Fred Kerley has agreed to compete in the first Enhanced Games event next year and is the first track and field athlete to join the showcase that allows competitors to use performance-enhancing drugs.
The announcement was made during the middle of the 2025 World Athletics Championships schedule, which began on September 13 and is the culmination of a long track and field season. The event is being held in Tokyo and Kerley is not participating after opting to not participating in Team USA’s national championships — a world qualifier — a month earlier.
“I’m looking forward to this new chapter and competing at the Enhanced Games,” Kerley said in a joint statement with Enhanced on Wednesday. “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, an Olympic 100m silver and bronze medalist, was given a provisional ban last month by the Athletics Integrity Unit for whereabouts failures but denied any wrongdoing.
“Fred’s choice to compete with us not only demonstrates our goal of hosting the most exciting athletic competitions out there, but also solidifies the growing appeal of the Enhanced Games as the future of elite sporting competition,” Maximilian Martin, CEO of the Enhanced Games said in a statement.
Enhanced Games organizers say they will host a competition in Las Vegas in May 2026 and that allowing athletes to use banned substances will help boost sports science, while the concept has panned by industry stalwarts like the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Enhanced and its planned event next year were conceived by founder Aron D’Souza and his aim to push the boundaries of competition — with performance enhancing substances as a main factor in each event.
News of the event has drawn the ire of some sports fans, athletes and organizations like the World Anti-Doping Agency, which blasted Enhanced as “ill-conceived” for even permitting the use of banned drugs
World Aquatics and USA Swimming have also spoken out against Enhanced with World Aquatics altering its bylaws to note that any athlete participating in events that allow performance-enhancing substances cannot compete in their events.
Enhanced responded last month by including WADA, World Aquatics and USA Swimming in an $800 million anti-trust lawsuit that claims those organizations were trying to “crush” the Las Vegas event.
Kerley has had a year that has seen him draw headlines for matters far from his speciality on the track.
In January was involved in a incident with Miami Beach police after officers said he approach them during an active investigation, became aggressive, refused to leave the area and was detained with a stun gun as officers claim he was resisting.
He was charged with battery, resisting an officer without violence and disorderly conduct charges.
Then in April he was he was arrested in the Miami area at a hotel after allegedly striking ex-girlfriend Alaysha Johnson in the face, according to a police report. Kerley and his lawyer said that matter was a misunderstanding and the confrontation escalated due to an unprovoked attack on Kerley as a scuffle broke out. Kerley was later dismissed from Grand Slam Track.
And last month, the AIU gave him a provisional suspension stemming from a whereabouts violation. In a statement he said he would contest the charge and was not negligent “because the Doping Control Officer did not do what was reasonable under the circumstances to locate him at his designated location.
