A New York City track meet Thursday night will be unlike any other, featuring lucrative prize money, big-name entertainers, silver crowns for the winners instead of gold medals and an all-female field.
Chalk up another win for women’s sports.
Recently crowned Olympic 200-meter champion Gabby Thomas and company are helping track take a big step forward by racing in the inaugural Athlos track meet, which has assembled some of the fastest women in the world.
For them to even take the starting line, an assist goes to Alex Morgan and the rest of her 2019 World Cup-winning U.S. soccer squad. Another assist to basketball standouts Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese as well.
Because Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit and husband of Serena Williams, was told nobody tunes in for women’s sports.
He begged to differ. It led to the launch of Athlos, which will dole out more than $500,000 in total prize money and split 10% of all proceeds among the athletes. There’s also a performance by Grammy Award-winning singer Megan Thee Stallion.
“We’re outsiders to the sport of track and field and so we come in with a pretty humble approach. Our number one priority is doing right by these athletes,” Ohanian said of an event that will be held at Icahn Stadium and funded by Seven Seven Six, the venture capital firm he formed. “I don’t want to trivialize it, but a huge reason why women’s sports has been held back is simply because of an underinvestment. But now it’s gotten too valuable to ignore.
“Yes, everyone watches women’s sports and now it’s just a question of which ones.”
For hurdler Alaysha Johnson, a women’s only meet feels like the perfect way to close out a long season that’s included Diamond League races, the U.S. Olympic trials and the Paris Games.
“It just makes us feel like we’re at the forefront,” Johnson said. “Everything is centered around us.”
Athlos, a Greek word that translates into “athlete,” will feature the 100 hurdles, 100, 200, 400, 800 and the 1500. It will air on the X platform, YouTube and ESPN-plus, along with a rebroadcast on ESPN2 over the weekend.
Among the big names entered are reigning Olympic champions such as Thomas (200), Masai Russell (hurdles), Marileidy Paulino (400) and Faith Kipyegon (1,500).
“I was in the elevator with (other athletes) and it’s just like, ’Wow, look at us. We’re really making an impact,'” said Johnson, who made the Olympic final in the 100 hurdles. “People are believing in us, putting their money and their dollars behind us. That shows we are valuable in this sport.”
These days, there’s money being pumped into track and field:
— Sprinting great Michael Johnson entered the space with Grand Slam Track, which will hold four races a year starting in 2025, with $100,000 prizes going to top finishers.
— World Athletics announced the first Ultimate Championships will be hosted in Budapest in 2026 and showcase the best of the best in the sport.
— The Diamond League, track and field’s annual series, plans to increase its gender-equal prize money next season, with the total prize money per discipline between $30,000 and $50,000; and at the final between $60,000 and $100,000.
Ohanian is banking there’s room on the docket for Athlos, too. He believes this meet can be just a launching point, with $60,000 awarded to the winner along with a crown designed by Tiffany & Co.
Flashback to 2019: Ohanian found himself in a social-media storm when he mentioned how undervalued women’s sports were following the U.S. women’s win at the World Cup. Morgan and others responded with a basic message: Don’t just talk about it, be about it.
That led Ohanian to invest in Angel City FC, a National Women’s Soccer League team.
“The reason I got so excited about starting a (soccer) team was because I saw how popular these women were every four years and then they would disappear,” Ohanian said. “It didn’t make any sense to me. I was like, ‘There’s an opportunity here to make sure these stars are visible all year round.’”
Another big factor: The popularity of Clark and Reese. Last April, Clark and her Iowa team beat Reese and LSU in the Elite Eight of the women’s NCAA Tournament, averaging 12.3 million viewers on ESPN, according to Nielsen. It was at the time one of the most-viewed games in any sport other than NFL football over the past year.
“Women athletes, especially this younger generation, just drives so much more attention,” Ohanian said. “It doesn’t match the way it’s been invested in historically.”
About a year ago, more and more track highlights began showing up on Ohanian’s social media feeds. A thought: Showcasing female competitors. He chatted with about a dozen athletes and asked outside-the-box questions.
“I was trying to learn about the sport,” he explained.
One of the first to raise her hand to be involved was Thomas, the Harvard-educated sprinter who won three gold medals in Paris.
“That told me everything I needed to know,” he said of Thomas’ immediate interest. “One of my favorite things in building something has been realizing how many times people would say to me, ‘Because that’s how it’s always been done.’
“Any time you hear that as an entrepreneur, you just get really excited. If you’re doing things simply because that’s the way it’s always been done, that is a terrible reason to do something. You want to do something because it is actually the best way to solve whatever problem you are trying to solve. We’ve looked at Athlos through that lens.”
___
AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
