LAS VEGAS (AP) — Sprinter Fred Kerley revealed that he is not taking performance enhancers as he embarks on the next phase of a career that officially kicks off Sunday at the Enhanced Games, where drugs are allowed.
Another surprise: The 2022 world champion at 100 meters, banned from the regular track circuit until August 2027 for missing tests required by a system he portrayed as disrespectful and intrusive, has every intention of being on another starting line.
“I will compete at the LA Olympics in 2028," he said.
When Kerley signed onto the Enhanced Games roster, he became their most recognizable name and gave the new enterprise a headliner it had been missing.
Some six months later came his two-year ban by the Athletics Integrity Unit for missing tests, a violation of the antidoping code that doesn't necessarily mean an athlete is taking drugs.
The 31-year-old Kerley, who bet on himself after the COVID-19 pandemic when he successfully gave up the 400-meter grind for the 100-meter straightaway, insisted it was the multimillion-dollar contract, not the prospect of taking performance enhancers, that led him to the breakaway league.
“I don't need it,” he said. “God gave me fast feet for a reason. I'm here to showcase my talent. You still have to work. Drugs aren't going to give you an advantage if you're not putting the work in.”
That, in part, is what the Enhanced Games will or will not prove on Sunday. Most of the 50 athletes competing in track, swimming and weightlifting are taking performance enhancers under the watchful eye of doctors and trainers. A few, like Kerley and Olympic gold-medal relay swimmer Hunter Armstrong, say they are not.
Rick Adams, the former chief of sport performance for the U.S. Olympic team whose move to become an executive for Enhanced also gave the enterprise a greater sense of legitimacy, said doping control officers are on hand in Las Vegas this weekend, testing on behalf of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which still keeps a list of active athletes who could return to traditional events.
“There's a lot of scrutiny, not only against me but against the Enhanced Games,” Armstrong said. “I want them to test me because I don't want there to be a single doubt that I'm a man of my word.”
Kerley, who has a reputation as a man of few words, has spent large parts of 2026 using his social media feed to rip into antidoping authorities, while teasing that a 9.4-second run could be possible. He has turned himself into maybe track's most intriguing character this side of Sha'Carri Richardson.
Does he think Usain Bolt's 9.58-second world record can be broken Sunday — a feat that would earn the record breaker $1 million, in addition to a $250,000 first prize? “It's going to be destroyed," Kerley said.
How fast does he think he can go? “Fast.”
How fast? “Fast.”
Does he have a time in mind? “Fast.”
When Kerley's ban for missing tests was announced in March, the easy conclusion was that he didn't care about testing anymore now that he was part of the Enhanced Games.
But the reason, he explained, had to do with the 24/7 whereabouts requirements in antidoping. In essence, athletes in the testing pool have to spell out where they'll be at all times and give drug testers specific windows when they'll be available.
When the ban came down, Kerley argued he had no intention of answering phone calls that looked like spam from Mexico while he was in the U.S. Those, apparently, were from doping control officers trying to track him down.
On Friday, he went a little deeper.
“I grew up with family,” he said. “You just don’t come and disrespect my space. Once you come and start disrespecting my space, it’s irritating.”
But, he says, despite the ban and despite his presence with Enhanced, he continues to be tested by the AIU and USADA.
He says the move to Enhanced had nothing to do with taking drugs, everything to do with signing a contract that he suggested on social media would take $12 million-plus to top.
Like so many in his sport, he has grown tired of shoe contracts that place too many obligations on athletes and sometimes go away if an injury hits or times falter.
“We're training, basically, 365, and it hasn't changed from back in the day when all the greats were running,” Kerley said.
Also running in the 100 on Sunday is Marvin Bracy-Williams, whose own curious doping case resulted in what could have been a career-ending 45-month ban but instead led him to the Enhanced Games where he said he is, in fact, taking drugs.
Bracy-Williams, who finished second at worlds to Kerley by .02 seconds in 2022, conceded that his sudden disappearance from track in 2023 came because he was doping after a series of injuries.
He ended up providing information to authorities that led to the arrest of a Florida man, who faces up to 10 years in prison for violating a law passed in 2020 that allows U.S. authorities to prosecute doping crimes involving international events.
The reduced ban wasn't enough to salvage the 2028 Olympic hopes of Bracy-Williams, now 32, so he jumped when he saw the chance to go to the Enhanced Games.
“We get in these situations where the treatment is good when you're good,” Bracy-Williams said, referencing a $100,000 reduction in his contract that came if he failed to make a U.S. national team. "But when you're in a place where you're not doing so good, it just goes away, and sometimes, for some people, that can be hard.
Bracy-Williams said he trained with Tyson Gay in the early 2010s when Gay got nailed for doping. He passed no judgment on him or anyone else.
“The dude never changed,” Bracy-Williams said. “I didn't look at him like he was some boogeyman now."
He rattled through a long list of great sprinters who had tested positive for doping through the years.
“But you meet them behind closed doors, and they're good guys,” Bracy-Williams said.
As he spoke at a table surrounded by media, his two kids sat quietly against the wall and played on cellphones. There was no need to ask why Bracy-Williams, who has a two-year contract with "lots of zeros" on it, was trying to extend his career at the Enhanced Games.
Same for Kerley, who promises that track and field hasn't seen the last of him.
“At the end of the day," Kerley said, “I'm here to provide for my kids and myself.”
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
FILE - Fred Kerley, of the United States, competes in the men's 100-meter heats at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Aug. 3, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)
Athlete, Fred Kerley attends a press conference ahead of the Enhanced Games in Las Vegas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
