Alexis Ohanian on investing BIG into women's sports + Serena Williams' tennis return | SportsCenter
📅 May 19, 2026ESPN9 MIN1762 VIEWS21 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS
On SportsCenter, Hannah Storm is joined by ATHLOS founder and Serena Williams’s husband, Alexis Ohanian, to discuss his investments in women’s sports, including his all-women track and field league, before addressing Serena Williams’ return to tennis.
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What Alexis Ohanian said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Alexis Ohanian discussed his investment in women's sports, particularly Athlos, which he founded after the Paris Olympics. He explained that Athlos will expand beyond New York into more cities, with athletes as equity partners, and emphasized record-breaking prize money, including $60,000 paid instantly via Cash App. He cited Angel City FC, Chelsea's women's team, LA's League One volleyball team, and LA Golf Club as examples of his investments. Ohanian credited Serena and Venus Williams for proving the business viability of women's tennis, and Billie Jean King for paving the way. He expressed confidence that women's sports teams could generate hundreds of millions in revenue, and that sports remain valuable in the AI age because of the human experience. On Serena's potential return, he said he would support her decision, noting the world misses her as an athlete.
Key takeaways
Athlos will expand to more cities beyond New York, with athletes as equity partners.
Athlos paid winners $60,000 within seconds of finishing via Cash App.
He will support Serena Williams if she decides to return to tennis, noting the world misses her as an athlete.
Numbers and commitments
Figure
What it refers to
Type
At
4 years
Frequency of Olympics and Women's World Cup viewership spikes
1:32So, in terms of generating their own revenue and in terms of staying sharp in competition and offering storylines, how does what you're doing now really benefit everybody involved?
2:28You're one of the founding owners of that. Chelsea's women's team, right?
2:58I mean, in what way has that inspired you to really double down on women's in sports?
Many other things, obviously, the co-founder of Reddit, husband to the great Serena Williams, founder of Athlos, supporter of women's sports with us here in studio. Hey, you called it a while ago. You said women's sports, billion-dollar business. People thought you were nuts at the time. There were a lot of haters. They're awfully quiet now.
And you have been a real leader in terms of investing in women's sports. How did you come up with Athlos? Why was that important really on the heels of the Paris Olympics?
I was using a similar pattern recognition that I saw when starting Angel City and seeing how popular the Women's World Cup was every 4 years. You know, every 4 years during the Olympics, the world is tuned in to track and field.
Awesome. And the participants last year was just this star-studded event in New York. I mean, complete with Tiffany crowns and the like. It really was successful. Now, how are you expanding it into a league?
Well, you know, what was really important to us was one, if we're going to build this league, we're going to do it with the athletes as partners. And that was the equity component that you're talking about. You know, one of the best memories for me with the Reddit IPO was knowing how many administrative assistants were getting tremendous wealth as a result of it because equity aligns incentives. And so, bringing on these athletes as partners is going to be huge for the league. And then, we're also going to build this out into more cities than just New York. I can't tell you which one yet, or my team's going to be really mad at me. But if you've been paying attention to where I spend my time, you'll know pretty soon. And the goal here is to build something where it's not just once every 4 years we get to see these athletes on the biggest stage. It's multiple times every single year.
Yeah, and it's really hard, I think, for the athletes because they essentially fall off the map, right? So, in terms of generating their own revenue and in terms of staying sharp in competition and offering storylines, how does what you're doing now really benefit everybody involved?
Well, look, number one, cash rules everything around us here. Like, having record-breaking prize money automatically sets a standard that then brings brands to the table, brings fans to the table, and all that stuff starts multiplying. These athletes are still competing outside the Olympics. It's just before Athlos, they weren't making very much money. And so, to be a professional athlete is already a huge commitment. To do it in a solo sport where you have to fund everything yourself is an even bigger commitment. And so, we wanted to set a standard where these athletes got paid. With a partnership we had with Cash App, we actually paid our winners within seconds of them crossing the finish line. They had their cash in their app, 60 grand right there within seconds. And it's that is shocking, but that's actually revolutionary for the sport of athletics.
It is. It is. It's really game-changing. I mean, really to use a sports analogy. And you've been in this game for a while. So, you talked about Angel City FC, right? You're one of the founding owners of that. Chelsea's women's team, right? A stake there as well. LA's team in League One volleyball.
Yeah, just added a volleyball team. Yep. LA Golf Club, we're going to see PGL next year, right? That's really cool. We just won the tournament here on ESPN a few months ago, and we just added a women's team, which will start with the W TGL later this year.
11 more exchanges in this transcript
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Ohanian, A. (2026, May 19). Alexis Ohanian on investing BIG into women's sports + Serena Williams' tennis return | SportsCenter [Interview transcript]. ESPN. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/918308/
MLA
Alexis Ohanian. "Alexis Ohanian on investing BIG into women's sports + Serena Williams' tennis return | SportsCenter." ESPN, 19 May. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/918308/.
BibTeX
@misc{ohanian2026_918308,
author = {Alexis Ohanian},
title = {Alexis Ohanian on investing BIG into women's sports + Serena Williams' tennis return | SportsCenter},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, ESPN. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {may},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/918308/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
