"Impossible to make a professional career from it"-Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian opens up on harsh reality of running despite accessibility

By Animesh Pandey

Modified Oct 22, 2024 02:00 GMT

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Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian has never shied from supporting women's sports. The co-founder of Reddit opened up about the harsh reality of running, and why events like the Athlos NYC are the need of the hour.

Sharing a clip from his podcast with sprinting legend Justin Gatlin on the show 'Ready Set Go', Ohanian wrote on his X account,

"Running is one of the most accessible sports in the world that's celebrated on a global stage during the Olympics, yet it's almost impossible to make a professional career from it.

My goal with @ATHLOS: create an infrastructure that helps these athletes find more pathways to compete professionally for years to come."

Ohanian further explained in the clip what was lagging in track and field, that prevented it from being the most popular sport among all.

"..... Why hasn't this sport been getting more attention? It is a tier one sport, and for some reason, it goes way. Why is that? Because there wasn't an ecosystem, there wasn't a path. They weren't doing it for anything other than a pure love for the sport. So the kids who will be at Athlos will hopefully be that first new generation who can actually see path towards really doing this as a tier one professional sport...."

Alexis Ohanian successfully conducted the first season of the all-women track meet Athlos NYC at the Icahn Stadium in New York City on September 26. The inaugural edition had 36 athletes from all over the world participating in six track events.

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Alexis Ohanian on finding inspiration for Athlos NYC

Alexis Ohanian with daughter Olympia at the Athlos NYC [Image Source : Getty]

Alexis Ohanian has been unequivocal in his support for women's sports. Even before the Athlos NYC, the co-founder of Reddit invested money in an all-women soccer club, the Angel City FC, which is a part of the National Women's Soccer League.

In the podcast with Justin Gatlin, Ohanian opened up on visiting the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials 2024 in person, and how it inspired him to create something like Athlos NYC.

"I had never been to a track meet before and then I went to my first one in Eugene. I saw the (Olympic) Qualifiers and so that was incredible right. I was like ‘okay this is so exhilarating’, and then I'm watching Tara (Davis-Woodhall) who is so dynamic, she's such a star and she has her section of the stadium all gassed up for one of her jumps but at the same time there's like a race going on. And as a casual sort of first-timer, I'm torn between two storylines that I know I should be paying attention to", said Ohanian.

The venture capitalist further explained that the trials inspired him to create a platform, where individual achievements of track and field athletes could be highlighted.

".....We get to curate and say much more specifically ‘okay let's just reimagine this whole thing’ starting first and foremost with how do we create the best platform possible for these individual athletes because they themselves (are) the stars,” he further added.

Alexis Ohanian is in no hurry to make Athlos NYC bigger and better. According to him, he is focused on introducing the field events in the next season, before expanding the event further.