SVG Sit-Down: Athlos NYC CEO Kayla Green on Building the Brand of the Young Track & Field EventThe all-women competition logged 25% audience growth in its second yearBy Daniel Frankel, SVG Contributor
Thursday, November 6, 2025 - 7:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Established in 2024 by Reddit co-founder turned sports entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian, Athlos NYC women's track and field competition had an auspicious second-year event at Manhattan's Icahn Stadium last month. For starters, the event had records: notably, Kenyan distance runner Faith Kipyegon's 4:17.78 mile, the fastest 5,280 ft. ever run by a female athlete on U.S. soil. And then there was the audience growth from last year: 25%, with more than 3.75 million viewers watching the event - both live and archived - across YouTube, X, and ESPN+, not to mention a major new TV partner, Scripps Sports ION. (Athlos officials say the audience figure is still growing.)
Unsurprisingly, there are declarations of expansion, with Ohanian outlining the broad strokes that will transition Athlos beyond just a major Big Apple affair to a multiple-city league format that borrows rules and structure from the NCAA.
Although Athlos represents the vision and deep pockets of Ohanian, nurturing the league as founder/CEO is Kayla Green, a track and field outsider who has, however, jumped her fair share of hurdles in the highly competitive realm of brand marketing. SVG caught up to Green two weeks after the event, still catching her breath from the whirlwind that was Athlos NYC 2025. She had lots to say, for example, about how Athlos should be branded, not to mention presented on television.
Athlos NYC's Kayla Green: You can't just blink at 4 million people. We have a property that is highly attractive to brands.
Did you run track in college or something? How did the peanut butter get into the chocolate?
No, I didn't. I don't run fast [laughs]. I'm a complete outsider to the sport. I was the founding head of marketing and the first CFO for Angel City Football Club. I got that call [from Angel City founder Alexis Ohanian], and he [asked,] Can you help name this team? I've named a million things in my career, and I was, like, Yeah, I can do that.
By the way, I knew nothing about women's soccer at the time. I've been incubating early-stage sports ventures for the last six years. Angel City was the first, and then I helped build a brand for L.A. Golf Club, Alexis's pro golf team, which resides within Tiger [Woods's] new league called TGL. This is all really Alexis's vision.
How does that turn into Athlos?
In 2019, Alexis saw on the internet these incredible stories [about soccer players] Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe. Yet they're getting visibility only once every four years, during the Olympics or the World Cup. Alexis saw the same thing happening with viral videos of college track athletes. Alexis saw this empty space and said, What if we challenged that? What if we kept the conversation going? What if we had track meets where fans could be up close and personal with Olympians and watch them break world records.
Which is what has happened. We had Faith Kipyegon run the fastest mile on U.S soil only two weeks ago, right? There are these incredible physical feats happening. Why should the narrative go away? Athlos was built on this idea that we would tell the athletes' stories more than once every four years.
You are a career marketer who had built brands at Saatchi & Saatchi and Riot Games.
I'm an exceptional brand marketer. I've built some of the biggest brands in the world. As long as I continue to apply that same lens I've been using, I'll find that spark and that reason people fall in love or stay in love with the brand or business. You don't just jump into women's sports and then, five years later, they pay equity. That doesn't exist. For me, jumping into this was about continuing that fight for equity, for these athletes that have been underserved.
So Athlos has been quite the learning curve?
It has definitely been a learning curve, for sure. I will say this about track and field: you would imagine that it would be a very easy thing to understand. One foot in front of the other, it's the oldest sport in humankind. And yet somehow it can be very confusing to consume. My very first track meet was with Alexis. We went to the Olympic track and field trials in Eugene, OR. About 20 minutes into the event, I said to him, I'm super-confused. There's sand everywhere. Someone has just jumped far. Someone's running. I don't know who's in first place. There's like a sharp object being thrown. Where do I look? It's just a simple act of asking questions.
And that confusion leads you to what? Clarity?
Here's just one small example. Last year, we introduced a bib that was smaller for the athlete. You've seen, in the Olympics, they're still wearing these bibs that look like flags. I just didn't understand why. We're in constant connection with these athletes. I asked one of them, What's up with the bib? Why is it so big? The response I got was We run in mixed-gender events. So the bib is sized for a male torso. And I was, like, Well, that's crazy. Last year, Athlos was the very first women-only track meet that had a bib sized for a woman's torso.
Tell us about those expansion plans for Year 3 beyond NYC.
We will build the competition around teams. This is not like introducing a new format of competition. This is pulling from NCAA, which is what most of these athletes are already somewhat familiar with. We will go into multiple cities. We have not announced those yet, but the goal is to ultimately bring Athlos around the globe.
How instrumental was Scripps Sports an
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
15/06/2026
Detach from Direct-Attached: How Remote Editing with EVO Keeps Creative Teams Mo...
14/06/2026
Library captures 1960s R&B/pop drum sound
Following on from their recent wave of plug-in effects, Iconic Instruments have just launched an all-new virtual d...
14/06/2026
HBO Comedy Rooster Shot with URSA Cine 17K 65
Brie Clayton June 14, 2026
0 Comments
Large format brings viewers intimately close to characters.
Black...
13/06/2026
Latest expansion pack includes 252 presets
Devious Machines have recently introduced another expansion for their powerful multi-effects plug-in, Infiltrator...
13/06/2026
Create custom DAW/plug-in controllers using prompts
MetaGrid have recently introduced an all-new AI Builder function to their touchscreen-based control surf...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production, Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it has given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what o...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
SVG Sit-Down: Athlos NYC CEO Kayla Green on Building the Brand of the Young Track & Field EventThe all-women competition logged 25% audience growth in its second yearBy Daniel Frankel, SVG Contributor 
