It’s 7 P.M. on a September evening in New York City. The sun has just set over Icahn Stadium, where D-Nice is spinning.

“It’s great music, great vibes,” says Alexis Ohanian, a name you may recognize from his days of co-founding a little online forum called Reddit. Or maybe you’ve heard it because he’s married to, you know, Serena Williams, just the greatest tennis player of all time. “We’re dancing, we’re having a good time. It’s a world-class DJ. And then all of a sudden the lights go out and the music stops.”

A WWE-esque walk out for six track stars ensues.

“We’re going through, fans are high-fiving, there’s a walkout song. Maybe there’s some pyro, some smoke, it’s high energy,” he continues. “Folks are here. They’re excited. They know who they’re rooting for. They know those storylines. And then bang the gun goes off. They go as fast as they can. And they’re very fast. It does not take long. And there’s a winner. They are crowned the winner. They’re getting the biggest prize they’ve ever received in the history of the sport for doing that thing. Crowd is loving it, and the beat drops, and now we’re back to vibing. We’re going to get another drink, maybe we’re getting a hot dog, and we’re resetting for the next race.”

Ohanian’s face is beaming through the screen. That’s his vision for Athlos NYC, the women’s-only track meet he’s putting on through his Seven Seven Six investment firm. On September 26, he’ll see his dream realized when 36 track stars compete in six track events for the biggest prize purse in the sport’s history.

The unparalleled panache-filled pragmatism of his dreams is reflected in his home office in his New York City apartment where he’s sitting. There’s sports memorabilia, an entire arcade, mood lighting, and of course a professional microphone setup. It spills fantasy, fun, and also the luxury of a self-made many-multi-millionaire who knows what he’s doing.

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All-In On Women

It’s not the first time Ohanian has put his money where his mouth is when it comes to women’s sports. Doing so may seem like a no-brainer now—Deloitte forecast that the industry will generate more than $1 billion in revenue in 2024. But that’s a 300 percent increase from its valuation just three years ago.

It started as the best things often do—with a rage tweet. That was in 2019, when he saw that Reign FC, the Seattle team in the National Women’s Soccer League, had sold for just $3.5 million.

“I rage tweeted about how crazy it was that women’s soccer was so undervalued. Especially in America, where every four years, everyone’s paying attention to the women’s world cup,” Ohanian says. “Blue chip sport, greatest athletes—we’re all paying attention. And then it disappears.”

Of course, the sport itself doesn’t disappear. But due to a confluence of variables—TV coverage, marketing—it disappears from the American consciousness.

“I learned about the NWSL itself from a tweet. I saw that Seattle had sold their team for a few million dollars and I was like, this doesn’t make any sense,” he says. “Like, I know who Megan Rapinoe is. I don’t follow the sport, but I know who she is and who Alex Morgan is. As a casual American sports fan, you knew these names who had transcended the sport. You were getting ready to be really excited for the World Cup that was coming up and you know these are awesome stars. I got folks I’m excited to cheer for. But the math didn’t math. How could these professional leagues not even be on my radar as a sports fan?”

He figured Rapinoe, a member of Reign FC, was worth $3.5 million by herself. So the next year he became a founding investor in Angel City FC, the NWSL team in Los Angeles. The investment paid off. Disney chief executive Bob Iger and his wife Willow Bay, a dean at the University of Southern California, acquired a controlling stake in the team, valuing it at $250 million.

This April, Ohanian via Seven Seven Six invested in the Portland, Oregon, women’s sports bar The Sports Bra and plans to franchise it nationwide. But his biggest investment is perhaps his most surprising, and for fans of running, his most compelling: Athlos.

This isn’t just another track meet. Its track reimagined from the ground-up. There will be six events ranging from the 100 meters to the 1500 (no field and no distance events). There will be a famous DJ and walk out songs for each athlete. There will be a performance from hip hop artist Megan Thee Stallion. And there will be the biggest prize purse in the sport’s history, ranging from $60,000 for the win to $2,500 for sixth in each event. We virtually sat down with the 41-year-old visionary to pick his brain on three simple questions: Why track, why women, and why now?

