Megan Rapinoe, Caitlin Clark, Serena Williams, Mia Hamm, Lindsey Vonn – the list of high-profile, recognizable female athletes is growing. And track and field athletes could be the next to become household names.
That’s the bet Alexis Ohanian is making with Athlos, an all-women’s athletics league, which is hosting its second event in New York this week.
Ohanian may be best known as the co-founder of Reddit, but that’s just him an investor who makes no secret of his interest in investing in sports. At a press event in New York City this week, he said the idea for Athlos came to him while watching the Olympics, where millions of people tune in to watch athletic events.
His logic: why not try to tap into that audience outside of the bigger events?
Thus Athlos was born. The competition is an attempt to capture the excitement surrounding athletic events that has traditionally only existed around the Olympic Games and other major athletic events.
Last year, during the opening event, Ohanian said he attracted three million viewers and major advertisers such as Toyota and Tiffany & Co. and it was more successful than expected.
This year, he expects it to be even bigger, and he hopes some of the participating athletes will become recognizable to casual sports fans — perhaps on a level that even matches what Clark has accomplished in basketball.
‘Americans will pay attention’
When the Olympics or World Championships track and field events happen, “Americans will pay attention,” Ohanian says. “[We] have a legacy of American excellence in sports, especially among our women. No one doubted for a second that women’s football and women’s basketball were a unique opportunity.”
Ohanian was joined at the press conference by a string of Olympic gold medalists, world champions and record holders, including Masai Russell, Alexis Holmes, Grace Stark, Keely Hodgkinson, Faith Kipyegon and Georgia Hunter Bell.
Those athletes and others will compete this week for a top prize of $60,000. And Athlos also gives some of them the chance to fully concentrate on their chosen events, something that until recently only the best athletes could do.
For example, British middle-distance runner Georgia Hunter Bell said she was only recently able to quit her full-time job in tech sales to focus on athletics – and that she is an Olympic medalist who has set national records.
“It was tough training around a full-time corporate job and trying to train like a professional athlete,” she said. But leagues like Athlos create routes to the pros for athletes like them.
Globally, revenues from women’s sports have doubled between 2023 and 2024 and are expected to reach more than $2.3 billion this year. Report March 2025 from Deloitte. Basketball and football remain the biggest moneymakers in the industry.
Athlos is just the latest attempt to create a professional-level competition for female athletes.
Several others are already gaining traction, including the WNBA, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL).
The demand is there, Ohanian argues, and there is a big business opportunity for brands, advertisers, athletes and others to get involved, although he thinks this will take some time.
“I think this is just the beginning. We don’t have the format of F1 (Formula 1) yet,” he said. “But I want people to believe that this sport – which is once again the most popular sport at the Olympic Games – can have the same size platform out there and bring together athletes, builders, CEOs and investors who can continue to play this sport.”
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