With ample discourse around Penn failing to adapt to the current collegiate sports landscape, hosting a professional track meet may be the school’s greatest achievement in recent memory.
Penn track and field director Steve Dolan previously told the Daily Pennsylvanian that he had a vision about a decade ago to morph Penn into a “major hub for track and field.” The completion of the Ott Center, a state-of-the-art indoor facility, was the first step. The next was bringing major competitions to campus, and the emerging Grand Slam league fit the bill.
The league, pioneered by track and field Hall of Famer and Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson, sought to bring together the sport’s biggest stars across four competitions and four cities. Dolan and Penn cast a line, and Grand Slam bit. Philadelphia and the historic Franklin Field was announced to be the third location for Johnson’s brainchild alongside Kingston, Miami, and Los Angeles.
After this weekend’s Grand Slam competition, I can confidently say that Dolan’s decade-long plan was a success: over 20,000 fans and lots of eyes came to Penn over the two days. The spectacle that was the Philadelphia Slam cemented Penn as a premier track and field destination past the yearly Penn Relay Carnival.
Grand Slam, in many ways, represents a new era of track and field — a centralized, athlete-first event that prioritizes fan experience. With this, the league and its athletes still made sure to pay immense respect to the tradition of Franklin Field. During media interviews, stars were not shy to share their excitement to compete at the historic venue.
“There’s so much history here at this track, at the stadium, and it’s really just an honor and an experience to be able to get to run there,” Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone told The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jonathan Tannenwald.
McLaughlin-Levrone, a four-time Olympic gold medalist, boasts 1.5 million followers on Instagram alone. This kind of praise from one of the biggest track stars in the United States for a school that routinely struggles to get butts in stands is priceless. It helps with recruiting for Penn’s track program, it creates buzz for the sport in Philadelphia, and it strengthens Penn’s odds to host other premier sporting events in the future.
Of course, a home-grown Penn runner racing in the Philadelphia Slam would be the only other cosign Penn would need — proving it’s a school you can be coached at to become a professional before returning to compete at the highest level.
Oh. Grand Slam had two former Quakers competing?
Former Penn runners Nia Akins and Isabella Whittaker both made homecomings this past weekend. Akins finished last in the women’s short distance race group while Whittaker secured second overall in women’s long sprints, taking home $50,000 in prize winnings. Philadelphia was Whittaker’s second Grand Slam appearance after she took home $30,000 in a Miami Slam third place finish.
Past just simply good PR for Penn, Grand Slam also delivered a fantastic product for fans clambered into Franklin Field’s lower bowl. You can read comprehensive recaps of the action elsewhere, but consider this single stat from day one: 11 races, 11 Franklin Field facility records.
Following every race, the record was announced to fans in the stadium. With every record, the crowd got louder and louder. Over two days, 16 records in a 130-year-old stadium were rewritten by Grand Slam racers.
On the other side of things, it appears that Johnson was equally as pleased with the weekend’s festivities. After Sunday’s races, the track legend called the Philadelphia Slam “the best yet,” strengthening Penn’s chance to host the event again.
Even if Grand Slam does not return next year, the past two days provided a glimpse into the future of Penn’s space in the world of track and field. The Penn Relay Carnival have and will continue to bring in crowds, but a packed weekend even with no students on campus showed that Penn can be a true epicenter for track on the East Coast.
CONOR SMITH is a senior and former summer Deputy Sports Editor at The Daily Pennsylvanian studying communications from Mount Royal, N.J. All comments should be directed to dpsports@thedp.com