Connecting on the video call was a struggle—his team forgot to include a meeting link. But Ohanian sorted it out and came in gracious, apologetic, and unbelievably generous with his time, especially for a father of two talking to RUN at 6 P.M. We quickly learned that the man who confesses he absolutely does not run sure knows what he’s doing when it comes to running a track meet.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

On Investing In Women’s Track Now

“When I bought the NWSL expansion that became Angel City, I had owners in the league warn me and say, ‘No one cares about women’s soccer. You’ll never be able to recreate what they’re doing in Portland. That’s the one city where it could work.’ And I just refused to believe it. In part because I’m an entrepreneur. There’s no way I’m creating Reddit, there’s no way I’m investing in the companies I’m investing in as early as I’m investing in them—Coinbase, Instacart, Patreon, Ro—I’m doing that unless I can see a vision 10 years out that no one sees today.

And women’s soccer just seemed really obvious to me and for some reason and no one else. But it’s done well in the last few years. And so a year ago, I’m getting excited for the Olympics, and lo and behold, here’s another sport—track, in particular a women’s track—where I know the Americans are so otherworldly.

Even my wife was wearing a tennis outfit inspired by Flo Jo. Just as a casual sports fan, you know Wilma Rudolph, you know Allyson Felix. There have been multiple eras of American women greatness in track. And it’s a sport that you’re paying attention to, again, every four years. It’s very simple to explain, even easier than soccer to play. It’s global. And yet, I was like, ‘What do these women do in between Olympics?’

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I just reached out to the very best and thankfully they were very receptive to my dumb questions as I tried to get smart about the sport. And Gabby Thomas really stood out because she was not only very helpful and very just generous with her time, but she just had really, really smart insights for what the sport needed.

And, and I thought, ‘Well damn, OK. Just like with women’s soccer, let’s just focus on creating the best opportunity, the best environment for what these women want, and the rest will take care of itself.’”

On An Unprecedented Prize Purse

“The most obvious thing that I could do first was double the cash prizes so that the top prize was not just a meager $30,000, but $60,000. You talk to 30 of these athletes and all 30 of them say when you ask like, ‘Hey, what would really help this sport professionally?’ Number one is more prize money. Great. OK. That I can solve.”

On Reimagining a Track Meet

“The women in track and field are incredibly great storytellers. Many of them already have social media followings. The track community online has been so fun to follow for the last year. The memes, whether it’s on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, they are vibrant. As the Reddit guy, that’s the signal that I’m looking for. And so then I’m just thinking, ‘Well, why couldn’t there be an event, or even dare I say, a league, that has the same kind of energy?’

And so then I thought, ‘OK, how do we build this out?’ And the nice thing with track, because of the cadence of the sport, you have these moments. Sorry, I don’t run. But I know that running and music go really well together. It does not take rocket science or a PhD or gold medal to know that.

And we can bring live music into this in a way that’s really natural, in a way that actually makes this a part sporting event and part cultural moment that no one is put off by it. It works because it’s enough time to actually create that space and not just play a couple songs in between an inning or what have you. DJ-Nice will be spinning in between the races. And that’s emblematic of how we’re thinking about this.

That’s where it starts to get fun because by the end of this, I want everyone who’s there, certainly the athletes competing, I want them to say, ‘This was the best event I’ve ever run. I’m so happy this exists now.’”

On the Celebrity Effect

“I’ll be inviting a lot of my friends from the business world and the entertainment world. I want them to show up and be like, ‘Hey, Knicks’ games are fun, but this was different. Like this was a different kind of fun. This was a blast.’

We want this experience to look and feel as big as an Olympics, even for the folks watching the broadcast, right? That’s why I’m investing in the high quality production value.

That’s important because people need to know, yeah, the Olympics are over, but this sport is still just as premium, just as serious, these stars are just as big and bright, even though the Olympics aren’t here. There is no reason why we can’t have this kind of a spectacle and this kind of a high quality, amazing sporting event outside of that. And we think Athlos New York can be the ultimate V1.”

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On Why Pickleball is Not the Answer

“How come I never see pickleball clips go viral? That’s telling you something, right? I got no beef, I hope pickleball is successful, I hope those athletes are successful. The reason why I didn’t invest in it is because I didn’t see those clear answers to why someone should stop in their tracks and pay attention to the clip.

The athletes who are doing track are so impressive. Many of them already have such big personalities that have already transcended the sport. It’s like looking at Megan Rapinoe and seeing her team in 2019 sell for $3.5 million and be like, ‘Someone is missing out on doing something right, because you have stars that have already transcended it, and you have a legacy of greatness.’ You should be able to build something on that. And so, Athlos is just an echo of that same energy.”

