The Athlos meet last year, presented by Serena Williams’ husband and former Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, was a breakout success. Athlos, which is described as “Coachella meets a track meet” perfectly kicked off its first edition, amassing over 3 million views across social media platforms. Held at the at the Icahn Stadium in New York, the event featured running icons like Gabby Thomas, Alexis Holmes, Faith Kipyegon, and Masai Russell. They took part in races ranging between 100m, 100m hurdles, 200m, 400m, 800m, and 1500m. Along with them, the action was elevated by the presence of hip-hop sensation Megan Thee Stallion. Going forward, one can only expect bigger stars to grace this meet, right? So how about a global icon like Rihanna? Well, founder Ohanian’s got an update on that!
At the 2024 Athlos event, music played a significant role in enhancing the spectator experience. While music at large track-and-field events is not unusual, the presence of a stage positioned trackside at the 50-meter mark, complete with a DJ and an emcee, presented a unique and energetic atmosphere. The event featured six track events, each separated by a 20-minute intermission. These breaks transformed into lively dance parties, thanks to DJ D-Nice, whose music proved irresistible to the attendees. The evening culminated in a full performance by Grammy-winning artist Megan Thee Stallion. What about this year, though?
Few months back, one of the Athlos’ athletes, Grace Stark, made a request to Ohanian. In February, Ohanian shared an interview with Stark talking to Katelyn Hutchison. During the interaction, when Hutchison asked her, “What’s one artist you would love to see perform at Athlos?”, Stark simply replied, “Rihanna!” Later, Ohanian decided to take this request further. How?
Apparently, he shared the clip featuring Stark on social media while tagging Rihanna. “🏃♀️ @athlos — The fastest women on the planet. The biggest purse prize in history. And an iconic musical guest TBD… OK, @badgalriri — ATHLOS 2025 — what do you say?! 👀”, he wrote. And guess what? Two months later, Ohanian has now come up with an update on his call to RiRi. Has she accepted his request?
On April 22, Athlos’ official account shared another clip with Ohanian and other athletes where he talked about Rihanna’s reply to him. When one of the athletes asked, “So did you get Rihanna?”, Ohanian simply said, “So I put in the request. The response I got was a friendly lol.” But why?
“Because you know she doesn’t do anything, right? Millions of dollars is what it costs.” Well, he’s right about that, isn’t he? The Work hitmaker, who’s herself worth $1.4 billion as of April 22, 2025, per Forbes, charges between $1.5 million and a whopping $8 million for private events, as reported by Capital FM in March 2024. Can Athlos afford that?
Adding to his struggling efforts in bringing Rihanna onboard, Ohanian then told the athletes, “Now if you want to bankrupt Athlos year two we can do that.” So, that means Rihanna may seem out of reach – at least for now. But what about other potential star performers? Well, there’s good news on that front.
When someone mentioned American rapper and singer Latto, he replied, “Latto is on the list.” And what about Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny? Ohanian responded, “Ok, Bad Bunny could be a potential surprise musical guest. We’ll see.” He reiterated that, “We’re still working on Rihanna. But Bad Bunny, we’ll see what happens.”
But guess what? There’s one more prominent music star who might be a part of Athlos 2025, thanks to a special request from athlete Masai Russell!
Serena Williams‘ husband was seen having an interview with Masai Russell earlier this month. In a clip, dated April 12, shared by Athlos’ official IG account, he asked her, “Alright, Masai Russell, you are such a star. We loved having you at Athlos last year. I’m so excited for you to be back this year. Walkout song—what’s it gonna be?”
To this, Russell replied, “Oh, come on now, you’re putting the pressure on me. Maybe some GloRilla. Like… ‘What you know about me, big G-L-O in a G-L-E, huh, huh.’ Yeah, probably that!”
Ohanian then told her that he was “familiar” with the American rapper. “GloRilla is quite a star—very popular with the kids these days.” Russell then suggested that the hip-hop artist could be “another person that we gotta, you know, talk to.” Of course, her message to Ohanian was clear: bring GloRilla to Athlos!
In his response, Ohanian had only one thing to say, while feeling the growing pressure. “Y’all are making a long list of stars that I’ve got to recruit. I mean, I was really proud that we got Meg last year. I’m gonna try to outdo ourselves this coming year.” But their interaction wasn’t limited to this interview.
Later, Russell indirectly reminded Ohanian, once again, to work on her request. In the comments section she tagged the GloRilla and wrote,“@glorillapimp pull up to Athlos this year 😍,” Ohanian then replied, “Don’t worry, I’m not quitting my day job. Thank you for putting up with my questions, @masai_russell—you’re a star.”
