FORMER Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) president and team physician to many national teams Dr Warren Blake has shared his disappointment with the news that a Jamaican, Shockoria Wallace, has signed up for the Enhanced Games.

Wallace confirmed on Monday she was the first Jamaican and latest in a growing list of athletes to sign up for the event to be held in Las Vegas, USA, in late May, featuring three sports where athletes will not be tested for performance enhancing drugs.

The games, which will see competition in track and field, swimming, and weightlifting, will accept athletes that are serving bans for testing positive for banned drugs, saying in their slogan they are, “a global annual competition that celebrates human potential through safe, transparent enhancement, offering fair play, record pay, and unmatched athlete care.”

Blake told the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday that while Wallace being a Jamaican would give the event “some credibility”, he thinks the organisers would also use the occasion to administer banned substances to athletes to see the effects they would have on performance.

Wallace, who competed up to last season as part of the MVP Track Club set-up, has a personal best of 11.09 seconds in the women’s 100m set in 2023 and said in a video posted on social media on Monday, “They do provide a lot for athletes, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be working with them moving forward. I, Shockoria Wallace, will be racing down that track to break the world record and win a grand prize of US$1 million (J$158 million). I am excited.”

The world record in the women’s 100m is 10.49 seconds and was set at the US Olympic Trials in Indianapolis in 1988 by late American Florence Griffith-Joyner.

Blake says Wallace accepted the offer for monetary gain.

“I’m a bit disappointed that a Jamaican has chosen to enter the Enhanced Games,” he said. “I think she saw an opportunity to make some money, you know. I mean, she could not break into the [top] ranks, and this is really an opportunity for her to earn some money.”

Wallace joins Americans Fred Kerley and Marvin Bracey-Williams, as well as Great Britain’s Reece Prescod.

“It helps to give the Enhanced Games some credibility, because she puts Jamaica’s name into the games and this is a bit disheartening for me, because I don’t see these games as the future of any athletics or any sport, because it’s not as if taking drugs are without any harmful effects to the body.”

Blake, who specialises in orthopaedics, reasoned that, “Part of the reason why drugs have been banned is because they do harm to the body, not [only] that, for some athletes who are seeking quick glory and quick money, that this really matters, because they do not weigh the long term prospects of doping.”

Blake says he does not believe the people “marketing the Enhanced Games who say that they’re going to be studying, that they’re going to be running tests on the athletes to keep them safe”.

“I think this is just a guise to study doping in the individuals, and what they will be doing is seeing what effect doping has on individuals who participate in the events, and they will be giving some of these athletes, designer drugs and testing the effects in real time on these athletes.

“I don’t think this is a game that should be encouraged or supported, and I don’t see it having any longevity in sports or in track and field, because I think most athletes are of the view that competing clean is the best way to go, and it’s not worth the while or worth the risk to put your health in jeopardy.”

World Athletics and World Aquatics have spoken out against the Enhanced Games, citing the potential impact on athletes and sport.

World Aquatics enacted a by-law in 2025 banning individuals who “support, endorse, or participate in sporting events that embrace the use of scientific advancements or other practices that may include prohibited substances and or prohibited methods” from participating in its events.

The Observer sought a comment from JAAA President Garth Gayle on the topic but received no response.

From left: Enhanced Games athletes Mike Bryan, Clarence Munyai, Reece Prescod, Taylor Anderson, Marvin Bracey-Williams and Shockoria Wallace. (Photo: Enhanced Games Media)

BLAKE… I don’t see these games as the future of any athletics or any sport, because it’s not as if taking drugs are without any harmful effects to the body (Photo: File)