Sprinter Fred Kerley has been announced as the first American male athlete to join the Enhanced Games, the competition which allows performance-enhancing drugs.
The 100meter competitor is not competing at the ongoing World Athletics Championships after missing the United States trials, a few weeks before he was then provisionally suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for an anti-doping whereabouts violation. Kerley indicated he would appeal the decision.
The Enhanced Games is an event, due to take place next May, in which athletes can take performance-enhancing drugs to aim for world record times. Setting new world records will be rewarded with $1million in the 100m sprint and 50m freestyle swimming, the organisation says. Each individual event has a total prize pot of $500,000, with $250,000 awarded to the winner.
“I’m looking forward to this new chapter and competing at the Enhanced Games,” Kerley said in a news release. “The World Record has always been the ultimate goal of my career.
“This now gives me the opportunity to dedicate all my energy to pushing my limits and becoming the fastest human to ever live.”
Kerley, 30, follows British Olympic medalist Ben Proud in being the latest high-profile athlete to announce their participation, and is the first track athlete to do so.
In signing up for the Enhanced Games, Proud effectively ruled himself out of competing at the 2028 Olympic Games as World Aquatics, swimming’s global governing body, banned any athlete from competing in its competitions if they take part in the breakaway competition.
The new competition has proved controversial, with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) saying in a statement in May that it puts “athlete safety at serious risk and fundamentally undermines the core values of sport”. In March, CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) Travis Tygart told CNN the Enhanced Games is a “clown show” and “not real sport.”
Following Proud’s commitment to the event, Aquatics GB also said it had “no credibility” while UK Sport condemned it in the “strongest possible terms.” The Athletic has approached USA Track & Field for comment.
Enhanced Games founder, Australian entrepreneur Aron D’Souza, told The Athletic in September that the participants will have the “best medical care imaginable.”
Proud committed to the Enhanced Games last week (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Kerley won a silver medal at the 2021 Tokyo Games and bronze three years later in Paris, as well as winning 100m gold at the World Athletics Championships in 2022.
He is tied for seventh on the all-time list of fastest 100m runners and shares the position with Christian Coleman and Trayvon Bromell as the third-fastest American men ever, with a time of 9.76 seconds. Kerley is also 10th all-time for 400m (43.64s), one of only three men — along with Wayde van Niekerk and Michael Norman — to run sub-10s, sub-20s and sub-44s for 100m, 200m and 400m.
The sprinter’s August anti-doping violation was not his first, after being provisionally suspended in March 2024 for testing positive for a metabolite of the anabolic steroid trenbolone. The U.S Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) determined last June that this came from contaminated meat. The AIU has appealed the no-fault or negligence decision by USADA.
Kerley was charged with touch or strike battery in May after allegedly hitting his former girlfriend while he was in Miami for a Grand Slam Track meet. His lawyer said in a statement to The Athletic at the time that “Fred never battered anyone” and “we are focused on working with prosecutors to show that this arrest was a mistake and no charges should be filed.”
The inaugural Enhanced Games will take place on May 24, 2026, at Resorts World in Las Vegas.
(Top photo: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
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