On the Right Track

If track and field was a religion, one of its holiest sites would be Franklin Field at the University of Pennsylvania. The home of the oldest meet in the country — the Penn Relays, first run in 1895 — it’s one of the venues athletes and fans alike flock to for breathtaking performances.

And this past spring, on the last day of May, track evangelist Kyle Merber ’12 helped usher in another historic first for Franklin Field as it played host to Grand Slam Track (GST). The new league, founded by sprinting legend Michael Johnson, was completing its inaugural season following two meets (“Slams”) in Jamaica and Miami.

While it’s not unusual for a league to hold track meets in multiple locations (World Athletics’ Wanda Diamond League hosts 15 meets across four continents annually), GST’s format makes it unique. Forty-eight of the top athletes in six men’s and women’s distance categories are enlisted to compete as “racers,” meaning they run their events in all of the Slams. With each Slam, however, Merber’s job as the senior director of racing is to get up-and-coming “challengers” to give the racers, quite literally, a run for their money. Finishing positions earn points that determine how much a competitor wins from the $12.6 million prize pool.

“Track is the simplest sport in the world, just running from point A to point B,” Merber says. “We’re adding a point system, which brings in a whole new dynamic with storylines and narratives to follow. It creates a lot of buzz with the fans.”

On the first afternoon of the weekend-long Slam, Merber sits in the green room, deep in research. He’s been asked to join NBC’s broadcast team for the meet, which means he’ll be sitting behind the desk with former ESPN broadcaster John Anderson and Olympic gold medalist Sanya Richards-Ross. Armed with copious notes on the athletes, Merber is reviewing their personal bests and performances in preparation for three hours of nonstop track talk. Anderson sits next to him, peppering him with questions about the matchups ahead.

Merber’s opinions hold weight in the track world. He made a name for himself setting middle-distance records as a Lion (a fact Anderson pokes fun at by asking everyone in the room, “Did you know Kyle went to Columbia?”) before running as a pro for shoe brand Hoka. Merber’s mission has always been to make track a better sporting experience for everyone — athletes, fans and coaches. In fact, one of the league’s main goals is to grow track’s reach in the United States to a level that rivals its popularity around the world, every single year — not just during the Olympics.

“As the athletes continue to lean into the format, fans are becoming more invested,” Merber says. “There are already a lot of track fans, and so we just need to give them a place and a platform to celebrate the athletes.”

Merber, Anderson and Richards-Ross head to the field and get behind the desk for rehearsal, and as 4:00 p.m. rolls around, Ander- son looks into the camera to start the pre-show. As the commentators preview the races, Anderson’s earlier quips about Merber’s time at the College make it into their onscreen banter.

“There’s Gabby Thomas. She ran the Heps here, which is the conference meet for the Ivy League,” Anderson says with a grin toward Merber. “That’s the conference meet for schools like Hahvahd or Columbia, if you’re wicked smaht.”

Hardcore track nerds already know the details of Merber’s middle-distance career. From setting American collegiate to world records, his name graced running news headlines for much of the 2010s, and his social media feed has for years been the go-to spot for spicy takes and nuanced opinions.

But before he became a recognized figure, Merber was a kid from Long Island who really, really loved track.

“In my sixth-grade yearbook, when asked what I wanted to do when I grew up, I said I wanted to be a track star,” he says.

Merber ran in youth USATF meets and grew up chasing fast times with the goal of becoming a professional. “I remember doing those meets when I was really young and falling in love with it, which evolved into being the fastest kid in the gym class mile and eventually middle school track,” he says.

By the time Merber was deciding where to go for college, he was already thinking about which opportunities would give him the best shot at going pro. A sharp student and athlete, he wanted a school that could help put him on that path and also let him explore one of his other passions: writing.

“I was very focused,” Merber says. “I knew exactly what I wanted.”

That focus paid off, as he studied philosophy at the College while running some of the best races in Ivy League history. Everything from his class schedule to his choice of major was designed to give him the best shot at running well — he even opted for all essay- based classes so he didn’t have to stay up late studying for tests.

With the help of that extra sleep, Merber set the American collegiate record in the 1,500m in 2012 (coincidentally broken in 2021 by GST racer Yared Nuguse). It stood as the Ivy League record at 3:35.59 until this past June when it was broken by Ferenc Kovács from Harvard. Merber has four outdoor and five indoor Heps titles, and holds the Columbia indoor mile record at 3:58.52.

He used an extra year of NCAA eligibility at the University of Texas at Austin after missing his junior year due to injury. When he returned to the Northeast, he joined New Jersey-New York Track Club and signed his Hoka sponsorship deal a year later. Merber’s pro highlights include a distance medley relay world record in 2015, at the IAAF World Relays; an indoor 4x800m relay world record in 2018; and multiple top-10 finishes at U.S. championships and races across the country, including the prestigious Millrose Games at the Armory Track.

Running alone wasn’t enough for Merber, however. Along with his X feed, he kept a blog and amassed an online following, becoming known for his detailed training and race recaps. He even helped organize the Long Island Mile in his hometown of Dix Hills as a first foray into the administrative side.

