Athlos will be back by popular demand. Literally.
Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian’s women’s track event late last month drew some 3 million viewers across its non-exclusive platforms, the company said.
The Wild Card round of this year’s MLB playoffs averaged 2.83 million viewers and peaked at just over 4.017 million for Game 3 between the New York Mets and Milwaukee Brewers. So it’s clear to see the potential in a new event with a field highlighted by three-time gold medalist Gabby Thomas drawing three million viewers. And while streaming numbers, unlike Nielsen ratings, count simply how many people checked in at some point, Athlos commanded such attention with no TV partner and all in-house promo powered by the social media prowess of the athletes. All women.
“It became a global spectacle,” Athlos chief marketing officer Kayla Green said. “We are confident this is just the beginning of a flood of new interest in women’s track.”
The evaluation plan by organizers included three phases: the vibe at the event, the athlete response and the turnout. The first two were clear victories.
Athlos NYC looked and felt epic and innovative for the sport. The event was bedazzled with celebrity. Actresses Marsai Martin and Lupita Nyong’o; Shonda Rhimes, producer of Grey’s Anatomy and Bridgerton; track legends Justin Gatlin, Gail Devers and Sanya Richards-Ross. And, of course, a Meg Thee Stallion performance as the nightcap.
The athletes loved it.
The largest purse for women. The crowns by Tiffany & Co. for winners. The custom bibs. The glam shoot the day before. The pedestal on which they were erected.
The turnout then secured the future of the event. Better than even planners expected, it validated the belief in the growing viability of track in America. The significant investment made in last month’s Athlos NYC event produced enough of a return to spark an annual event from the trial run.
The details about future meets aren’t yet set. But the working expectation is to be an annual punctuation to the track season, a celebration event at Icahn Stadium. But the plan for more is fresh enough that changes and additions are possible.
“The most important thing was that the ladies who participated felt like it was the best meet of their lives,” Ohanian said. “We’re still hearing back from everybody, but the consensus was pretty loud and clear. Knowing we accomplished that,” he continued, “I knew we’d have something the fans who were there would love, and the folks on the broadcast would love. Certainly having over three million viewers helps make it very obvious that Athlos is something that should be, at a minimum, an annual event.”
The meet — held Sept. 26 at Icahn Stadium in New York — streamed live on X, Instagram, YouTube and ESPN+ before being re-aired on ESPN2 the next day. Athlos declined to give a breakdown of viewers by platform. But the livestream on X showed 2.5 million views, plus 100,000 on YouTube.
Gabby Thomas was the headliner of Athlos’ debut event last month in New York. (Patrick Smith / Athlos / Getty Images for Athlos)
It’s another example of track’s developing appeal in the States.
This year’s U.S. Olympic trials averaged 4.5 million viewers on NBC’s platforms, which was a 38-percent jump from the 2021 trials before the Tokyo Olympics. The 2022 World Championships, held in Eugene, Ore., averaged 834,000 viewers over the 10-day event, which was the highest average for the event since 2015.
Athlos was also an illustration of the growing audience for women superstars. The same appeal Ohanian’s venture capital firm Seven Seven Six was banking on when leading an eight-figure investment in Athlos.
Can they get this event on television? Can they get even more big names on board? Can they build on this momentum as the push to make track stick in America continues in earnest as the Grand Slam Track league kicks off, and Netflix’s “Sprint” series keeps going, and the stars of the sport fight for a spot in the landscape?
“This has given us so much encouragement that what we’re building at Athlos is very much on the right track” Ohanian said, “and we should be even more ambitious next year for Phase II.”
Next year will be interesting to watch considering his event won’t have the benefit of the Summer Olympics shadow. Buzz from Paris was still simmering when Athlos stepped into the spotlight. That won’t be the case in 2025 — presumably again in September, after the Wanda Diamond League final in late August.
The entire sport will have a hand in keeping it lit in the run-up to the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. Athlos may have even provided proof for a working formula.
The plan of investing in and centering the athletes, and letting them draw the crowds with their appeal and connection, produced fruit. Thomas, the face of the event who helped plan Athlos, proved to be a fan magnet coming off her dominant performance in Paris.
Her arrival felt like an NBA player’s the way the waiting crowd roared when she emerged from the sprinter van. The way the little girl lost it when Thomas gave her the spikes off her feet.
That kind of appeal, Athlos reiterated, can always be sold and is worth the investment.
Required reading
(Top photo of Australian Torrie Lewis entering before the women’s 200-meter last month at Athlos NYC: Patrick Smith / Athlos / Getty Images for Athlos)
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