Hold up! The track season isn’t over just yet!

While all eyes are now turning to the roads and the grass, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and the ATHLOS NYC team spent a good amount of time and money last week giving track fans one more reason to look to the rubber. Complete with World and Olympic champions, pyrotechnics, celebrity appearances, and chunky Tiffany crowns, Icahn Stadium on New York’s Roosevelt Island hosted thousands of athletics (and/or Ciara) fans on a cool October evening and gave them a flashy show.

The day before, ATHLOS even ventured outside the Oval Office into Times Square for a unique, but ultimately kinda confusing, long jump exhibition headlined by World/Olympic champ Tara Davis-Woodhall. Messing around with the long jump’s format is nothing new, as the Diamond League has repeatedly changed around its finalist system and World Athletics keeps threatening to introduce a “takeoff zone” into the mix. But it was very unclear why ATHLOS felt the ideal presentation of the long jump consisted of two rounds of seven jumps total (four in Times Square and two or three inside the stadium the next day), with the top three jumpers advancing to the second round and only the top two getting a final jump. It was then made even more perplexing when Jazmin Sawyer’s first-round leap was measured as 6.76m, then invalidated, removing her from the final, only for her to ultimately get added back into the results and push Quanesha Burks down to fourth. Nothing brings in casual fans like taking one of the sport’s most straightforward events and making it convoluted as hell.

Another feature ATHLOS promised was the presence of some of the sport’s biggest stars. Gabby Thomas! Sha’Carri Richardson! Melissa Jefferson-Wooden! All there! Except—wait—they were all there to cheer, not compete. Scheduling a meet for October 10th is a tough ask for athletes who’ve wrapped up a long season with a World Championships nearly a month earlier, and those with the most lucrative endorsement deals won’t be swayed by the promise of a $60,000 prize. It’s nice that much of America’s sprinting royalty showed up and supported those who were competing, but putting your marquee names in the stands and not on the start line doesn’t help the perception that this is a meet prioritizing style over substance.

That’s not to say that ATHLOS NYC round 2 was a letdown, by any means. Five of the seven events were won by the reigning Olympic champion, proving that a little razzle-dazzle and a promptly-delivered paycheck can successfully secure high-quality participation. Marileidy Paulino, Masai Russell, and Keely Hodgkinson also got the big season-ending wins that eluded them in Tokyo, so the opportunity to end 2025 on a high note must have been something they appreciated as well. Hodgkinson was a particular highlight because we’ve seen her race so infrequently the past few months as she’s battled back from a hamstring injury. You’d never know it based on the Keely that showed up to Icahn, who confidently soloed an unrabbited 1:56.53 800m, gun-to-tape, and looked supremely controlled as she turned the tables on fellow Brit Georgia Hunter Bell after the latter’s silver medal in Tokyo.

After exercising more restraint than we’ve come to expect during the championship races, Gudaf Tsegay was back to her old tricks in the women’s mile, getting out ahead of the rabbit by 200 meters and opening up with a 60.5-second first 400m. Of course, that wasn’t enough to drop Faith Kipyegon—what is?—and Kipyegon used her rival as a de facto replacement pacer en route to a 4:17.78 win, with U.S. champ Nikki Hiltz way back in third at 4:32.51.

But even with all these big names getting crowned by Serena Williams trackside, the belle of the ball wasn’t an Olympic or World champ. It was fan-favorite Brittany Brown, the two-time Diamond League champ and two-time global medalist who showed once again that she doesn’t mess around when it comes to getting her bag. Last year, Brown upset expectations by taking second in the 100m and dethroning recently-crowned Olympic champ Gabby Thomas in the 200m, and this year she did one better: winning both events, only one hour apart and walking away with a nice $120,000 payday.

Despite the cool weather, Brown posted an impressive 10.99/21.89 double, the latter of which is a lifetime best for an athlete that’s been winning medals in the event since 2019. Like Hodgkinson, Brown had a slow start to the year after undergoing a medical procedure for complications related to endometriosis, and like Hodgkinson, she wasn’t just showing up for an intro and a wave: she came to WORK.

Ultimately, Brittany Brown was really the savior of this year’s ATHLOS event. She may not have the most Instagram followers or the craziest victory dance, but her performance lent the meet something it badly needed: credibility. Arguing on Twitter about Gold Label status doesn’t matter nearly as much as the results themselves. Running a top-five 200m performance in October and pulling off an ambitious double sends the message that this is a serious meet, taken seriously by athletes. And making Brown, one of the most likeable sprinters on the circuit, the face of the event helps balance out the gaudy neo-Gilded Age vibe that the meet’s big budget otherwise may conjure.

Will ATHLOS’s purported expansion from postseason one-off to full-blown league next year move it from novelty status to mainstay? Only time will tell. But one thing’s for sure—to give the event’s organizers the best chance of success, they better do everything they can to keep athletes like Brittany Brown coming back for more.

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