On Whether Athlos is For Profit or Charity

“The former. This is, first and foremost, a great investment opportunity. I think it’s really important to lead with that because I don’t want anyone to get it twisted. And I think historically, as I’ve come to learn being a sports team owner, a lot of what’s held back women’s sports has been the perception that it should be first and foremost, either a charity or something nice to inspire the kids or something like that.

Yes, these women do those things. They do inspire the next generation, but nobody’s out here asking LeBron James how he feels about inspiring a generation of young boys to play basketball. We need to get passed that. And I think we have. And it turns out, actually, the personalities of these women are so dynamic, so interesting, so varied. Once media and brands really start catching up, they’re gonna find a treasure trove of personalities to invest in, storylines, brand opportunities. Fashion and beauty alone spend so much money on brand marketing and yet have been on the sidelines of sports because no one actually really cares what a guy’s pregame fit is. And very few guys have ‘Getting ready with me’ videos.

None of that is about feminism. Although, look, I love all of those parts of it. It’s just purely about the business side. And so do I feel good about investing in and building things like this that are geared towards elevating women’s sports? Yes. But it is never for that reason. It is just icing on the cake.

The good news is, again, that’s what these athletes want. Because they know making the case for investing in women’s sports based on the business model is what actually helps them get paid. By making that business case, by making those investments, by creating more enterprise value, by bringing in bigger brands, by selling more tickets, by having bigger broadcasts, they know athletes ultimately have all the leverage.

At the end of the day, it’s not about me, it’s about them. And so if I can do the job of creating the infrastructure and the investment, they know those dollars will get to them. And if it doesn’t, there’s plenty of collective bargaining examples of how athletes handle that. And so that’s why I’m actually very selfish when I’m saying we’re doing everything first and foremost by what these women want. Because it’s actually the way to get money.”

On the 10 Percent Revenue Share Model

“The silver lining to track and field being underinvested in is there’s no sort of status quo to disrupt. You have a chance to create something that’s actually mutually beneficial for everyone to grow together. At all of my companies, whether it has been Reddit or now it’s Seven Seven Six, every single person at the firm is aligned through some sort of participation, whether it’s stock or revenue share. Even the most junior employee has a similar incentive. And it’s one of the reasons why I think tech has built so many generational companies in the last few decades. It’s one of the things that we want to bring to this as well.

I hope that as Athos evolves, we can continue to look to the athletes first and then continue to build in things like concerts with them and then create incentive structures so that everyone succeeds.”

On Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track

“I think it’s so cool. When I saw the news, I literally was coming off the stage announcing with Gabby, and I saw Michael Johnson tweet about raising a bunch of money. And I just thought, ‘How cool.’ Because, one, I mean, he’s a legend. I don’t have any gold medals. He’s won many. And two, for the last six months, nine months while I was building this and talking to folks, everyone kept saying the same thing, which is, ‘Why hasn’t anyone else done this before?’ And it actually was a little disheartening, because, generally speaking, when I started Reddit, there were a half dozen competitors.

One of the reasons you know you’re doing something that’s timed well is that you can generate a ton of competition because other people are seeing what’s happening and they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s cool, I’m gonna do it too.’ I figured it would happen, I just didn’t think it would happen that quickly. It’s great for the sport.”

On Why He’s Inspired By Reality TV

“How ridiculous is it that we have this glut of sports docuseries for the last few years, ever since ‘Drive to Survive.’ And yet, every successful reality show franchise features women. Kardashians, housewives, real estate agents. Again, if first principles said build the greatest unscripted television show of all time, you would naturally cast it with almost all women. And yet, every one of these shows has been largely male-dominated. Turns out people are really interested in not just the  behind-the-scenes reality lives of athletes who are men, but also women.

And so in thinking about putting on this first event, there are just so many big, awesome personalities in women’s track that it made it very easy to say, ‘OK, if we want to have this be as successful as possible, let’s focus on the women first.’ And again, none of this is about feelings, just look at follower accounts on social media.

It just makes sense to start with the women. And also, too, I don’t hate the fact that it made some people upset. Because I’m like, are you really mad that after centuries of men getting the thing first, you’re really mad now that the women are getting the cool thing first? The record breaking prize money is going to women first? This is the one time.”