What will athletics at the Enhanced Games look like?

Even if you hate the idea of the doping-encouraged Enhanced Games, you have to admit—the concept is out of this world. Two weeks ago, the Games’ founder and president, Aron D’Souza, announced that the inaugural edition will take place in Las Vegas from May 22–24, 2026. The Games will feature just three track events: the 100 metres, women’s 100m hurdles and men’s 110m hurdles.

Set inside the luxury Resorts World Las Vegas on the Strip, the Games will convert the hotel and casino into a high-performance arena, complete with a custom-built competition complex. Alongside athletics, the two other events will be swimming and weightlifting, each contested in a purpose-built space within the resort.

A six-lane 160-metre track

The track events will take place on a six-lane, vulcanized rubber 100m track surface, which is the same track material used for athletics at the 2024 Olympic Games. The surface will be bonded with a two-part urethane compound, engineered for maximum traction and energy return. To ensure athletes can accelerate and decelerate safely, the straightaway will feature a 30-metre acceleration zone and a 30-metre deceleration zone.

According to an Enhanced Games spokesperson, the track will be built using a modular pedestal system, allowing for quick assembly and elevated adjustments to ensure “optimal performance.” While blueprints of the exact venue setup have yet to be released, the track’s configuration raises one big question: will these performances count for anything?

An indoor event

Doping aside, the answer is no. Due to the track’s indoor setting and custom dimensions, sprint times from the Enhanced Games will not count for any records. Wind is the key factor preventing indoor times from being directly compared to outdoor times.

When Usain Bolt ran his 100m world record of 9.58 seconds at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, he benefited from a legal +0.9 m/s tailwind. Indoors, there’s no such advantage (or disadvantage), making direct comparisons unfair, and most importantly, unrecognized.

According to D’Souza, four of the 10 fastest 100-metre sprinters in history have approached him, and he hopes to have a roster of 100 athletes across the nine disciplines come next year.

Still, D’Souza and his team hope to deliver a different kind of spectacle. All events will reportedly be streamed globally on popular social media platforms in what the organizers describe as an “immersive digital format” aimed at reimagining how fans engage with elite sport. If nothing else, the streamlined three-sport lineup in a boutique venue makes one thing clear: the Enhanced Games is chasing attention, however it is achieved.