Alexis Ohanian is interested in a lot more things outside of Reddit. Interestingly, women’s sports is one such area that features very high on his priority list. Fresh off his immense success with Athlos NYC, several behind-the-scenes stories have been coming up lately. Well, the main hype around Athlos was that it was an all-female affair. That too was a first in track and field history. While several big names graced the race, the face of the event right from day 1 was Gabby Thomas. In a recent conversation, the tech mogul spilled the beans on how the entire idea of bringing in Thomas popped up!

This isn’t Alexis Ohanian’s first rodeo with women’s sports. Back in 2019, he jumped headfirst into the scene by setting up Angel City FC and became seriously invested in women’s sports. While producing a show about women’s soccer, Ohanian crossed paths with Gotham FC’s star player, Midge Purce. And then came the lightbulb moment.

On the Ready Set Go podcast, Ohanian shared, “We’re producing this show and I was mentioning track to her, and she’s like, “Oh, you know I went to Harvard with Gabby Thomas? You should talk to Gabby,” and I was like, “Great idea. Call up Gabby.”” One phone call later, Ohanian was chatting with Gabby, all thanks to Midge Purce’s Harvard connection.

Ohanian’s confidence to dive into the deep end with US female athletes? He credits that to the success of the US Women’s National Soccer Team, led by the power duo Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan. Inspired by their impact, he saw the same potential in women’s track. He realized that, just like soccer stars, track athletes like Sha’Carri Richardson and Gabby Thomas were transcending their sport. It gave him a serious sense of déjà vu. He knew there was untapped potential here and wanted to dig deeper.

After that call, Ohanian started to understand what was missing and how he could help create more opportunities for these incredible athletes, similar to how he built Reddit by focusing on key users. The energy, talent, and passion of these women made him want to invest even more in this uncharted territory, which he believes could become a powerhouse in the near future. And Gabby? She was thrilled to get on board. With the pay disparity in women’s sports still a major issue, Gabby didn’t hesitate. Safe to say, she’s not regretting her decision one bit.

Gabby Thomas is thrilled to be a part of Athlos NYC

Gabby Thomas earned a whopping $60,000 from Alexis Ohanian. That too, despite failing to win in Athlos! Before the start of the Olympics in Paris, Ohanian had a special announcement for all his Athlos athletes. The tech mogul uploaded a video and stated that if any of the athletes taking part in Athlos managed to win Olympic gold, he would be dishing out $60,000 to all of them. 

Well, Gabby Thomas was all ears. Putting up a scintillating performance in the French capital, Thomas continued her splendid Olympics run and also secured a lump sum prize money. Ohanian too, looked thrilled to have Thomas onboard. Speaking of her ability to juggle multiple ventures at once, Serena Williams’ husband admired the 3x Olympic gold medalist as he credited her heavily for the initial success. 

Thomas too looked starstruck as the females took the charge at New York City. She stated, “This is bigger than myself and it’s bigger than this race. It’s bigger than just the six of us lining up… “It’s really about what we’re doing for women’s sports.” Thus, with the blueprint in place, Athlos is looking set for achieving greater things in the future. It now remains to be seen how well things shape up.