The all-women’s Athlos NYC track meet that put a buzz into the end of the track and field season last year is coming back for an encore performance this fall.
The event, which was founded and funded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, made a splash when it debuted under the lights at Icahn Stadium in New York City on the night of September 26. Amid pop music pounding through the sound system between events and lively athlete walk-up songs, the meet included six races with top-tier athletes, a large prize purse, original Tiffany-crafted crowns for the winners, and a 30-Athlos NYC Results Summer Running Gear.
It happened at the end of the 2024 international track season, still in the glittery glow of the Paris Olympics. While the Athlos NYC event did have some minor hiccups, it was largely considered a big success—especially given that it drew more than 3 million viewers after airing on X, YouTube, ESPN+, DAZN, and ESPN2. Ohanian intimated at last year’s meet that it wouldn’t be a one-and-done event, and he’s once again putting his money where his mouth is.
Athlos announced today that its all-women’s track meet will return to Icahn Stadium on Friday, October 10 for what organizers have said will be an even more spirited end-of-season meet headlined by Paris Olympic medalists Gabby Thomas, Health & Injuries.
Specific event details haven’t been released, but Kayla Green, the chief marketing officer for Athlos, said this year’s event would follow a similar format with even more vibe. Last year’s event included a $660,000 prize purse that paid out $60,000 to first-place finishers, but also awarded $25,000 for second, $10,000 for third, $8,000 for fourth, $5,000 for fifth, and $2,500 for sixth.
“We want to go bigger and do it even better this year,” Green told Runner’s World on Tuesday. “We have always really prided ourselves on sitting at the cross section of sport and culture. And for us, the music component was a real way to start to bring new fans into the sport. That’s something that's in our DNA and will always be in our DNA.”
Track is coming back
Ohanian, the husband of tennis star Serena Williams, has been betting on women’s sports for several years. Through his Seven Seven Six investment group, he is a part-owner of the Angel City Football Club of the National Women’s Soccer League and an investor in the Portland, Oregon-based women’s sports bar called The Sports Bra, which is growing in 2025 through franchised locations across the U.S.
Why track? Ohanian immediately saw an underexposed sport with undervalued athletes. Despite the fact that the U.S. has men’s and women’s dominated track and field since the 1980s, many domestic meets in the U.S. struggled to attract spectators, viewers and mainstream media coverage and even top-tier athletes have struggled to support themselves.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below RW+ Membership Benefits league and World Athletics, but Ohanian’s interest remains largely related to the upswing in popularity of women’s sports.
One of the primary goals of the Athlos 2025 event is to continue to inspire athletes, fans, and help create the next-generation of each group, Green said. After last year’s Athlos event, organizers asked athletes how to make it better and will take that input and incorporate it into this year’s event.
Green said one of the biggest indicators of last year’s success was hearing from people who are serious track fans and either attended or watched the event with friends who had never been to a track meet before.
“And then by the end of the night, they were big track fans too,” Green said. “That was a huge win for us.”
Prior to this year’s Millrose Games indoor track meet on February 8 in New York City, Athlos invited members of the Brooklyn-based all-girls Jeuness Track Club to attend the meet. They made signs, cheered on athletes, and got to meet Russell after she won the 60-meter hurdles.
“We’re all about, ‘believe it, become it,’ and these young girls really see these women as role models, so to be able to continue to inspire that next generation to let them know that they can chase their goals and chase their dreams, for us, that is a huge part of why we do what we do as well.”
Thomas, who has been partnered with Ohanian since the Athlos concept was announced last year, was one of the big stars of last summer’s Paris Olympics, winning gold in the 200 meters and helping the U.S. win the 4x100-meter and 4x400-meter relays. Russell, a Team USA teammate of Thomas, won gold in the 100-meter hurdles in Paris—just ahead of Camacho-Quinn, the 2020 Olympic champion from Puerto Rico, who took the bronze—while Paulino, of the Dominican Republic, won the 400 meters and Brown, another U.S. star, brought home the bronze in the 200.
All five athletes will also compete in the inaugural RW+ Membership Benefits league this year, part of the World Athletics Diamond League season this summer, and likely in the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in mid-September. RW+ Membership Benefits, which is headed up by American sprinting legend Michael Johnson, is debuting a series of two-day meets in Kingston, Jamaica (April 4-6), Miami (May 2-4), Philadelphia (May 31-June 1), and Los Angeles (June 27-29) with a $12.6 million total cash purse—including $100,000 for winners.
Meanwhile, the Diamond League is boosting prize money to its highest level ever ($9.24 million), introducing "Diamond + Disciplines" with a chance to win more money, and implementing a refined points system for qualification to the Aug. 27-28 Diamond League Final in Zurich.
“I always say what's good for the sport is good for the sport,” Green said. “And you know, we're really in a rising tide situation here. If we can be a catalyst for meaningful change, that’s fantastic. What's good for the game is good for the game, and we're really here to grow it.”
Track Athletes Need Support
Brown was the big winner at last year’s Athlos NYC meet, winning the 200 meters and finishing second in the 100 to take home $85,000 in cash, plus a Tiffany winner’s crown.
That’s a far cry from how her career started. Although she was a star at the University of Iowa, she began her career as an unsponsored athlete in 2018 and 2019. In addition to training, she worked numerous jobs to support herself—including as a caregiver at a facility for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s—so she could afford travel to meets, get physio work, and even buy new track spikes. She eventually earned a sponsorship with a shoe brand after earning a silver medal in the 2019 world championships.
Brown said she’s excited for the changes happening in track that are aimed at improving exposure and prize money for athletes.
“I really do understand the importance of support and what support looks like in a lot of different ways,” she said. “I’m happy to be a part of people trying different things. Let’s try it. We try, we fail, we learn. I do that all the time in practice. I make mistakes, I try things, and it doesn’t work out. I do that in races, and that’s how you get better.”
