Serena Williams' husband Alex Ohanian's Athlos, Michael Johnson's GS Track, Ryan Crouser's shot put league: Why track & field is buzzing in the US

By Bhavin Shivaa

Modified Sep 17, 2024 04:57 GMT

Track and field has always been a major global sport. It has also always been the marquee event of the Summer Games, starting from the very first Modern Olympiad in 1896 in Athens. From its inception, the American contingent has always excelled in athletics, with a staggering nine gold, six silver, and two bronze medals from a contingent of only 14 people in the first Games.

Track and field events have always been considered the holy grail in the Olympics since then and the United States of America have also always been its undisputed torchbearer. Its track and field contingent amassed a whopping 34 medals in athletics at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, more than its ten next-closest competitors combined, maintaining the legacy first set 128 years ago.

Led by some of the sport's most electrifying personalities in Gabrielle Thomas, Sydney McLaughlin-Levron, Benjamin Rai, and Noah Lyles, athletics has caught fire in The States in contemporary times. With new leagues, new collaborations and the sport's biggest names endorsing it, here is why track and field is the next big thing in the United States.

ATHLOS NYC - Alex Ohanian's latest venture

The husband of tennis legend Serena Williams and the co-founder of Reddit, Alex Ohanian is not new to investing in sports. Having already been a successful part of the ownership of National Women's Soccer League club Angel City FC, the entrepreneur's latest project is set to follow that success.

ATHLOS NYC is a women's athletics event aimed at inspiring the next generation, encouraging existing athletes, and creating a more inclusive environment in sport. Speaking on the potential of track and field as a sport beyond the Olympic Games, the event has already roped in the likes of the reigning 200m Olympic champion Gabrielle Thomas, gold medalist Alexis Holmes, and 1500m world record holder Faith Kipyegon.

Promising to be more than just a standard meet, ATHLOS NYC will have the biggest prize pool for a women's track and field event and even features a musical performance from Grammy winner Megan Thee Stallion.

Ohanian, in a podcast with CITIUS MAG, spoke about his love for the sport and how he's become more confident about athletics as he spends more and more time on the track.

" It's just an awesome sport. I've only gotten more and more confident the more time I've spent in this sport and around the sport. I went to Eugene for my first-ever track meet. Probably the most hopeful part of that whole thing was seeing the response from the athletes. Folks just came out to say, ‘Hey, this is really dope. I didn't even get the invite for it, but I'm going to be there next year. "

Michael Johnson's Grand Slam Track League

Michael Johnson, a four-time Olympic gold medalist and former world record holder, announced his groundbreaking project in June 2024 when he unveiled the Grand Slam Track League (GST).

GST aims to bring together the world's best athletes and revolutionise the sport with a whopping USD $100,000 prize for the champion. Set to begin in April 2025, the league consists of a USD $12.6 million prize fund divided across four events annually, dubbed "Slams".

400m Olympic and world champion and world record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has become the first athlete to join the league's roster.

"I firmly believe that this is the step forward that track needs to take it to another level," said McLaughlin-Levrone. (via SPORTSMAX)

The league will feature a new format with 96 athletes split into two categories: GST Racers and GST Challengers.

Ryan Crouser and his American Shot Put League

Shot put gold medalist at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Ryan Crouser recently announced his intention to launch an "American Shot Put League" on a podcast.

Currently in the content production phase, the league is set to be fully underway in 2026 with multiple competitions in a true series format. The league's primary focus is on increasing the marketability of shot put to the American audience and creating a platform for shot put athletes across the globe.

This idea came after events like GST and ATHLOS NYC chose to focus solely on track and exclude field events.

Speaking on the CITIUS MAG podcast, Crouser noted how he believes field events will come to the fore in the age of social media and how his league is well poised to do exactly that.

"I think overall it’ll be very, very good for the sport. I think in the modern social media age that field events are going to emerge as almost more of the pinnacle of the sport. That’s the thing with sprints, distance, you have one race to produce content around, where in a field event you have 20, 30, 40, 50 key moments. Especially in the different kind of format we have planned, where every single attempt will matter to either placing or elimination. It’ll be much more engaging to the audience, as well as kind of a goldmine in the sense of producing content for the modern social era of the sport,” said the Olympic champion.