Michael Johnson’s plan to shake up athletics has one glaring flaw

Starting in April 2025, Johnson’s glossy, new competition will have a prize pot of $12.6 million split across four meets each year, in a similar way to golf and tennis’s grand slam events.

The top athletes will be paid a base salary as well as compete for up to $100,000 in prize money – more than three times what Diamond League champions are paid across 15 events. The aim is to create rivalries and interest, and one way Johnson aims to do that is by having only one race taking place at any one time.

‘We are better together’

So far, so good. But her decision not to include field events is a bold shift, and former Olympic champion heptathlete Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill voiced her own doubts about it on The Sports Agents podcast last month. Like Sawyers, she supported the concept, but worried that it might deter young athletes from pursuing field events.

Sawyers wants a chance to catch Johnson in Paris to put her thoughts to him, and would even love to have a good-natured debate about it on the BBC’s Olympic coverage. “I want to get on the couch with him live, I want to talk to him about it, but I haven’t had that chance yet,” she says jovially. “He’s given so many different reasons why he hasn’t included them but I want to talk to him and ask him what really is it? And let me convince you that it makes business sense to include field.”

Sat in the media room at the Stade de France, Sawyers, 30, is right at home. Despite her misfortune injury, she is looking on the bright side, talking animatedly and at pace ahead of starting her shift at the evening session.

Sawyers is a self-confessed athletics nerd and fan. Although she may only have commented a handful of times before these Games, she has been a popular addition to the BBC’s coverage, full of insight as a current athlete. When it comes to the future of her sport de ella, she wants to have her say de ella too.

“The format Michael proposes is where athletes have got to commit to a certain amount of meets, and I can tell you you’ll get bigger stars if you include field – because sprinters don’t often like to commit to things, they pull out of races a lot of the time,” she says.

“Some people in track events don’t meet until major champs, they avoid each other. But the best in the world in the field are happy to compete all the time. We need a consistent, reliable league that’s easy to follow, where you can root for your favorite athletes, we need that. So why won’t you bring us with you? And I know it’s not his responsibility to do everything, but if he’s talking about revolutionizing the sport, which sport? As a whole we are better together.”