Alexis Ohanian Opens Up on How He Built Athlos Into ‘One of the Best Track Events Ever’

Athlos NYC proved to be one of the most successful track and field events this season, with every athlete having something good to say. The meet was unorthodox, out of the box and struck a chord with both the participants and the audience. Organizer and the mastermind behind the meet, Alexis Ohanian, recently talked about how it all transpired.

In a conversation with Justin Gatlin and Rodney Green, Ohanian opened up on how an ‘outsider’ like him ultimately nailed a meet as big as Athlos.

Although he had a strong team that included specialists and athletes who knew how the basics of a track meet worked, he had the creative liberty to reimagine concepts. He laid the foundation of the event on that and built further.

He then began seeking consultants for some of his most unconventional ideas, such as altering the configuration of the track used in sports like Formula 1. That helped him establish the non-negotiable factors of Athlos, with which he began ideating creative ways to reform them.

Another point he made about track and field meets was that the audience couldn’t always focus because many events were happening at the same time. To address this, Ohanian eliminated field events and only had one track category compete at a time.

“People who are just casuals should be able to dip into this very quickly and get hooked. And then I wanted die hards to say ‘okay, this is legit’.”

The focus of Athlos was not only to be a trendsetter and torchblazer but also to tell the stories of athletes. Ohanian shone the spotlight on the women through their journeys and built their introductions and personas on that.

However, the entrepreneur did not stop there and wanted to immediately extend this event to different phases. He knew it would be successful simply because athletes had already been looking forward to it.

Previously hinting at a possible second edition immediately after concluding the first one on a high note, Ohanian discussed his future plans with the veterans. Not only did he want more participation and hype, but he also looked forward to including field events, knowing it would be a successful venture.