"It's just an awesome sport" - Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian confident about athletics' potential ahead of opening Athlos NYC meet

Serena Williams' husband, Alexis Ohanian, recently exuded confidence in the potential of athletics as the opening of the Athlos NYC meet nears. The meet is slated to commence on September 26, 2024.

Ohanian, the founder of Reddit, initially named it the 776 Invitational and then changed it to Athlos NYC Meet, which will be held at Ichan Stadium on Randall's Island in New York City. It is a track event only for women athletes and has already signed Olympic champions Gabby Thomas and Faith Kipyegon.

Both the athletes dominated their respective sports at the Paris Olympics, with Thomas winning the 200m dash and Kipyegon topping the 1500m event. With less than a month left for the meet to begin, Ohanian showed confidence in athletics' potential and opened up about why he invested in women's sports in a recent interview with Citius Mag.

Ohanian said he has gotten more confident about track and field and that he has gotten a great response from the athletes event without sending them an invite. He said:

"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."

He added:

"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."

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Alexis Ohanian explained the reason behind hosting his meet in New York

In the aforementioned interview, Alexis Ohanian opened up about why he chose New York to host the Athlos NYC meet. He said that the city is ideal for sporting venues and wants to bring that energy to his meet. Be it the Knicks playoff game or the US Open finals, all the tournaments are held here.

"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," said Ohanian.

He added:

"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."

Alexis Ohanian also announced the prize money of $60,000 for the athletes who secured first place, $25,000 for second place, and $10,000 for third place at the Athlos NYC track meet.