Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian said that his wife, tennis champion Serena Williams initially tried to talk out of investing in women’s game due to her own hard experiences in the field.
“When I said that I wanted to start a team, Angel City, he talked to me, because his experience in women’s games gave him an approach to say, look, it is going to be very difficult. He had to go and live, and flourish, and flourish,” Ohanian said during an appearance on “CBS Moning”.
Despite Williams’ warnings, Ohanians proceeded with their women’s sports undertakings, including ethlos, a female-trek and field competition, which will start their first field event at Times Square in New York City in October.
Ohanian said, “I am stubborn. These athletes fascinate us in track and field, they should not disappear for four years.”
The founder of the Venture Capital firm announced the expansion of the Olympic gold medalist Tara Davis-Woodhall, which would compete in a long-jumping program. Davis-Woodhall said she reached Ohanian after the initial athlos announcement after focusing on track events mainly.
“It is always on the previous burner, but field events for the track and field,” Davis-Woodhall said. “When no sprinting is going on, it is almost calm, but then you find that there is an area that is happening.”
The event will be held night before the main ethlos competition. Ohanian compared the long jump distance to a basketball three-point line, with “the athletic feat of running and jumping was noted the same distance with their body”.
Ohanian credited Williams for her marriage, which she called her eyes open for women’s sports investment ability and called “The Greatest Ever”.
She said, “I have found something in women’s games, which is the result of looking at the greatest. Women’s tennis is a prime example of women’s games, which is the same value in the dollar, not emotions, not equivalent,” she said.
Davis-Woodhall, who is competing in a long jump from the age of 4, said that working with Ohanian is helping to bring his dreams into reality.
“I have been doing this game ever since I was 4 years old at an elite level and now to bring eyes to the game, awareness, I never knew that until I become a little bigger and get a little more mature, and working with Alexis, he is helping me to bring my dreams towards reality,” he said.
