[2] The Athletic was founded in 2016 by Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann as an independent subscription-based online sports magazine, and it gradually expanded its stable of writers over the next few years to provide better coverage of more teams in more markets, including in the United Kingdom.

The New York Times Company acquired The Athletic for $550 million in 2022, initially as a semi-independent entity under the continued direction of Mather and Hansmann.

The Athletic was founded by Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann, former coworkers at subscription-based fitness company Strava, with the mission of producing "smarter coverage for die-hard fans.

[9] As part of Y Combinator's summer 2016 batch,[10] the site originally launched in Chicago in January 2016,[11] with Jon Greenberg serving as the founding editor, along with Sahadev Sharma (Cubs) and Scott Powers (Blackhawks).

Greenberg and Powers previously worked at ESPN Chicago, while Sharma left Baseball Prospectus' Cubs vertical to join the website.

The Athletic expanded into Philadelphia, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and the rest of Canada in September 2017 bringing local coverage to 15 US and Canadian pro sports markets.

[21] In February 2018, The Athletic announced further expansion into three new cities—New York, Dallas, and Cincinnati—and launched baseball-only coverage in Houston, Los Angeles, San Diego, Arizona, and Kansas City.

[22][23][24] The site also introduced expanded national MLB coverage with the addition of Jayson Stark, Jim Bowden, Eno Sarris, and editor Emma Span.

[33] In August 2018, The Athletic launched Fantasy Sports coverage and continued expansion across US markets including Washington, D.C., Carolina, Nashville, Indiana, Miami, and New Orleans.

[36] The Athletic completed local coverage expansion to all NHL and NFL teams by September 2018 after adding writers in Jacksonville, Houston, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Las Vegas.

The Athletic signed three veteran TV journalists in November 2018, including 60 Minutes correspondent Armen Keteyian, in the publication's efforts to produce more video content as a supplement to written coverage.

While NASCAR is the dominant focus of coverage, The Athletic aims to be a destination for all motorsports fans by including other major events, such as the Indianapolis 500.

[49] Ultimately, in January 2022, The New York Times Company announced that it would acquire The Athletic for $550 million, in a transaction expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.

[51][52] The following month, The New York Times announced that it would shut down its own sports department in favor of distributing content from The Athletic and its reporters via its platforms.

In 2018, Athletic journalist Tim Cato published an in-depth report on allegations regarding workplace misconduct within the Dallas Mavericks organization.

In the report, Brody Miller detailed the rampant sexual misconduct that was present at all levels of the LSU organization, and interviews with former players helped support an investigation conducted by law firm Husch Blackwell.

[64] In September 2021, The Athletic released a report detailing the gross sexual misconduct of association football coach Paul Riley in the NWSL.