Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and husband to tennis legend Serena Williams, is no stranger to the high stakes of elite sports. But it wasn’t on the tennis court where his latest passion took root—it was at the U.S. Olympic Trials, where he first felt the raw intensity of track and field. The tension in the air, reminiscent of Serena’s most nail-biting matches, caught him off guard, planting the seed for what would become his next big venture.

Now, Ohanian is channeling that energy into Athlos, a groundbreaking track and field event set to make waves on September 26th. With top athletes like Gabby Thomas, fresh off winning three Olympic golds in Paris, ready to compete, Athlos is poised to challenge the status quo and offer a new platform for the world’s best female athletes. He revealed everything about his venture in the latest podcast.

Alexis Ohanian reveals how he became a track and field fan at the Olympic trial

The venture capitalist has been involved in women’s sports for quite some time now. He founded the Angel City Football Club in the NWSL. Not to forget, he is also married to the arguably greatest female athlete of our time, Williams. But, when he decided to invest in female track and field, people were interested to know what led him to make this decision. Recently, in a podcast, he revealed his thinking behind it. It was the Olympic trials that had caught his attention. Watching from the stands, he could feel the sheer intensity, comparing it to the US Open.

In a recent CITIUS MAG podcast, Alexis Ohanian revealed, “So I was struck forward. The energy there at those Olympic trials reminded me of, I don’t know, US Open’s moment, where there was so much, I almost got a little bit of like PTSD. So I grew up playing team sports; obviously, I’m married to the G.O.A.T. Serena, you know, the solo sports side. The energy at a tennis event like the US Open is so interesting because there’s so much anxiety, there’s so many nerves. Like it’s palpable and it, you know, goes on work two weeks, and you know, there are fewer and fewer people there every day. And it’s a feeling, right?”

This tension is what led him to track and field. But tennis events were different for him as he was there cheering for a family member. Nerves would be very high for that. But, according to Ohanian, despite not having personal stakes, he could still feel the palpable tension at the trials. That electric atmosphere pulled him into track and field, inspiring his next big move.

From tennis to track, what drew Ohanian to invest in female athletes?

Alexis Ohanian realized there was massive competition in the trials. The people who don’t qualify are still world-class athletes. They deserved a competition like Athlos. Some of the athletes who don’t qualify would be the best athletes in other countries. He also admitted that a lot of tension he felt in tennis events was because his wife was competing in them. But, despite that not being the case in track, he still felt the same nervousness brewing under his stomach.

All this cumulatively led him to make the decision to create Athlos. He said, “And it’s just that, that, that story alone is captivating. So it’s a question of, ‘Okay, how do you create a space then where you can have so many of the fastest folks that show up and tell that story in the way that a casual American sports fan would,’ you know?”

That’s how Athlos came into being. It’s a competition where the underdogs too have a chance to prove themselves. Plus, it’s a female-only competition at a time when female track stars like Gabby Thomas, Sha’Carri Richardson, and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone have taken the world by storm. The competition is bound to give us new stars of such capacity. It will be an interesting competition to watch and see what Alexis Ohanian has in store for us.