Home > Runs & Races

Olympic champion forced to skip Diamond League Final

American 110-meter hurdler Grant Holloway called the Diamond League Final in Brussels a "trash-ass track meet"

Grant Holloway Photo by: Kevin Morris

The Olympic and world champion in the men’s 110m hurdles, Grant Holloway, will not be competing in Friday’s Brussels Diamond League Final. On Tuesday, the hurdler called out the Diamond League and its organizers on social media, revealing that the meeting directors did not come to an agreement on an appearance fee with Holloway’s team–forcing him to skip the meeting altogether.

Grant Holloway takes gold in the 110m hurdles at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Photo: Kevin Morris

On Twitter, the athlete wrote:

“I will not be participating in the Brussels Diamond League final due to failure to reach agreements on the terms of my participation between my team and the meeting directors of the Diamond League. Shame that they doing athletes like that.” 

A reigning Olympic champion like Holloway would usually be given an appearance fee to attend the meet, as participation from these athletes helps to raise the notoriety of the meet, bringing more excitement and publicity. The amount offered by meet directors to Grant’s team was not disclosed, but from his tweets, it’s clear that it was not up to Holloway’s standards.

To a Twitter post reading “The Brussels meet director is known to pay less to no appearance fees. Grant stood on business and his worth. Good on him”, Holloway responded with “Trash ass track meet.”

As Paris Olympic champion, three-time world champion and world record holder in the 60m hurdles, Holloway knows his worth–and refuses to settle for the mere USD 30,000 given to the winners.

“Disagreements with meeting directors force me to skip Brussels Diamond League… #NeverCompeteForLess,” Holloway wrote on his Instagram story.

Holloway had a near-perfect season, earning his awaited Olympic gold medal by establishing unquestionable dominance over the sprint hurdles. Last week, the 26-year-old set the record for most sub-13 second performances over the 110m hurdles distance in history with 12. He competed in five Diamond League meetings this year, winning four of them; his loss in Lausanne to Olympic bronze medallist Rasheed Broadbell of Jamaica marked his only defeat of the season.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by S. Grant Holloway, OLY (@flaamingoo_)

Holloway also holds the world leading time of 12.86, and has a personal best of 12.81–just one-hundredth of a second off the world record held by fellow American Aries Merritt since 2012; with three world championship titles and a fresh Olympic title to his name, breaking the world record is all that’s left on Holloway’s to-do list. The feat would have been well within reach had Holloway attended the final Diamond League meeting of the season.

Check out the latest buyer's guide:

Valentine’s Day running gear picks for your partner

Because there's nothing more romantic than helping the people you love crush their PBs