Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian expressed excitement as season 2 of Netflix's SPRINT docuseries started premiering on November 13. The series follows prominent sprinters such as Gabby Thomas and Noah Lyles at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Ohanian made a large investment in track and field in 2024 by launching the first women-only league in the sport. He founded Athlos NYC in partnership with 200m Olympic champion Gabby Thomas in early 2024 with the inaugural event taking place on September 26.
Athlos NYC brought a substantial increase in prize money for the sprinters with winners taking $60,000 each at the inaugural competition. The Reddit co-founder also leveled up the broadcasting with live streams available for free on YouTube, X and Facebook.
Following the success of the first event, Ohanian has promised to make the event much bigger next season and is currently enjoying the cinematic replay of the 2024 season. As season 2 of SPRINT premiered on Netflix, the X handle of Ohanian's Athlos showed excitement on getting to relive 'Gabby Thomas winning three Olympic gold medals'.
"Us running to watch season 2 of Sprint so we can relive @itsgabbyt winning three Olympic gold medals," it posted.
Ohanian echoed a similar sentiment, writing:
"I am seated."
Alexis Ohanian reveals motivation behind starting Athlos NYC
Alexis Ohanian didn't know a thing about track and field before starting Athlos, claimed Gabby Thomas. The Reddit co-founder attended the first live event at this year's U.S. Olympic Trials and found the sport 'awesome'.
"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. 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," he told Citius Magazine.
Ohanian became interested in the sport after watching a few viral clips of Sha'Carri Richardson from her collegiate days. However, he pointed out the lack of spotlight on sport during non-Olympic years as one of his biggest motivations behind starting Athlos. The Reddit co-founder chose to partner with Gabby Thomas to get a better understanding of what athletes wanted before hosting a spectacular event in NYC.