In a transfer to advance girls’s monitor and subject, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian has introduced the launch of a groundbreaking women-only monitor occasion known as the 776 Invitational, set to happen this September. The invitational goals to change into the flagship occasion for girls’s monitor and subject by providing the largest-ever purse for a women-only competitors.
Based on Sportico, the winner of every occasion will take dwelling USD $60,000, surpassing the prize cash for successful a Diamond League race ($10,000) and even Olympic gold in Paris ($50,000). Second and third place can even be rewarded with a $25,000 and $10,000 purse, respectively.
Ohanian isn’t going into this enterprise alone; he’ll associate with two-time Olympic medallist, Harvard graduate and American sprinter Gabby Thomas for the launch. “We imagine within the energy of sports activities to drive optimistic change and encourage future generations,” Ohanian stated in an announcement to Sportico. “By investing in girls’s monitor, we purpose to construct a best-in-class occasion that elevates the profile of prime girls athletes and creates a extra equitable sporting panorama.”
Thomas echoed Ohanian’s sentiments, stating, “By this funding, we hope to not solely present athletes with the sources and visibility they should have enduring careers but in addition to encourage followers worldwide with a reinvented format to expertise the perfect of our sport.”
Opinion: Canadian broadcasting must do higher in highlighting Olympians
Whereas an actual date for the 776 Invitational has but to be revealed, it comes amid a busy 12 months within the monitor and subject calendar, with the Paris Olympics lower than 100 days away. The motivation for the 776 Invitational stems from the shortage of consideration monitor and subject receives outdoors of the Olympics. Thomas just lately voiced her dissatisfaction with visibility within the sport stemming from a brand new media deal between the Wanda Diamond League (monitor and subject’s premier circuit) and American on-line broadcaster FloSports.
The 776 Invitational would provide the very best purse for any single-day monitor and subject occasion. Winners of every of the 14 Diamond League meets are awarded USD $10,000, whereas athletes who win the annual Diamond League remaining are awarded $30,000.
Ohanian, husband of tennis legend Serena Williams, has lengthy supported girls’s sports activities. The announcement of the 776 Invitational marks the second important transfer by Ohanian in assist of girls’s sports activities this week. On Monday, Ohanian and his basis introduced their funding in a girls’s Portland sports activities bar to assist its nationwide franchise enlargement.
