Four-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson says the fallout from Grand Slam Track's failed launch was "the most stress" he had faced for a long time and clarified the details around a payment made to him during its demise.
Johnson was the founder of the track league, which had its inaugural season in 2025 with meets in Kingston, Jamaica, Miami and Philadelphia.
However, the fourth and final meet scheduled for Los Angeles in June 2025 was canceled, and Grand Slam Track filed for bankruptcy in December.
In March, a legal filing by Grand Slam Track's creditors accused Johnson of "secretly" paying himself $500,000 days before the season collapsed, a claim a series representative said at the time was "unfounded and false."
Johnson tried to explain what happened in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, calling the accusations against him "the most hurtful thing and the exact opposite of what was reported."
"Our credit card was full at Grand Slam Track, because we were facing significant cash-flow issues," Johnson told the Telegraph. "We had 96 athletes, plus companions, whom we needed to fly to Miami and Philadelphia. We had 170 people to house in hotels in both cities, and the credit card had no room left. I instructed our travel team to put it on my credit card, and I would be reimbursed for it.
"So what I received was reimbursement. I also loaned the company $2 million to make sure we took care of the athletes. I decided to forgo my own salary."
Speaking about the stress surrounding the event's breakdown, Johnson added: "It was 10 [out of 10]. In Olympic sprinting, you have to deliver your best performance in seconds, and you get one opportunity every four years; there's probably nothing more stressful than that. But this was the most stress I had dealt with in a very long time.
"I definitely had nights where I didn't sleep, where I would be awake thinking, 'This is on me. This headline just came out; do the athletes believe that?' Those things weighed on me very heavily, and on my family as well."
Johnson had boasted a $30 million bankroll at the outset of Grand Slam Track, but in its Chapter 11 filing Thursday in bankruptcy court in Delaware, the league said it had less than $50,000 cash on hand, had between 200 and 999 creditors, and owed between $10 million and $50 million.
PA and The Associated Press contributed to this report.