Women's-only track meet in NYC features Olympic champions, lucrative prize money

A New York City track meet Thursday night will be unlike any other, featuring lucrative prize money, big-name entertainers, silver crowns for the winners instead of gold medals and an all-female field.

Chalk up another win for women's sports.

Recently crowned Olympic 200-metre champion Gabby Thomas and company are helping track take a big step forward by racing in the inaugural Athlos track meet at 7:30 p.m., which has assembled some of the fastest women in the world.

For them to even take the starting line, an assist goes to Alex Morgan and the rest of her 2019 World Cup-winning U.S. soccer squad. Another assist to basketball standouts Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese as well.

Because Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit and husband of Serena Williams, was told nobody tunes in for women's sports.

He begged to differ. It led to the launch of Athlos, which will dole out more than $500,000 US in total prize money and split 10 per cent of all proceeds among the athletes. There's also a performance by Grammy Award winning singer Megan Thee Stallion.

"We're outsiders to the sport of track and field and so we come in with a pretty humble approach. Our number one priority is doing right by these athletes," Ohanian said of an event that will be held at Icahn Stadium and funded by Seven Seven Six, the venture capital firm he formed.

"I don't want to trivialize it, but a huge reason why women's sports has been held back is simply because of an underinvestment. But now it's gotten too valuable to ignore.

"Yes, everyone watches women's sports and now it's just a question of which ones."

For hurdler Alaysha Johnson, a women's only meet feels like the perfect way to close out a long season that's included Diamond League races, the