The real reason athletes are choosing PED competition

Last year when Fred Kerley announced he was joining the Enhanced Games, I called him a lab rat. The headline was "From World Champion to Lab Rat: Fred Kerley's Shocking Career Move."

It was reactionary. And looking back now, I don't think I fully understood what was actually happening.

The Enhanced Games are scheduled for May 24th this year in Las Vegas. And if you haven’t heard already, they're a PED-allowed competition.

Let me be clear about that from the start because I'm not here to defend performance-enhancing drugs or pretend this is something it's not.

But a few days ago, British sprinter Reece Prescod became the latest athlete to sign up. And his story made me rethink what's actually going on here.

Prescod is 29 years old. He retired from sprinting last year. He's the fourth fastest British man over 100 meters in history with a personal best of 9.93 seconds.

Think about that for a second. Fourth fastest British sprinter ever. That's an incredible achievement.

But I listened to an interview with him, and the story he told was about financial struggle. He retired because he couldn't make it work anymore. After retiring, he reached out to sponsors in the industry, sent multiple emails, spoke to agents, asked if there were any opportunities to continue.

The answer was no across the board.

He described it as "going to work full-time and not having a salary." You just can't do it.

This is someone who represented Great Britain at the Olympics and World Championships. Someone who won medals at the European level. A two-time British national 100m champion.

And he couldn't find financial support to continue.

Now look at what happened with Grand Slam Track last year. Michael Johnson launched it with $30 million in funding, promising to revolutionize how track athletes get paid. The concept was exactly what many said the sport needed.

They held three meets. Then it collapsed.

Grand Slam Track filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December. They owe athletes roughly $7 million. Sydney McLaughlin Levrone is owed $356,000. Gabby Thomas $249,000. Kenny Bednarek $225,000.

The league has six employees left and about $7,300 in cash.

This was supposed to be the solution to athlete compensation in track and field. Instead, it became another example of athletes getting screwed over by organizations promising them a better future.

So when the Enhanced Games come along offering appearance fees, prize money, medical supervision, and what they call a "fantastic compensation model," can we really act surprised that athletes are listening?

Prescod has been clear that he's not planning to take performance-enhancing drugs. The Enhanced Games allow them, but athletes can choose to compete clean. For him, this seems to be purely about being able to compete and get paid properly for it.

Kerley's situation feels different. He's talked about the world record, the $1 million prize for breaking it, and genuinely seems to believe performance enhancement could get him there. Whether that's realistic is another question entirely.

But both athletes are making these decisions for the same underlying reason. Track and field doesn't pay its athletes properly unless you're in the absolute top tier.

And even then, as Grand Slam Track showed us, those payments aren't guaranteed.

But that’s not all.

There's another element here that I think gets overlooked. The whereabouts system. The constant drug testing. The paranoia around medication.

Athletes have to report their location at all times. They can be tested anywhere, anytime. One missed update and you're facing potential suspension. Kerley himself was provisionally suspended for whereabouts failures before joining the Enhanced Games.

They have to scrutinize every medication, every supplement, every over-the-counter product to make sure it doesn't contain a banned substance. There have been cases of athletes testing positive for substances they genuinely didn't know were in what they were taking.

I'm not saying the testing system is wrong. But I understand why an athlete might feel relief at the idea of competing without that constant surveillance and pressure.

Kerley said in an interview that he felt "like I was in prison before" and now has "peace of mind." That's a strong statement about how the current system feels to athletes.

Here's what bothers me most about this whole situation.

If World Athletics and the IOC are so appalled by the Enhanced Games, they should be looking in the mirror. Because the only reason this competition has any appeal is because they've failed to create a sustainable financial model for athletes.

The Enhanced Games originally talked about having thousands of athletes. By late 2025, they scaled that back to aiming for 50 participants. Their website currently lists 50 athletes across swimming, track and field, and weightlifting.

That's not exactly the revolution they were selling.

Whether this event even happens as planned is still an open question. Whether it becomes an annual thing or fizzles out after one year remains to be seen.

But the fact that a PED-allowed competition can attract a world champion and the fourth fastest British sprinter in history should be embarrassing for our sport.

These athletes aren't being lured away by some amazing competitive opportunity. They're being lured away by basic financial security and the promise of being properly compensated for their talent.

Prescod said he feels "valued" by the Enhanced Games. That shouldn't be a selling point that works. But it does because track and field has made athletes feel disposable.

On a human level, I can't blame someone like Prescod for making this choice. He retired at 29. He has no realistic path to another Olympics. He tried to find support in the traditional system and got rejected everywhere.

Someone offers him guaranteed money, medical support, and a chance to keep competing? Of course that's appealing.

That doesn't make the Enhanced Games right. It doesn't validate performance-enhancing drugs in sport. It doesn't mean we should celebrate this as progress.

But it does mean we need to have an honest conversation about why athletes are willing to align themselves with a competition that will likely end their credibility in mainstream athletics, rather than just simply condemning them for competing in a “clown show”.

The Enhanced Games exist because we created the conditions for them to exist.

If we want athletes to choose the Olympic pathway over PED-allowed competitions, we need to make that pathway financially viable. Not just for the stars, but for the athletes who dedicate their lives to the sport without ever making a final.

Until that changes, we're going to keep seeing athletes make these decisions. And we'll have no one to blame but ourselves.