Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian is aiming to redirect the public spotlight back towards “actual athletes” in the wake of significant pushback from female Olympians regarding a controversial betting company advertisement featuring Euphoria actress Sydney Sweeney.
The internet entrepreneur’s innovative all-female track meeting, Athlos, makes its debut appearance in the UK on Friday at a sold-out StoneX stadium in London, where Keely Hodgkinson and Georgia Hunter Bell are among those competing for Tiffany-crafted crowns and a share of the 1,057,000 million US dollar (£790,266) prize pot.
Even Ohanian’s wife, tennis icon Serena Williams, has been drawn into the wider discussion surrounding the commercial, which featured a nude Sweeney strategically covered by items of sports equipment. It sparked viral dissent among athletes, who have used the moment to celebrate women in sport – a primary objective behind Athlos.
“Look, we know sex sells as a product. That’s a thing that just continues to apparently work,” Ohanian told the Press Association, after viewing the advertisement for the first time with the news agency.
“It is crazy to me that it seems like people now are just trying to generate attention by any means necessary, and it is incredibly disappointing that this is even a conversation when you have so many actual athletes who are still finding their economic footing in most of the sports.
“How do I feel about it? It’s not at all surprising, unfortunately, and I am glad to see so many women athletes remixing it as a way to promote what they are about.”
The entrepreneur’s portfolio also includes a minority stake in Chelsea Women, and he was a founding controlling owner of National Women’s Soccer League team Angel City.
Social media reach and boosting athlete compensation were central factors in launching the spectacle-embracing, “entertainment-rich” Athlos, stemming from Ohanian’s regret, he revealed, “that what I should have done in 2019 was actually just buy the (NWSL)”.
Ohanian identified a “no-brainer” opportunity in women’s athletics, where he discovered “the follower counts of the top women athletes just crush the men. Compared to six years ago, brands really want to be aligned with women’s sports, so it checked all these boxes of obviousness from a business case”.
He said: “Even as we get a little bit of pushback from folks who are like, ‘Why don’t you add the men?’, I actually see that as a positive because it means they care, and we’ll do it. I think we’ll probably be the first league in history to have a women’s league that then includes men.”
Determined to make an industry-wide impact on competitors’ livelihoods through a substantial financial fund, Ohanian appointed US Olympians Gabby Thomas, Sha’Carri Richardson and Tara Davis-Woodhall as advisor-owners.
The 43-year-old is collaborating with World Athletics to better integrate Athlos into the season and expand into a league format. He met with Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Tuesday, and hopes to “make London a fixture” on the tour.
Viewing the situation as a businessman, the father of two daughters conceded the Sweeney campaign was a “masterclass” in securing “free advertising”, sitting at the heart of a “perfect storm” for a prediction-market product claiming to focus on ‘just sports’.
But, he said: “It hits this nerve where it feels like such a step back in light of all the progress women’s sports has been making.”
Some, including Sweeney herself, have shared images from past editions of ESPN’s Body Issue, marketed as a celebration “of the incredible power of the athletic form” and featuring 23-time grand slam singles winner Williams and other athletes posing semi-nude.
Ohanian views accusations of hypocrisy as a “false equivalency”, noting: “They’re athletes. The resume of physical excellence is a fit body. No disrespect to Sydney Sweeney, but I don’t think she’s devoted her body and life to physical excellence in sport.”
