Track and field has long had lower prize money compared to many other global sports, so when a bigger financial offer appears, athletes notice it quickly. That debate has grown after the Enhanced Games announced a $10 million reward for any sprinter who breaks Usain Bolt’s 100m world record of 9.58 seconds at the 2027 event. With that kind of money on offer, it is natural that athletes start looking at new options. Seeing all this unfolding, Noah Lyles has pointed toward a possible way forward for World Athletics to stop athletes from joining such games.

Soon after the announcement, four-time Olympic medalist Rai Benjamin tweeted on X with a short but telling line: “I think World Athletics has the opportunity of a lifetime rn.”

The timing mattered! It came right as the Enhanced Games made their first real push into the sport, having launched on May 24. The event already drew attention to attract around 10 to 12 internationally recognized sprinters, with names like Fred Kerley, Emmanuel Matadi, Marvin Bracy-Williams, and Reece Prescod linked in that edition.

Even though the debut edition offered strong incentives, with race winners being able to make approximately $250,000 a race in the major sprint events, a record-breaking prize of $1 million was offered as a bonus. Nevertheless, it was a sign of things to come. With the $10 million prize recently proposed for those who manage to break Bolt’s record, things have gotten much more serious for the 2027 edition.

That change has made the financial gap between traditional athletics and rival events even harder to ignore, and it is why more athletes are expected to consider their options moving forward. That is also why Noah Lyles responded to Rai Benjamin’s post by saying, “My thoughts exactly,” pointing to the same concern about where the sport is heading as more athletes could be tempted by the Enhanced Games 2027 version.

In contrast, World Athletics continues to function on a wholly different basis. The gold medal winners at the World Athletics Championships 2025 receive approximately $70,000, silver medal winners receive approximately $35,000, and bronze medal winners receive approximately $22,000, plus a $100,000 bonus for a world record. All said, the overall jackpot is just under eight million dollars, across all events. Even at the Olympic level, track and field gold medalists receive about $50,000 each.

Newer events only have slightly better numbers. The World Athletics Ultimate Championship 2026 will have a prize fund total of $10 million, with the winners getting as much as $150,000.

That’s where the contrast comes into play. One system is now awarding life-changing dollars for one race, while the game’s official system spreads out small rewards throughout seasons and championships. That’s why the likes of Noah Lyles and Rai Benjamin have been included in the broader discussion about the direction of the sport moving forward. They simply want World Athletics to rethink its approach if it wants to keep top athletes from being pulled toward rival events.

While World Athletics continues with its same approach, the Enhanced Games, despite a disappointing debut, have still found ways to keep the hype alive for next season.

After early disappointment, Enhanced Games returns with a more calculated hype strategy

Enhanced Games had already stirred quite a bit of excitement before the first edition. In an interview with LetsRun.com, founder Aron D’Souza hinted that an athlete had already broken Usain Bolt’s legendary record, saying, “Yes, he did break the world record, no we did not time it with a sun dial and yes, we have video, but we’re not showing you for … uh … reasons.” 

The claim fueled the speculation that kept growing following the release of a video by Enhanced Games featuring an anonymous sprinter, who went on to say, “I am the fastest man in the world. I’ve broken Usain Bolt’s world record, but you’ve never heard of me. I am a proud Enhanced athlete.” In one frame of the video, the timer even flashed 9.49 seconds.

The hype continued outside the organizers, too. Fred Kerley also added to expectations before the event, saying, “It’s going to be destroyed,” when referring to Bolt’s record. But once the competition actually happened, the reality was different. No one came close to Bolt’s mark, and no athlete claimed the promised $1 million record bonus. Kerley himself won a race in 9.97 seconds and earned around $250,000, but the time was still far from world record pace.

Seeing that no world record was broken in track and field, after the event, Enhanced Games CEO Maximilian Martin admitted the gap between expectation and performance. He said, “And to our sprinting fans: we hear you. Our inaugural sprinting events were not to the standard we aspire to, and we know why. Top sprinters are among the highest paid athletes in athletics; the opportunity cost of joining Enhanced has been higher for them than for athletes in other sports. We need to change that equation.”

That is why the focus has now shifted to 2027, where the $10 million reward for breaking Bolt’s record has been introduced. The move is clearly aimed at changing the equation and pulling in bigger performances. In that sense, the Enhanced Games seem to have learned from their first attempt, using hype, bigger incentives, and stronger marketing to reset expectations, while traditional athletics continues with a far more stable but quieter structure.