Olympic gold medalalist Sha’Carri Richardson has joined the new, team-based women’s track and field league Athlos as a founding owner-advisor.
Fellow sprinter Gabby Thomas and long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall have also become owner-advisors of the league, set to launch next year after the World Athletics season.
Athlos was started by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who also has ownership stakes in women’s soccer teams Angel City and Chelsea and is married to tennis great Serena Williams. The first Athlos event took place last year in New York City and featured 35 athletes. The prize purse was $500,000, with 10% of the proceeds going to the athletes.
Another standalone event is set for New York’s Icahn Stadium in October before the new league kicks off with meets across the country and a series-ending championship.
“Gabby, Sha’Carri, and Tara represent a new generation of athletes who have put this sport on their shoulders and deserve to be compensated for being the standard-bearers,” Ohanian said in a statement. “We were focused on bringing them into the League as founding owners to ensure we’re building a League that our athletes will love.”
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