Athlos, the women’s-only professional track meet founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, will run two events in 2026: a debut at StoneX Stadium in north London on September 18 and a return to New York’s Icahn Stadium on October 2. Total prize money rises to $2.1 million, up from $773,500 in 2025.
Sha’Carri Richardson, Gabby Thomas, Tara Davis-Woodhall, Masai Russell, and Dominican Olympic 400m champion Marileidy Paulino are among the names confirmed for both stops. Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson, who won at the 2025 meet and received her Tiffany & Co. crown from Serena Williams, is expected to race in London.
Ohanian, who is married to Williams, told the BBC his ambition is to build the “Formula 1 of track and field.”
How the prize money works
First place in each event now pays $65,000 per meet, up from $60,000 last year. Second through sixth place also see bumps. Each event pays out $151,000 per meet, a 36.7% jump from 2025.
Points carry across both meets on a 10-8-6-4-2-1 basis. A series winner picks up a $25,000 bonus and a Tiffany crown, meaning an athlete who sweeps both events can collect $155,000. Seven disciplines are on the schedule: 100m hurdles, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, mile and long jump.
Equity for athletes
Athlos is owned outright by Seven Seven Six, Ohanian’s venture capital firm, which holds roughly $900 million in assets. Competing athletes receive a stake in the league, according to Sportico.
“The cash compensates their participation and success, and the equity recognises what we’re building together,” Ohanian told the BBC.
Thomas added: “The narrative growing up was that you can’t run professional track and field, there’s nothing in it. I like that we’re rewriting that.”
A measured strategy
StoneX Stadium holds 10,500 fans and is home to Saracens rugby. It also hosts Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers, the club that produced Olympians Daryll Neita, Zharnel Hughes and Dave Bedford. The mid-sized venue choice fits the playbook from New York, where the 5,000-seat Icahn Stadium has sold out both years.
The London date sits between two other major fixtures. The Diamond League season ends September 5 in Brussels, and World Athletics launches its new Ultimate Championship in Budapest from September 11 to 13.
Athlos is moving more carefully than Grand Slam Track, the rival series founded by Michael Johnson. That league offered $3 million per meet in 2025 before losing funding and entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy. A team-based format Athlos teased last year has quietly been dropped.
Ohanian, who sold Reddit in 2006 for $10 million and bought a 10% stake in Chelsea Women last year, told The Guardian the project is a long bet.
“I’m at a very fortunate place in my career in my life where I don’t want to do anything small. I want to do things that have big impacts, that are about legacy,” he said.
“We know we’re entering into something really ambitious. Ultimately we want to build a league around athletics, which historically has not had commercial success. This is a big moment for us.”
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