From Noah Lyles to Justin Gatlin: How track world reacted to Alexis Ohanian's inaugural Athlos NYC event

One of the most anticipated athletics meets, the first edition of Athlos NYC took place on September 26. This event launched by Alexis Ohanian garnered the attention of athletes from the track world, such as Noah Lyles, Justin Gatlin, and others.

Athlos NYC meet was held at the Icahn Stadium on Thursday and featured multiple exciting events like the 100m hurdles, 100m, 400m, 200m, 800m, and 1500m. Along with this, it also featured a performance by Megan Thee Stallion. The reddit co-founder curated this event for women only, citing the need for more exposure for women's sports.

This event witnessed terrific showdowns between Gabby Thomas and Brittany Brown in the 200m, another head-to-head competition between Jasmine Camacho-Quinn and Masai Russell, and several others. These face-offs and the execution of the competition grabbed the attention of Noah Lyles and some other renowned personalities from the track world.

Lyles took to his X handle and shared his wish of seeing a celebrity cam at the meet. He wrote:

"I would love to see a celebrity cam from @athlos with track stars and non track stars."

Gatlin took to his Instagram handle and shared a clip from his podcast, 'Ready Set Go,' where he spoke highly of the meet. He said:

"The meet was like a dream, dawg. Like, if you woke up from a dream, yo I just had a dream about a track meet. It was crazy. It was at night. It was in New York, The Reddit Guy put on the meet. Shout out to Alexis Ohanian. They passed out Tiffany crowns, they didn't even have medals, they passed out Tiffany crowns and Megan Thee Stallion performed at the end. I have to say, bro, this was amazing."

He further commended the atmosphere of the meet, saying:

"It was an experience. The DJ had the music keep spinning, they did an amazing job. A+ for me."

Canadian Olympian Aaron Brown also took to X and put forward his thoughts about the meet. He said:

"The production that @athlos had for their meet is what the future of T&F needs to look like."

Another reaction about the Athlos NYC meet came from track and field insider Owen. He shared positive notes as well as some of the corrections he thought the meet needed, highlighting the long gaps between the races and much more. Here is the note shared by him on X:

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Gabby Thomas comments about competing at the Athlos NYC meet

Gabby Thomas was one of the first athletes to sign with the Athlos NYC meet. A day before the meet, she opened up about competing in the event in an interview with Citius Mag. She said that it was one of the most important meets as its motive is to do something effective for women's sports.

"This is bigger than myself and it’s bigger than this race. It’s bigger than just the six of us lining up," Thomas said. "It’s really about what we’re doing for women’s sports. What this event particularly means for women's sports and track and field."

The American claimed second place in the 200m at Athlos NYC, clocking a time of 22.21s. Brittany Brown, who recorded 22.18s, came home in first place.