When Cory McGee steps on the track in New York City’s Icahn Stadium Thursday night, her race will represent so much more than just three and three-quarter laps around the oval.
McGee, who was a 10-time All-American selection in her four years running for the University of Florida, will be competing in Athlos, a brand-new women’s-only track meet that features one of the biggest prize pools in the sport.
“The fact that it’s coming from this female perspective is obviously a big part of what sets this meet apart,” McGee said. “To be a part of anything new and innovative in that way is super cool.”
Athlos is the latest in a series of investments into women’s sports by Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and husband to 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams. Ohanian’s first major step into women’s sports came as a member of the founding group of Angel City FC in the National Women’s Soccer League. In the two years since the club began play, it has become the most valuable women’s sports franchise in the world, being sold for $250 million in July.
It raises the question of what about track and field — a sport that typically only receives mainstream attention once every four years — made Ohanian think it was worth the investment.
“As I talked to more and more of these athletes, I got even more confidence because a lot of what they were saying is what I felt back in 2019 about women’s soccer,” Ohanian said on the “CITIUS MAG Podcast” last month. “It’s an awesome sport, and I’ve only gotten more and more confident the more time I’ve spent in it.”
The prize money offered at Athlos is what has drawn the most attention from track and field athletes and fans. In a sport where athletes have often lamented being underpaid, a $60,000 prize for first place and $110,500 in total to be distributed across the six racers in each event is a significant step forward.
The Wanda Diamond League, track and field’s primary professional circuit since 2010, offers only $10,000 to winners at each of its 14 meets throughout the year, and $30,000 to the winner of the Diamond League Final. Both figures will increase in 2025 but will still be less than the Athlos prize pool.
At this summer’s Paris Olympics, World Athletics, the governing body of track and field, paid gold medal winners $50,000 each. It was an unprecedented move, as it became the first international federation to compensate athletes for Olympic performance, but that number still comes short of what Athlos winners will receive.
Athlos highlights an important fact of track and field, which is that while athletes as a whole are typically paid less than professional athletes in other sports, the landscape of the sport is more equal than what we typically see.
“I’ve never really experienced that,” McGee said when asked if she has seen roadblocks in her career because she's a woman. “I’ve always felt that there is a pretty standardized idea of ‘professional track and field,’ and I’ve always felt that I’ve been treated really fairly.”
The nature of track and field allows for men and women to be granted the same levels of exposure, as they race one after the other in the same broadcast windows and in front of the same audiences at every level. This has allowed for athletes like Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Sha’Carri Richardson and Gabby Thomas, who worked alongside Ohanian to bring Athlos to life, to be just as – if not more – popular than their male counterparts.
“When I think of Athlos and I think of some of the women in the sport, I think there are some names that have already elevated the sport,” McGee said. “I’d like to think that just through celebrating the individual, that can happen.”
Popularity is one thing, but compensation is what matters most. Appearance fees and professional contracts signed with brands like Nike, Adidas or, in McGee’s case, New Balance, are important pieces of the track and field puzzle, but those numbers are generally kept from the public. When it comes to publicly available prize purses and incentives, men and women are paid equally, whether it’s for an Olympic gold medal, a world record on occasion, or a Diamond League victory.
When comparisons are made to other popular professional women’s leagues, the financial equality of track and field becomes more evident.
In the WNBA, the median salary is over 55 times lower than the median NBA salary. Even on a per game basis, given that the WNBA season is less than half the games of an NBA season, the men still make 27 times more than their female counterparts, according to data from Spotrac.
Individual contracts are harder to find for clubs in the NWSL and MLS, but the salary cap for the 20-player roster for the 2025 season will be 55.5% higher in the MLS than the NWSL.
In another individual sport, tennis, the median career earnings are just under $2 million more for the 100 highest earners in the history of the men’s ATP than the WTA.
Members of the University of Florida track and field team were approached to discuss their experiences surrounding equality in track and field and their thoughts on an endeavor into women’s sports like Athlos, but were unavailable for comment.
McGee noted that the work of decades of women who have come before her has paved the way for an event like Athlos to be possible. A high-level, high-paying women’s-only event like what will take place Thursday night is a product of the equal playing field where track athletes find themselves, and the platform for the women’s side of the sport will only continue to grow with investors like Ohanian and athletes like McGee.
