Huge BBC star and Olympian to disappear from coverage after almost three decades

Olympic star Michael Johnson won't be on the BBC's coverage of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo next month. The American sprinter, who became Olympic Champion four times and the World Champion eight times, won't be a pundit in their Tokyo studio during the championships running from September 13 to September 21.

He has featured on the BBC as a regular pundit over the last few decades, and the corporation confirmed he won't be part of the punditry team for next month. His absence comes amid ongoing financial difficulties regarding his newly launched Grand Slam Track league, which still owes money to athletes in prize money and appearance fees.

A representative for the sprinter said: "He has other commitments, unfortunately, but is looking forward to working with the BBC in the future."

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Last week, Michael said Grand Slam Track is struggling with financial difficulties and blamed the significant loss of funding for the failure to pay athletes.

The league's inaugural event in Jamaica in April didn't pull in the expected audience numbers, resulting in less income from broadcast deals and sponsorship agreements.

According to the Express, Grand Slam Track had initially promised athletes around £74,000 ($100,000) for winning their respective events across each of the four planned competitions.

In addition to this, athletes were assured extra payments for appearing, while Johnson touted a total prize pool of over £8.7million ($12m).

In April, he told the BBC: "Our athletes deserve to be paid more and we're doing that." But in a recent statement over the unpaid fees, he explained: "We promised that athletes would be fairly and quickly compensated, yet here we are struggling with our ability to compensate them."

Olympian Gabby Thomas was among the athletes who discussed their frustration as they waited for payments. World Athletics president Lord Coe has recognised that the governing body is closely monitoring the situation.

Michael held an emergency meeting to reveal the cancellation of the final Grand Slam Track event in Los Angeles.

He called it "one of the most difficult challenges” and said there won't be a 2026 series until the debts are settled.

Meanwhile, in a powerful open letter to the Prime Minister, Olympic champions, global medallists and rising stars recently called on the government to back the bid to host the 2029 World Athletics Championships at the London Stadium with £45million of funding.

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