Shania Collins has signed on to compete in the Enhanced Games and is the first female sprinter added to its roster.
She joins a growing lineup of sprinters that already includes Fred Kerley, Emmanuel Matadi and Mouhamadou Fall as the women’s field begins to take shape. Enhanced announced the signing on its website last week.
The competition is scheduled to be staged on May 24 in Las Vegas and has drawn widespread criticism for encouraging and allowing its athletes to use performance enhancing drugs.
Still, the scrutiny from governing bodies like the World Anti-Doping Agency has not deterred athletes from joining Enhanced. In early December, the company announced that it signed seven athletes to compete in swimming, weightlifting and track, with Matadi revealed as part of the group.
Collins, 29, now leads the way for other women to eventually fill out the sprint field. She is the fifth woman to sign with Enhanced along with swimmers Megan Romano, Isabella Arcila, Natalia Fryckowska and weightlifter Beatriz Pirón.
“I believe the Enhanced Games are changing the conversation about what’s possible for athletes like me,” Collins said in a statement. “I’m grateful for the incredible medical supervision, training, nutrition, recovery support and athlete compensation I’m receiving, and I can’t wait to sprint on the strip in Vegas this coming May.”
Collins competed for the University of Texas from 2015 to 2016 and the University of Tennessee from 2017 to 2018 mostly in the 60m, 100m and 200m. She won the 60m title at the 2019 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships.
“Shania is an elite athlete with a winning track record and we are absolutely elated she will be headlining our women’s field at the Games,” Rick Adams, Enhanced’s chief sporting officer said. “Universally, we continue to hear from Shania and other international competitors that our focus on helping them unlock their potential safely under proper supervision in tandem with our generous compensation model is a huge reason why they are choosing to compete with Enhanced.”
Meanwhile, Enhanced ends a year that was marked by legal challenges and changes within the company.
In August, it filed an $800 million anti-trust lawsuit against WADA, World Aquatics and USA Swimming and accuse the governing bodied of trying to prevent next year’s Las Vegas event from happening. World Aquatics, in particular, modified its own bylaws to prohibit swimmers from taking part it its sanctioned competitions if they participate in any event that allowed banned drugs — but did not specifically mention Enhanced.
A federal judge in New York dismissed the lawsuit in November and said Enhanced’s claims against the three governing bodies were insufficient.
Later that month, Enhanced announced that founder Aron D’Souza would no longer run the company and was replaced by co-founder Maximilian Martin as part of a series of changes at executive level and its board. Days later, Enhanced revealed that it was going public in a $1.2 billion-value merger with A Paradise Acquisition Corp.
