Track Stars Racing for $150,000 at Ultimate Championships Shows Progress — and How Far the Sport Still Has to Go

Some of the world's fastest runners, highest jumpers, and farthest throwers are in Budapest, Hungary this week for a brand-new event called the Ultimate Championships. The top prize is $150,000 — more money than track and field athletes have ever competed for at a single meet. Stars like sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson, 200-meter Olympic champion Gabby Thomas, and pole vault world-record holder Mondo Duplantis are all competing. But one of the most important athletes at the event might be someone most people have never heard of: a 26-year-old sprinter from South Carolina named Jacory Patterson.

Just last year, Patterson was working nights loading trucks at a UPS warehouse to pay his bills. He still competed in track, but he wasn't famous and didn't have a big sponsor backing him. That changed when he won a race on a circuit called Grand Slam Track, and his story spread across the internet. People were inspired that a world-class sprinter had to work a night shift just to get by.

After his story went viral, Nike signed him to a sponsorship deal. With that support, Patterson was able to train closer to home and focus more on running. His times improved, and he earned a spot in the Ultimate Championships. This year, he has the fourth-fastest 400-meter time in the world — 43.76 seconds — putting him in the same field as Olympic and world champions.

One big goal of the event is to fix one of track and field's biggest problems: athletes don't earn very much money. The top prize on the Diamond League circuit — the main global track competition outside the Olympics — is only $10,000 or $20,000. To compare, golfers who finished tied for 54th at a PGA Tour event earned nearly $20,000, and tennis players who lost in the first round of the U.S. Open still took home $140,000. Track stars travel the world but often compete for far smaller rewards.

Track and field coach Lonnie Greene put it plainly. He coaches at the University of Kentucky and also works with 100-meter hurdles world-record holder Masai Russell. "When other sports pay like this, it's no big deal," he said. "These are professional athletes and this is how they eat. Why not get paid commensurate to what they're doing?"

The Ultimate Championships also tries to solve another problem: top runners rarely compete against each other. Track athletes are like independent contractors — they choose their own schedules, so the biggest stars can go a whole year without racing one another. The $10 million prize pool at the Ultimate is a strong reason to show up and race the best in the world.

Gabby Thomas, the Olympic 200-meter champion, skipped the U.S. national championships this year to save her best racing for Budapest. This week will be the first time she races world champion Melissa Jefferson-Wooden since last year's nationals. Miler Josh Kerr, who broke a 27-year-old world record this year, said he's glad to see things changing. "We're seeing progress, and I'm not going to complain about progress," he said.

Noah Lyles, the 100-meter Olympic champion, isn't racing in Budapest because of an injury. But he's still there, helping with entertainment and promotion for the event. He's selling track and field trading cards featuring athlete photos and profiles, and he hopes the sport finds more creative ways to support athletes beyond just prize money. "Hopefully, we see a lot more of that for the future," Lyles said.