4 min readYou could feel it in your bones. Literally.
As Megan Thee Stallion, the Grammy award winning rapper, launched into the first song of her set, the bass pounded through Icahn Stadium. There were lasers. And backup dancers. And weed smoke floating through the air.
This is track in 2024. Or at least, what track could be.
On Thursday night, entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian debuted the first edition of Athlos, a women’s-only track meet with unprecedented prize money. While most athletes had wrapped up their seasons weeks ago, 36 women lined up across six events, at an event that was billed as “Coachella meets a track meet.”
The winners of each race got $60,000, more than six times what they would make at a regular season stop on the Diamond League circuit, with prize money going to each of the six competitors. Tiffany & Co. created special tiaras for winners, and the athletes got VIP treatment with first-class travel to New York, makeup sessions, and a photo shoot in Times Square.
Megan Thee Stallion was marketed as an add-on, almost like a doorbuster at a Black Friday sale, to get people to the meet. Ohanian, who is married to Serena Williams and has invested heavily in women’s sports in recent years, said that they picked her after sourcing ideas from the athletes themselves.
“We built this by talking to the athletes,” he said, holding his 7-year-old daughter, Olympia. “So I asked all the athletes, ‘Who is the one artist you’d be amazed to see playing at a track meet?’ And they all said Meg Thee Stallion. So I said, ‘Great, we’ll get you Meg Thee Stallion.’”
Megan performed after the competition had finished (and after Olympia’s bedtime), and the megastar even met some of the athletes before she went on, including three-time Olympic gold medalist Faith Kipyegon. “It was really amazing meeting her,” Kipyegon said, who admitted she wasn’t familiar with her music but was seen lip-syncing to Shakira after winning the 1500 meters earlier in the night.
But it turns out that “Hotties,” as Megan’s devout fans are called, showed up in full force—and with open minds.
Jasmine Kane got tickets for her 26th birthday. She flew up from North Carolina the day before but didn’t realize she would be seeing a full-fledged track meet until the day of the event. The date was listed on Megan’s tour website like any other concert. That didn’t, however, dampen Kane’s excitement. She got to the stadium early and was vaguely familiar with some of the athletes after watching bits and pieces of the Olympics. “I’m intrigued,” she said before the meet. “I’m very curious, I’m very open minded, so I’m gonna give it a chance.”
Nene Hunter heard about the event through Megan’s Instagram, which has a colossal 32.6 million followers, but once Hunter learned that there would be runners, it sold her even more. “I’m all for women’s empowerment,” she said. “I love seeing women in sports accomplish so much, so it was a win-win.”
The ambiance of the event was far different from the procedural nature of many regular season meets. The athletes walked onto the track for each event to walk-up songs and sparklers. The events were scheduled roughly 20 minutes apart, so New York’s DJ D-Nice could keep the energy high and build anticipation. There were some lulls, but that’s to be expected in a two-plus hour program in its first year.
After the races concluded, some fans were allowed onto the track to get closer to the stage, and when Megan came out, they erupted. She played for just over 30 minutes and most of the crowd, which was approximately 80 percent full of Icahn’s 5,000-seat capacity, stayed around for the beginning of the set. It was a hot and sticky night, even if you weren’t running or dancing.
Some fans, like Joshua Montoya, who saw Megan perform in May at a sold-out Madison Square Garden, thought the event as a whole was well worth the price of admission (for him, $110 to be front and center). “It was amazing,” he said. “I watched these races during the Olympics but to see it in person was a different experience.”
For other fans, who weren’t as familiar with the athletes, the event was more about a cultural moment. Phylicia Gillespie went to the show with her two friends, Jason and Meya, and she loved seeing other Black women at the center of the program.
“I’m always here for Black women supporting Black women,” she said. “There were a bunch of Black women. So I like seeing Black success, seeing Black women be a part of something greater. I’m always gonna support that.”
She and her friends felt entertained, even though Megan only played for just over 30 minutes. It certainly felt like a concert experience with non-stop music, slightly overpriced alcohol, and merchandise tents.
Montoya walked away from the event on a high. “The energy was great,” he said. “I’m sure next year the event will be even bigger after everyone saw how last night went.”
Maybe it will be.
Ohanian, when he was promoting the event in the preceding months, wouldn’t give details on the long-term future of Athlos. But before the races, he told Front Office Sports that there are plans to have it again next year. Athlete and fan feedback will be essential to its success going forward.
“I hope the die-hard track fans love this,” Ohanian said, as the crowd was arriving. “I also think a ton of casuals, like myself, will fall in love with the sport.”
Even if they don’t become converts, they sure had a lot of fun.
Theo Kahler is the news editor at Runner’s World. He’s a former all-conference collegiate runner at Winthrop University, and he received his master’s degree in liberal arts studies from Wake Forest University, where he was a member of one of the top distance-running teams in the NCAA. Kahler has reported on the ground at major events such as the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials, New York City Marathon, and Boston Marathon. He’s run 14:20 in the 5K, 1:05:36 in the half marathon, and enjoys spotting tracks from the sky on airplanes. (Look for colorful ovals around football fields.)
