Alexis Ohanian announces highest paying women’s track event
WASHINGTON, United States — Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and husband to Serena Williams, has announced a new invitational track event for the world’s top female sprinters which will offer the largest purse ever for female athletes.
The prize fund will see winners taking home $60,000, second place runners earning $25,000 and the third place prize set at $10,000 for each event.
Speaking with ESPN, Ohanian revealed that through his venture capital firm Seven Seven Six, he will be sponsoring the 776 Invitational set to take place at the end of September.
“Most important is this had to be the largest purse in the history of women’s track and field,” Ohanian said in an ESPN report, “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.”
“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,” he added in the report.
Ohanian told ESPN that he hopes to announce all committed athletes and the location of the event before the Summer Olympics in Paris.
The 776 Invitational will start out as a one-off event but Ohanian has hopes for it to expand.