Serena Williams’ husband, Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, has always been a big fan of women’s sports. The American has invested millions of dollars and looks set to invest more as he announces a track event for the world’s top female sprinters.
Ohanian revealed that the top female sprinters will be offered the largest prize fund ever in the history of female athletes. This is coming at a bigger stage for the American investor, who invested in Angel City FC in 2016 in an American soccer league.
Alexis Ohanian (via Imago)
This invitational track event will be set to host 776 athletes who would have been selected before September this year.
Speaking to ESPN, Ohanian said that he was shocked when he learned that the first prize for female athletes was $30,000 and the initiated tournament would be $60,000 for winners. Athletes who bag second will take home $25,000 and third $10,000 at the event.
Most important is this had to be the largest purse in the history of women’s track and field. Why? Because one, I was shocked when I found out what the current highest one was [$30,000 for a final event in the Diamond League]. And two, there is a healthy tension that exists, which is the prize money should be directly correlated or related to the sort of scale and scope of the event itself.Alexis Ohanian said
He added that he was happy to invest in the 776 Invitational event, as it will captivate the world of sports like the Olympics.
I’m very happy to be the one who steps up and says, ‘Here’s the money.’ Look, this matters. This is an amazing set of humans who you’re going to be captivated by during the Olympics, and you’re going to see in a whole other way at the 776 Invitational.Alex Ohanian added in the report.
The American billionaire added that all the details about the tournament will be unveiled after the Olympics.
Alex Ohanian believes women’s sports can do better than men with the right investments
In a recent talk with the Pivot Podcast, Alexis Ohanian revealed that women’s sports have begun to reap the dividends of good investments. He pointed out that during the US Open, despite Serena and Venus Williams not participating, the viewership of the 2023 edition final reached over three million.
Surprisingly, it was higher than the men’s final between Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev. The last time the US Open had a record viewership was in the last game of Serena Williams in 2022, but a match between Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka broke the record.
If you look at the US Open, even if there is not a Williams sister in it, more Americans watch the women's US Open final than the men.Alexis Ohanian said during The Pivot Podcast
Ohanian married Serena on November 16, 2017. They have two daughters, Olympia, born on September 17, and Adira, born in August 2023.
