World Athletics president Lord Sebastian Coe refused to comment on the Enhanced Games after provisionally suspended former world 100m champion Fred Kerley became the first track athlete to join the highly controversial event.
The Enhanced Games, set for a May 2026 debut in Las Vegas, allow the use of performance-enhancing substances and methods under medical supervision. Athletics Integrity Unit head Brett Clothier on Thursday branded the Games as “grotesque”.
One of the venture-capital backed event’s self-proclaimed selling points is its compensation package. A payout of one million US dollars (£732,675) is on offer for any athlete who completes the 100m faster than Usain Bolt’s world record.
“I’m not discussing Enhanced Games,” insisted Lord Coe, speaking at the Japan National Stadium in Tokyo on day six of the World Athletics Championships.
“We’re in the championships here. I’m certainly not going down that rabbit hole. But in the space of the next four years we are going to spend about 50 million on prize money.
“That’s an elevation. We’ve got one meet next year (the Ultimate Championship), there’s going to be a 10 million dollars prize pot. I’ve always been committed to doing whatever I can to give at least some semblance of financial security for the athletes.
“I do not enter the moral maze about whether it’s (prize money) the right thing to do or whether it’s the antithesis of the Olympic movement. People that tend to argue about that tend not to be people worrying about where their next meal is coming from.”
World records in Tokyo come with a USD 100,000 dollars paycheque (£73,265), on top of 70,000 dollars (£51,286) doled out to gold medallists.
World Athletics announces new global championship to conclude the 2026 track and field season.
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) June 3, 2024
US$10 million prize pot – the highest in track and field history.
Budapest announced as the inaugural host city.
Next year’s inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest will pay 150,000 dollars (£109,898) to champions, and all participating athletes will receive some amount of compensation.
World Athletics last summer became the first global governing body to introduce prize money for Olympic champions, and will expand the pot to silver and bronze medallists at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
Kerley won world 100m gold in 2022 and also claimed respective silver and bronze medals at the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympics.
He was provisionally suspended on Friday by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for whereabouts failures, just days after swimmer Ben Proud, the Paris Olympic 50m freestyle silver medallist, became the first British athlete to join the Enhanced Games.
Aquatics GB confirmed Proud is no longer in receipt of any public funding.
The AIU has provisionally suspended Fred Kerley (USA) for Whereabouts Failures.
— Athletics Integrity Unit (@aiu_athletics) August 12, 2025
Details here: https://t.co/Y8LF9j2o9f pic.twitter.com/TIPvC2G95Y
US Track and Field would not comment on Kerley’s announcement, while AIU chair David Howman said his organisation could not address the case until learning the outcome of the athlete’s upcoming tribunal.
Howman also would not confirm if athletes would be banned for life if they decide to join the Enhanced Games, saying it was a matter “for the future” and encouraged potential audiences to think, “are you sure you would want to watch your kid doing this?”
Clothier added: “Our biggest concern is probably about the health of Fred Kerley and other athletes who sign up to it. You know, it’s clearly sort of grotesque, and I think athletes, the people who sign, are being used.”
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