Top sprinter Fred Kerley of Team United States. (Photo: Michael Steele / Getty Images) 
When British swimmer Ben Proud, an Olympic silver medallist in the 50m freestyle event at the 2024 Paris Olympics, signed up to the Enhanced Games earlier this month, it raised an eyebrow.
But when one of the world’s top sprinters, Fred Kerley of the US, announced he had also joined the upstart, small alarm bells started going off.
Kerley won silver and bronze medals in the 100m sprint at the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Kerley, who also won the 100m gold at the 2022 World Championships, is the first track athlete and first American man to join the event.
Enhanced Games permits, and actively encourages, athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs that are banned in official competition.
Kerley is not at the current World Championships in Tokyo because he was provisionally suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit for failing to disclose his whereabouts when anti-doping testers called.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/GettyImages-2165003894.jpg "Silver medallist Ben Proud of Team Great Britain at the swimming medal ceremony after the Men's 50m Freestyle Final on day seven of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Paris La Defense Arena on 2 August in Nanterre, France. (Photo: Quinn Rooney / Getty Images)")
Under the World Anti-Doping Code, elite athletes are required to regularly provide their location details and a daily one-hour time slot during which they are available for unannounced, out-of-competition drug testing.
A “whereabouts failure” occurs when an athlete either fails to provide this information or is not at the location they specified during their one-hour testing window.
According to the Athletics Integrity Unit, Kerley accumulated three such failures in a 12-month period. Kerley’s lawyers initially said they would contest the suspension, but that is less clear now that Kerley has signed up to the Enhanced Games.
“I’m looking forward to this new chapter and competing at the Enhanced Games,” Kerley said. “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.”
Pushing limits?
The Enhanced Games was introduced to the world in 2023 as a concept to disrupt sport by pushing the limits of human feats with the aid of outlawed performance-enhancing drugs.
The first Enhanced Games are slated to be held in Las Vegas (where else?) in May 2026. Australian salesman Aron D’Souza is the front man of the business, which is backed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel (PayPal) and lately by Donald Trump Jnr.
“The Enhanced Games represent the future — real competition, real freedom and real records being smashed,” Trump Jnr says on the Enhanced Games website.
“This is about excellence, innovation and American dominance on the world stage — something the Maga movement is all about. The Enhanced Games are going to be huge, and I couldn’t be prouder to support this movement that is changing sports forever.”
Trump Jnr is an investor through his 1789 Capital company joining the likes of PayPal founder Thiel, who is listed as co-founder.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/GettyImages-2165267294.jpg "Abdul-Rasheed Saminu of Ghana, Fred Kerley and Ferdinand Omanyala of Kenya during the Men's 100m Semi-Final on day nine of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Stade de France on 4 August 2024 in Paris. (Photo: Alex Pantling / Getty Images)")
While the Enhanced Games’ sales pitch is about seeing what the limits of human capability are when aided by science through the use of drugs that are banned by organisations such as the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), moral and ethical questions abound.
Enhanced Games does have some restrictions, stating that only drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are permitted. But many of those include steroids, testosterone and human growth hormones.
It’s also about money. Handsome paydays are being offered, which is a strong incentive for struggling athletes from sports such as swimming and even track and field.
The event offers prizes of $250,000 per event and $1-million for breaking a world record.
Proud, in a compelling interview with the BBC Today programme, was honest about his decision being influenced by money.
“There’s a huge financial incentive with this, and I would be lying if I said it didn’t matter,” Proud said. “It would take me 13 years of winning world championship titles just to earn what I can win at one competition at the Enhanced Games.
“It’s just such a different ballpark financially — it gives me the opportunity to earn that sort of money and set myself up, my family, and support my mum. These are opportunities that as a 30-year-old I just can’t pass by.”
He was immediately condemned by Aquatics Great Britain. In a statement it said: “Aquatics GB is immensely disappointed in Ben Proud’s announcement to sign with the Enhanced Games.
“Aquatics GB, along with our partners, stand firmly behind the values and principles of clean sport and condemn Ben’s decision in the strongest terms.”
Lawsuit
Only a handful of athletes have signed up at this stage, with Wada and the Enhanced Games looking set to face off in court.
In August, the Enhanced Games launched an anti-trust lawsuit against Wada, USA Swimming and World Aquatics.
The lawsuit, which seeks at least $200-million in damages (and potentially up to $800-million), alleges that the defendants have engaged in an illegal campaign to “crush” the Enhanced Games and maintain their monopoly over elite sports.
Wada has previously labelled the Enhanced Games “dangerous and irresponsible”. Wada stated that the event “jeopardises” the health and wellbeing of athletes by promoting the use of powerful, prohibited substances.
Read more: Trump Jnr backs doping games: A grotesque venture into the world of performance enhancement
“We would like to put on record that the Athletes Council is firmly opposed to the Enhanced Games and any event that promotes the use of performance-enhancing substances and methods,” Wada stated on 22 May, 2025.
“Such an event puts athlete safety at serious risk and fundamentally undermines the core values of sport. To encourage such an event is both irresponsible and unacceptable.”
‘World record’?
In February, according to the Enhanced Games, Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev set a “world record” in the 50m freestyle — swimming’s shortest sprint.
The 31-year-old Gkolomeev, who failed to win a medal in four appearances at the Olympic Games, joined the Enhanced Games organisation as a guinea pig in their plan to allow performance-enhancing drugs in sport.
Naturally, Gkolomeev didn’t come on board for altruistic reasons. He was paid a $1-million bonus after taking performance-enhancing drugs to set his “world record” of 20.89 seconds.
He shaved two-hundredths of a second off the official world record, while swimming alone in a pool.
Enhanced Games president D’Souza proclaimed this as a breakthrough and immediately encouraged more athletes to join the organisation. Its stated mission is to “redefine superhumanity through science, innovation, and sports”.
“He (Gkolomeev) should be retired, but in fact he’s swimming faster than any human being has ever done. Why? Because he used technology and science to enhance his performance,” D’Souza said at a launch for the Enhanced Games in Las Vegas last week.
“Once the world realises that, I think everyone is going to want it. Every middle-aged guy who once played competitive sport and is now suffering from back pain is going to say, ‘What is he on and how do I get it?’” DM