Johnson said: ‘It is incredibly difficult to live with the reality that you’ve built something bigger than yourself while simultaneously feeling like you’ve let down the very people you set out to help.
‘We promised that athletes would be fairly and quickly compensated. Yet, here we are struggling with our ability to compensate them.’
A spokesman for Johnson has been approached for comment.
World Athletics have previously said that GST will not be granted a licence to return until its 2025 debts are settled.
GST has been contacted for comment.
