Serena Williams' husband and Athlos founder Alexis Ohanian makes his feelings known after Diamond League announces new prize money structure

By Soumik Bhattacharya

Modified Dec 24, 2024 15:14 GMT

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Serena Williams' husband and Athlos founder Alexis Ohanian shared his opinion regarding the changes that have evolved in the track and field circuit after the announcement of Athlos. This comes as a reaction to the Diamond League announcing their new prize money structure for their regular and final meet.

The League had announced their decision to increase their prize pool in September after the conclusion of the season's final meet. As per the new structure, the winners of the Diamond events will be awarded $20,000 in prize money for the regular meets and $50,000 for the finals.

On the other hand for the non-Diamond events, the amount is $10,000 for regular meets and $30,000 for finals. Notably, the Diamond League has also increased their prize money for the 3rd-9th place position holders in the Non-Diamond category.

Reacting to this, Ohanian shared a tweet stating that the situation of the track and field has been quite contrasting to what the situation is currently after the announcement of Athlos.

He wrote:

"The world looked very different the day before we announced @athlos this past April. Love to see how much things have changed -- and will continue to!"

Despite this increase, the Wanda Diamond League couldn't match the pool offered by Alexis Ohanian's Athlos. Its debut 2024 season saw a combined pool of $663,000 with winners taking home $60,000, 100 grand USD more than the new prize money of the Diamond League finals. Michael Johnson's new GST meet is also in line to offer big to its athletes with a bag of $12.6M.

Alexis Ohanian opens up about his donation to Virginia Women's basketball team

Ohanian donning a white t-shirt on the 10th day of the 2018 Wimbledon Championships (Image via: Getty Images)

Alexis Ohanian recently shed light on the thought process behind his donation to the Virginia Cavaliers. The team is currently in the 14th position in the Atlantic Coast Conference with 8 wins and 5 losses to their name.

In an interview, Ohanian stated that his investments in women's sports such as the WNBA side Angel City FC have been 'inspiring' for him. The 41-year-old entrepreneur also added that investing in Women's volleyball has always crossed his mind in the past.

He said (via ESPN):

"Starting Angel City and seeing the wave of investment in women's sports really has been inspiring. Women's basketball has popped up constantly on my radar, and lots of folks have been asking me about it."

During the interview, Ohanian also remarked that his roots with the University of Virginia were also a contributing behind this decision. He is an alumnus of the University and was in the batch of 2005.