“There’s a lot of time in a day. Having ambitions greater than running is a good thing,” he says.

When the pandemic turned life upside down, it offered Merber time to reflect and think about his next move. He had been dealing with injuries for a few years, and wasn’t sure if his body was up for another Olympic trials training cycle. He announced his retirement in 2021, emphasizing in an Instagram post that he wasn’t finished running, just finished getting paid for it.

The years Merber spent cultivating his reputation as a track guru paid off quickly. While he took a job in marketing at American Express, he also started a newsletter, The Lap Count, a weekly recap of results and other goings-on in the running world. Chris Chavez, a track reporter who had covered Merber’s career, quickly integrated it into his newly fledged news outlet CITIUS MAG.

“Kyle is definitely a key reason why CITIUS has taken off,” Chavez says. “I’m grateful for him and all the work he did in those three years he was balancing CITIUS with his job at AMEX. I don’t know how that guy had time to sleep.”

Merber also contributed to CITIUS MAG’s live coverage at big events like the 2022 World Championships in Oregon, where he hosted a livestream with Chavez and had Michael Johnson as a guest. Both Merber and Chavez point to that conversation as the key inflection point for Merber’s journey to GST, as Johnson shared his opinions on how to improve the sport and Merber excitedly nodded along in agreement — a crystal ball into their future endeavors together.

Three years later, Johnson is confident in his hiring choice. He says that Merber’s knowledge of the state of the sport makes him a crucial part of the league.

“I think Kyle was built to do this job,” Johnson says. “His attention to detail and imagination for what we can create with our races are really important, and allow us to tell the incredible stories of our competitors.”

Back at Franklin Field, the line to enter the stadium stretches around the block. A few raindrops fall as spectators shuffle into the grand- stand, but their enthusiasm is undimmed — raucous cheers go up as favorite runners are introduced. Behind the broadcast desk, Merber smiles at the excitement for the athletes he has meticulously selected.

Between races, he, Anderson and Richards-Ross provide commentary and analysis. Merber is called upon to provide context for the men’s short distance event — the 800m.The field is stacked with top competitors, including the 1,500m podium from the 2024 Paris Olympics. Many are fan favorites, like Merber’s record stealer Yared Nuguse, for whom the yells initially sound like boos, but are actually drawn-out cheers of “GOOOOOOSE!”

This kind of reception is exactly what Merber is looking for. “It’s working!” he exclaims, as the stands continue to echo. “This whole damn thing is working!”

The excitement builds in both the men’s and women’s 200m. Olympic silver medalist Kenny Bednarek continues his dominant GST win streak, and rising star Melissa Jefferson-Wooden pulls off an upset against Paris gold medalist Gabby Thomas, which has Merber jumping out of his chair in disbelief. The reaction is similar to the one he had as Masai Russell set an American record in the 100m hurdles at the previous Slam, in Miami, as he celebrated with Johnson in a now-viral video clip. (“If there’s one thing people take away from this whole thing, I hope it’s the sentiment of ‘Oh, these guys really care about track,’” Merber says of himself and Johnson.)

The last event is the women’s 100m hurdles, which features famed 400m hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone dropping down in distance from her signature event. It’s the race everyone has been buzzing about — she hasn’t lost a hurdle race since 2019 — and though she breaks her streak, McLaughlin-Levrone finishes in a respectable fifth place. All in all, it’s been a successful first day for the Slam; Merber’s challenger picks get multiple compliments as the post-show begins to wrap up.

“What I’ve had the opportunity to do is to help build the infrastructure of the sport into something more accessible,” Merber says. “It’s one thing to give people information about track, but it’s another when you have a roster of athletes and dates on the calendar to create must-see television.”

He’s emphasized the learning curve throughout the first season with the reminder that GST is a startup, so bumps along the way aren’t out of the ordinary. The league originally scheduled four

Slams, but the last meet, set for Los Angeles, was canceled abruptly due to venue and investor issues. Plans for a 2026 season are already underway, however, meaning Merber’s job isn’t over just because this season is finished — he’ll continue to scope out the best talent for next year’s Slams.

“The big thing we’ve established this season is that every time, we improve and find different things to work on,” he says. “I deeply care about the success of the league at a fundamental level, beyond my own individual success.”

CITIUS MAG’s Chavez says Merber’s deep knowledge of the sport helps Merber do everything well, which is essential for a startup track league looking to be successful. Still, Merber knows the demands of the job and says he couldn’t do it without his family’s support.

“It’s similar to being an athlete ... you put a big burden on those around you when you’re working really hard toward something,” he says.

After Merber is released from his broadcast duties in Philly, his family is exactly whom he wants to see. Standing on the field, he hears “KYLE!”; he whips his head around and runs in the direction of his parents, wife and two children. It’s a sweet reunion as he sweeps his 3-year-old daughter into his arms and then sets her onto the track, where they run side by side down the straightaway.

Regardless of whether she becomes a runner herself, Merber says he is grateful for the chance to show her what it means to be passionate about something bigger than yourself. “It’s a cool opportunity to show them why Daddy’s been working so late.”