“We should create products for those people. We should have a Treadmill World Championship,” announced World Athletics’ chief executive officer Jon Ridgeon, unveiling a bold new concept aimed at runners who thrive indoors in 2024. Well, the definition of an athlete is clearly evolving, and athletics is now pushing into uncharted territory with the rise of the ‘virtual running scene.’ But Fred Kerley, an athlete who signed up with the Enhanced Games earlier this year, for one, might not be a fan!

Taking to his X handle, the athlete added a cryptic message, “Y’all out here making treadmill titles while disrespecting world titles and Olympic medals. Every medal we earned came with pain, not WiFi. 💀 Pay athletes their worth.” He not only highlighted track and field’s long-standing pay issue but also shed light on the effort that he and all medalists put behind achieving medals. But this wasn’t all.

Fred Kerley added another X post that said, “Before you create new lanes, pay the ones who ran them first.” This comes shortly after World Athletics and Technogym unveiled ‘Run X,’ the inaugural World Treadmill Championship on October 27th, set to take place next year. According to the groundbreaking collaboration between the two giants, gyms will be invited to participate in the event, as stated in their latest press release.

The rules? Competitors will tackle a 5k distance, with a leaderboard delivering real-time ranking to all the participants. Every performance will be officially certified through treadmills linked to the Technogym Digital Ecosystem, ensuring fairness and accuracy.

“We are very proud of this partnership with World Athletics, which perfectly aligns with our long-term mission to engage more and more people in regular physical exercise,” Technogym founder and CEO Nerio Alessandri said in a press release. “Run X will connect millions of runners with our partner fitness centres around the globe, while our exclusive Technogym Ecosystem will serve as the driving force behind this new competition.”

Many might question what about the prizes? The top ten males and females from each regional showdown will face off in a live, high-stakes finale at the year’s end, where they will battle for a spot at the podium chasing the massive $100,000 prize money and exclusive wild card entries to marquee events in the World Athletics Series, including the prestigious World Road Running Championships. With such a massive prize pool on the line, we can expect a surge of participants eager to compete.

Meanwhile, let’s have a look at how Fred Kerley has been sending many strong messages of late.

Fred Kerley has been quite vocal with his messages lately

The 2025 track season was not exactly great for Fred Kerley; however, the ultimate blow came in August when he was provisionally suspended from the sport for a whereabouts violation. But just shortly after, he became the first US sprinter to sign up with Enhanced Games. And he seems to have been really confident about his future since then.

On October 24, Fred Kerley gave a glimpse of his current condition to the world, saying, “Training’s been amazing. Mind clear, body strong. They tried to take the sport I gave my life to I turned it into a bigger opportunity. That’s called evolving,” It seemed that he was undeterred by all the setbacks he faced and was really for the next chapter.

Fred Kerley has also been surfacing occasional posts on social media like, “I ain’t on the billboard, I’m on the skyline. Different league.” Clearly, the sprinter is exuding confidence at the moment. And if his recent posts are any indication, he’s also highlighting the major problems he has faced as an athlete in the past. But what was the reason behind his recent cryptic message? No one knows!