While in Paris, we had the chance to chat with Alexis Ohanian about his latest venture, ATHLOS NYC – a women’s track event aiming to inspire the next generation of athletes.

The Reddit co-founder discusses the motivations behind his investment in the sport, drawing parallels with his successful foray into women’s soccer with Angel City FC.

Ohanian emphasizes the potential of track and field to captivate audiences beyond the Olympic Games. The meet has already attracted an impressive roster of athletes competing including world record-holder Faith Kipyegon and Olympic medalist Gabby Thomas.

The event promises to be more than just a typical track meet. In addition to featuring top-tier competition and substantial prize money, there will also be a musical performance by Grammy-winning artist Megan Thee Stallion.

Watch and hear more as Ohanian shares his vision for making track and field a mainstay in the cultural psyche and his commitment to elevating the sport through innovative fan experiences and high-profile engagements.

The following excerpt has been edited lightly for clarity. You can listen to the full interview with Alexis Ohanian on the CITIUS MAG Podcast – available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your shows.

Alexis Ohanian on his passion for track and field:

Ohanian: 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.

How Ohanian came up with "776 Invitational" for his women's-only track event (now referred to as ATHLOS NYC):

Ohanian: I'm fascinated as we get more into this to see the response from the athletes and the fact that they are, especially this generation, very, very motivated. They see what their peers are doing in other sports and they realize, ‘Hold on a second. This is the original sport. And coincidentally, 776 is named that because that was the year of the first ancient Olympic Games – 776 BCE.

Why he chose NYC as the host city for the track event:

Ohanian: (New York) is a city that is famous for amazing sporting venues, amazing sporting events, whether it's a Knicks playoff game finally happening again, I'm not a baseball guy, but I assume the Yankees do a thing, or obviously the U.S. Open finals. We want to bring that energy… That is what these athletes deserve. This is what helps tell a story to the world that the Olympics are over, but the athletes are here and these are the exact same women running for big dollars.

On how he plans to approach the inaugural event:

Ohanian: The last thing I wanted to do was come in with a ton of hype – I certainly wasn’t going to make this about me, obviously it’s about the athletes on the track – but set expectations too high. I would rather under-promise and over-deliver. We had to earn our right to even put on this first event by winning over the best. Doing that well, do we earn the right to do it again? I hope so, I think so, but I wanted to pace it out.

More on Ohanian's mindest:

Ohanian: I will never retire. I will never stop. I get so much joy with being able to build, especially from zero. It does not interest me to own an existing team. I am much more interested in building things from scratch because you get to move a lot faster.