-
Michael Johnson’s athletics startup cancels final event
Grand Slam Track, the startup athletics series led by Olympic legend Michael Johnson, has announced the conclusion of its inaugural season, one meet ahead of schedule. The competition’s final event, set to take place in Los Angeles at the end of June, was cancelled with only two weeks notice. “The decision is not taken lightly,”…
-
What can DerbyWheel learn from Johnson’s athletics startup?
We have written previously about Grand Slam Track, Michael Johnson’s initiative to launch a ‘regular season’ for top-level athletics, filling the gaps between Olympics. There are obvious parallels with DerbyWheel’s plans to do likewise for global track cycling, as DerbyWheel’s CEO James Pope has noted recently on LinkedIn. So what did Global Keirin spot in…
-
Another Japanese sporting spectacle coming to the UK in 2025
While we wait for news about DerbyWheel’s proposed keirin series, another Japanese sport has announced plans to bring its stars to the UK during 2025. London’s Royal Albert Hall will host a sumo basho next October, with over 40 elite wrestlers competing over five days. It will be the Japan Sumo Association’s first official overseas…
-
Athletics governing body announces its own game-changing event
Another major sports governing body has responded to the threat of external innovation with innovation of its own. We reported recently on how speed-skating had launched a Short Track World Tour, following the proposed launch of an alternative competition outside the governing body’s control. This week, World Athletics has announced a ‘game-changer’ Ultimate Championship event,…
-
Faced by Korean challenge, speed skating launches a new World Tour
DerbyWheel is the successor initiative to IceDerby, a plan by the same Korean investors to transform the sport of speed skating, by offering game-changing prize money fuelled by gambling receipts. IceDerby faced opposition from the sport’s governing body, which ultimately ended up in a case before the Court of Justice of the European Union. In…
-
American arena racing series winds up for 2025 launch
A US-based initiative to launch a velodrome racing series has confirmed plans to begin operations in 2025. TeamTrak Cycling League will take a portable and expandable track to four American arenas, building to a championship finale in Worcester, Massachusetts in October. Within five years, they hope to expand the series to twenty events. ‘We’ve worked…
-
Athletics legend Michael Johnson plans startup sports series
Keirin cycling isn’t the only Olympic-focused sport seeking to reinvent itself with a mass-audience, narrative-driven, regular-season concept. Legendary American 200m and 400m runner Michael Johnson is behind a new initiative, Grand Slam Track which promises to fill the four-year gap between Olympic Games. Following the models of tennis and golf, the new series will run…
-
Pist6: a model, a partner, or a rival to DerbyWheel?
DerbyWheel is not the only initiative seeking to reinvent, and expand the audience for, keirin racing. Operating from the new indoor facility in Chiba, 40km east of central Tokyo, Pist6 – pronounced, as an English speaker would expect, ‘pist six’ – looks much more like UCI style racing. The track at the Tipstar Dome, opened…
