No guarantee Grand Slam Track will be allowed back, warns World Athletics
The Michael Johnson-led Grand Slam Track has been warned by World Athletics that it may not be permitted to return in 2026 even if it pays off its huge debts.Court documents released on Monday showed that the league, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week, still owes some of the biggest names in track and field hundreds of thousands of dollars and creditors between $10m and $50m (£7.5m and £37.3m).In October the athletes received 50% of what they were owed by GST for competing in Kingston, Miami and Philadelphia before financial difficulties forced it to cancel its final event in Los Angeles.
However the documents show that Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the American 400m world champion, is still owed $356,250 (£265,576), while the Olympic 200m champion, Gabby Thomas, is still waiting to receive $249,375 (£185,900),Britain’s Josh Kerr, a world champion over 1500m in 2023, is owed $218,500 (£162,883),Meanwhile Girraphic, a Wimbledon‑based broadcasting and advertising agency, is still yet to be paid $690,624 (£514,810),The World Athletics president, Sebastian Coe, said the problems of GST deeply concerned him,“Well, it’s not unalloyed joy is it?” he said.
“We welcome innovation into the sport.We welcome fresh investment, but it has to be underpinned by a sustainable, solid financial model executed and delivered on behalf of the athletes.”Asked whether World Athletics could stop Johnson’s plans to bring GST back in 2026, despite its precarious financial situation, Coe said he did not “want to get into the embers” of what might happen next.But, pointedly, he added: “We create the calendar.We have to police the calendar.
And we have to make sure that when there are fresh events, that they come to the table with the kind of credentials and assets that I talked about,“Over the next few years, there are going to be lots of different and new things and I welcome that,But it has to be suffused in a realistic proposition that is fireproof,It’s got to be sustainable,”Coe also insisted that the World Athletics Ultimate Championships, which will launch in Budapest in September 2026, would be a very different proposition.
“It’s a very, very big moment for us,” he said.“There’s no guarantee of success next year, but we’ve got teams that have been working at this now for three years and they will be working through Christmas to make sure that we don’t let the athletes down.“In Budapest, we’ve got the biggest prize pot ever, and it’s a very different model.”
My cultural awakening: The Lehman Trilogy helped me to live with my sight loss
I began to notice my sight deteriorating in my 40s, but not just in the way that you expect it to with age. I had night blindness and blind spots in my field of view. At 44, I was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic eye condition that causes the retina cells to die. I had always been a very visually oriented person: I was a practising architect, and someone who loved to read, draw, go to the cinema and visit art exhibitions. So when black text disappeared on a glaring white page, films became impossible to follow and artworks only took shape once explained to me, I questioned who I would be without my vision
The Guide #221: Endless ticket queues, AI slop and ALL CAPS agony
It’s time for a big old moan. Next week’s newsletter will be a roundup of our favourite culture of the year, a bit of an annual Guide tradition by now, and something that’s great fun to put together.But do you know what’s even more fun? Complaining about things. So, this week’s Guide is devoted to cultural gripes, big and small, of 2025. Here’s what had us seething this year
From Eleanor the Great to Emily in Paris: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
Eleanor the GreatOut nowJune Squibb stars in Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, which premiered at Cannes and tells the tale of the eponymous Eleanor, a senior citizen recently relocated to New York, who strikes up a friendship with a 19-year old – and then stumbles her way into pretending to be a Holocaust survivor.LurkerOut nowA hit at Sundance, this is the story of a lowly retail employee who happens to strike up a friendship with a rising pop star, becoming the Boswell to his Johnson, if Boswell was part of a pop star’s entourage. But the path of friendship with a famous person never did run smooth, and the uneven power dynamic soon prompts some desperate manoeuvring in this psychological thriller.Ella McCayOut nowEmma Mackey stars in the latest from James L Brooks (his first since 2010), a political comedy about an idealistic thirtysomething working in government and preparing to step into the shoes of her mentor, Governor Bill (Albert Brooks). Jamie Lee Curtis co-stars as Ella’s aunt
Stephen Colbert on Trump’s ‘gold card’: ‘Pay-to-play program for rich foreigners’
Late-night hosts tore into Donald Trump’s new “gold card” immigration program and his many weird tangents about grocery prices.Stephen Colbert opened Thursday’s Late Show with a new Christmas jingle about the president: “He’s making a list, checking it twice, then handing that list to the people at ICE. Donald Trump … ruins everything he touches,” he sang. “And lately he’s been pretty handsy, slapping his face on anything in sight.”On Wednesday, Trump put his face on what Colbert called “his long-promised pay-to-play program for rich foreigners”
‘Like lipstick on a fabulous gorilla’: the Barbican’s many gaudy glow-ups and the one to top them all
The brutalist arts-and-towers complex, where even great explorers get lost, is showing its age. Let’s hope the 50th anniversary upgrade is better than the ‘pointillist stippling’ tried in the 1990sThe Barbican is aptly named. From the Old French barbacane, it historically means a fortified gateway forming the outer line of defence to a city or castle. London’s Barbican marks the site of a medieval structure that would have defended an important access point. Its architecture was designed to repel
Barbican to close its doors for a year for multimillion-pound renovation
The Barbican will close its doors for 12 months from June 2028 as it undergoes a multimillion-pound renovation that its leaders say will secure its future.The arts organisation’s Beech Street cinemas will remain open but its theatre, music venue, conservatory and visual arts galleries are set to shutter as the overhaul of the 43-year-old building begins in the lead-up to its 50th anniversary in 2032.The main Barbican site will close its doors in June 2028 and reopen in June 2029, but some disruption will happen before that as the foyer, lakeside area and internal control room are all renovated.The conservatory, which is open only for a few hours at the weekend and currently has netting to stop falling glass, will close earlier, in 2027.Philippa Simpson, the director of buildings and renewal at the Barbican, said the work could not be completed while the site was open to the public as it would be too dangerous, but that it was essential to secure the site’s future
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Tell us: have you ever had an allergic reaction caused by your clothes?