Enhanced Games prize money: Two events set to offer life-changing bonuses if world record broken
Two events at the inaugural Enhanced Games will offer eye-watering bonuses if a world record can be broken.
The highly-controversial Games, which has been universally panned by other sporting bodies, permits athletes to use performance-enhancing substances.
Athletes can also utilise technological advancements that are otherwise banned from use in competition, including neoprene swimsuits, which trap a layer of water in the swimsuit that can be used by the body to maintain core temperature.
Three British athletes - swimmers Ben Proud and Emily Barclay, and sprinter Reece Prescod - are taking part in the Games, as well as US sprinter and Paris 2024 Olympic silver medalist Fred Kerley.
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Kerley is one of four athletes who will be competing clean at the Games.
READ MORE: Banned sprinter 'faster than Usain Bolt' is one of four athletes competing clean at Enhanced Games
Enhanced, the company who founded and are running the Games, released clinical trial data on Thursday which revealed that 61 per cent of all athletes studied had used stimulants to prepare themselves ahead of their events.
Kerley told reporters on Friday that he was competing for financial reasons, as he is currently serving a ban from competitive sprinting until 2027 for anti-doping whereabouts violations.
But what is the prize money on offer in each event?
Enhanced Games prize money and bonuses
Each athlete who competes in an event at the Enhanced Games is guaranteed what Enhanced describe as 'top-tier appearance fees', though an exact figure has not been disclosed.
Prize money is awarded based on finishing position, with the winner of each event earning $250,000 out of a total purse of $500,000.
Out of the four sports that are being contested - swimming, athletics track, strongman and weightlifting - two events in particular are also offering a world-record bonus.
If the world record is broken in either 50m freestyle swimming or 100m sprint, the athlete in question will receiving a staggering seven-figure bonus of $1 million.
Could a world record actually be broken at the Enhanced Games?
The athletes themselves believe they can break world records, but whether that belief stands up once the action gets underway in Las Vegas is another matter.
Usain Bolt's 100-metre world record time of 9.58 appears very likely to remain, as Kerley's personal best time is 9.76 and his competitors are all either banned or partially retired from athletics, or have PBs that are much slower.
Englishman Proud, meanwhile, believes that he can break the world record in 50m freestyle, having won Olympic silver in the same discipline at Paris 2024.
Referring to the permitted use of PEDs and the neoprene swimsuit, he told reporters: "Both are extremely valuable. In percentage terms, it could be between one or two per cent each.
"I wouldn't be surprised if we both [Proud and expected nearest rival Kristian Gkolomeev] broke the official world record."
The current competitive 50m freestyle long course record stands at 20.88 seconds, a time which was set by Australia's Cameron McEvoy in March.
Ryan Smart