With the joy of the Olympics still fresh in our minds, former sprinter and gold medal winner Michael Johnson has announced a new athletics competition that he’s launching to keep the momentum of the sport going through the four year gaps between Olympic sessions. He’s calling it the Grand Slam Track, and the initial format imitates that of the tennis tours - with four big meets during the year to see the best face off against each other.

There are some good ideas in here. I love the athletics and one of the great things is when there’s someone in there you know and are rooting for - someone with a good story. Katarina Johnson-Thompson is a great example of this, as we all know her three previous Olympics haven’t gone to plan so everything was building up to this one, and that silver medal was the culmination of many years of hard work and pain. A storyline I’ve been following, a rivalry with Nafi Thiam that we’ve seen evolve over the years, and a really exciting highlight earlier this month.

Michael says:

The Olympics have always proved there is an appetite for athletics, but you need the same rivalries, high stakes and storytelling we saw here in Paris, and fans need to know where they can find it in between the Olympics. They need to know that when they watch it they are watching the best athletes.

In order to make sure there are ongoing storylines, the plan is to have 48 athletes who are contracted to turn up to the four slams and then another 48 who are so-called ‘challengers’ that are having a moment and could present a problem for the established elite. It’s an interesting idea, it gives athletes something else to aim for outside of the Olympics, and it would go some way to highlighting people that do well in the intervening period but that we otherwise might not hear about.

Of course, it’s very easy to be cynical about a new idea like this, and I’m sure there are plenty of stumbling blocks and hurdles (pun intended) to get over, but it’s definitely worth giving it a go. Johnson says there are locations already signing up and broadcasters in talks so it’s full steam ahead at the moment.

All the well known sporting events we love had to start somewhere so why shouldn’t there be a new one join the mix? I’ll be keeping an eye on this to see how it progresses.