🏃New Chapter 11 BK Filing - GST Inc.🏃
Olympic Medalist Michael Johnson speedily incinerates cash with track league venture
On December 11, 2025, GST, Inc. aka Grand Slam Track™ (the “debtor” or the “company”) filed a chapter 11 bankruptcy case in the District of Delaware (Judge Owens). Then, the debtor did nothing. For nearly two weeks.
Which is ironic because the debtor’s CEO ain’t known for slow starts.
He’s, um, Michael Johnson.
The Eight-time world champion.
Four-time Olympic 🥇too — would’ve been five had Jerome Young not been a dope(r).*
In ‘23, he conceived the debtor “… as a new professional track and field league,” and in the summer of ‘23, per Force10 Partners LLC’s (“Force 10”) Nicholas Rubin, Mr. Johnson began formalizing the framework for the business, which progressed a couple of months later to working with Winners Alliance (“WA”), “… a global organization involved in the commercialization and representation of athletes,” on fundraising and operational development.
In February ‘24, Mr. Johnson went public with the league, and in April ‘24, the debtor and WA completed a seed financing round. For …
… $7mm in pref equity plus the potential for $6mm more at a future date.
To launch a professional sports league.
You don’t need anything more to know this thing was sure as sh*t going to fail.
But with $7mm in hand, Mr. Johnson “… hired full-time staff, executed athlete contracts to ensure athlete attendance and participation at competitions, and prepared for launch,” executing broadcast agreements covering the US, Europe, and 205 other global territories and aiming to hold its inaugural season in ‘25.
Sound expensive? It was. Enter PJT Partners ($PJT), which between January and March ‘25, contacted 150+ parties, including strategics, family offices, PE sponsors, and venture capital firms, seeing if anyone was willing to make an investment. Here’s Mr. Rubin to tell us about how that played out:
“During this period, members of the Company’s management participated in more than 30 live pitch meetings with prospective investors, addressing topics including the planned structure of the inaugural 2025 season, projected operating results, capital requirements, and potential paths to scalability. Despite this extensive outreach, many prospective investors declined to proceed or deferred investment decisions, frequently citing the early-stage nature of the league, the absence of completed operating results from a full season of competition, uncertainty regarding the ramp-up of media and sponsorship revenues, and the lack of a committed lead investor.”
Again, another clue for Mr. Johnson. But one party got his hopes up. In mid-March ‘25, Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries (“Eldrige”) and the debtor entered into a non-binding term sheet that contemplated $30mm in Series A funding.
Based on that and Eldrige’s “… repeated positive indications regarding its anticipated investment,” the company pushed forward with its first event in Kingston, Jamaica and “… made firm commitments to athletes, broadcasters, and commercial partners …”
So, the starting 🔫 fired off in Kingston on April 4, 2025.
Seven days later, on April 11, 2025, the very-unbound Eldrige be like …
… racing off and leaving the company without a committed, institutional financier.
But the company had already committed itself, and after undisclosed sources dropped “… several million dollars …” into it, the league held its second and third competitions in Miami and Philly in May ‘25.
Those would be the last. By the time that June ‘25 rolled around, the league was an abject failure, and it canceled its fourth scheduled event in Los Angeles. Over the following months, the company attempted to raise outside capital, which didn’t happen, and “negotiate” with athletes, vendors, and other creditors on payment terms …
By December ‘25, creditors crossed the finish line, and a group of them forced the company’s hand by threatening an involuntary liquidation. Hence the voluntary filing the same month.
As of the petition date, the company owed (i) $5.3mm to WA under secured promissory notes issued throughout ‘25 to keep the business afloat and (ii), excluding WA’s GUC claims, ~$20mm in unsecured creditors, including of ~$7mm owing to athletes, against …~$143k in cash.
To fund the obvious DIP need, WA is stepping up with a ~$7.3mm DIP term loan, composed of $2.9mm in fresh kindling ($1.1mm interim) and a ~$4.4mm roll-up of WA’s prepetition debt ($1.1mm on interim, ~$3.3mm on final). The DIP bears interest at a simple 14.5%, features a 2% exit fee on the new money, and contains the following milestones:
It’s not really a sprint … but what’s the value of reorganizing this “business”? The company has no hard assets, and the name is torched. In response to a letter from Mr. Johnson to the track community, Olympic Gold medalist Gabby Thomas, whom the debtor owes ~$249k,** made that last point crystal-clear on TikTok:
For now, we wait. The court held a 32-minute first-day hearing on December 23, 2025, at which the court granted the debtors’ DIP motion (the only substantive relief), and scheduled the second-day hearing for February 2, 2026 at 11am ET.
The debtor is represented by Levene, Neale, Bender, Yoo & Golubchik L.L.P. (David Golubchik, Krikor Meshefejian) and Reed Smith LLP (Kurt Gwynne, Jason Angelo, Gabrielle Colson) as legal counsel, Force10 Partners LLC (Nicholas Rubin) as financial advisor and CRO, and Kekst CNC as strategic communications advisor. The debtor’s independent director is J. Rudy Freeman. WA is represented by Raines Feldman Littrell LLP (Hamid Rafatjoo, Carollynn Callari, Thomas Francella, Jr., Mark Eckard) as legal counsel. The official committee of unsecured creditors is represented by Thompson Coburn LLP (Mark Power, Joseph Orbach, Aleksandra Abramova) and Chipman Brown Cicero & Cole, LLP (Bryan Hall).
*Jerome didn’t even participate in the finals. He was a heat runner.
**Other athletes were also left holding the bag, including Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (~$356k), Kenny Bednarek ($225k), Josh Kerr (~$219k), Marileidy Paulino (~$212k), Alison Dos Santos (~$191k), and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden (~$191k).
Company Professionals:
Legal: Levene, Neale, Bender, Yoo & Golubchik L.L.P. (David Golubchik, Krikor Meshefejian) and Reed Smith LLP (Kurt Gwynne, Jason Angelo, Gabrielle Colson)
Financial Advisor/CRO: Force10 Partners LLC (Nicholas Rubin)
Strategic Communications: Kekst CNC
Claims Agent: Stretto (Click here for free docket access)
Other Parties in Interest:
Winners Alliance
Legal: Raines Feldman Littrell LLP (Hamid Rafatjoo, Carollynn Callari, Thomas Francella, Jr., Mark Eckard)
Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors
Legal: Thompson Coburn LLP (Mark Power, Joseph Orbach, Aleksandra Abramova) and Chipman Brown Cicero & Cole, LLP (Bryan Hall)