The world’s been waiting 17 years to see someone break Usain Bolt’s 100m world record, and the Enhanced Games are willing to go to extraordinary lengths to make it happen. To raise the stakes, they’ve even put up a $10 million prize for anyone who can run faster than 9.58 seconds. For a moment, it looked like a former Olympic champion might be tempted by the challenge, but it turns out he was just having a little fun with the idea. 

“If they’re giving $10 million, I’m going for the world record,” Quicy Hall said in Rabat ahead of the Meeting International Mohammed VI. He was asked if he intends to shock the world as Bolt did in Berlin all those years ago. But immediately after saying he’d be open to the paycheck, he revealed he was just mocking the absurd idea. 

“Nah, I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Nah, as they said, if world records come, they come. But I think nobody decides what day they’re going to beat the world record. It just always happens,” Hall said. 

Hall, the 400m gold medalist from Paris two years ago, is set to take part in the Diamond League after being out of action for almost a year due to a hamstring injury. And coming back, only to go after Bolt’s record when he’s never even taken part in 100m competitively? He wouldn’t be getting the $10 million anyway. 

No athlete has come close to matching the Jamaican’s record so far. In fact, Usain Bolt also owns the second-fastest time in history with his 9.63-second run at the 2012 London Olympics and the third-fastest with his 9.69 in Beijing in 2008. He practically has the entire podium to himself.

The closest anyone else has come is Tyson Gay and Yohan Blake, who both clocked 9.69 seconds, still 0.11 seconds shy of Bolt’s world record. Current Olympic champ Noah Lyles has a record of 9.79 seconds. 

The Enhanced Games will not give up. They’re actively searching for someone who can run faster than 9.58 in their 2027 Games. However, it doesn’t look optimistic as of now.

Their actual results from the inaugural May 2026 games in Las Vegas showed they are still far behind a handful of sprinters. The men’s 100m was won by Fred Kerley in 9.97 seconds, with second place going to Emmanuel Matadi in 10.05 seconds, meaning no one has yet run legal bests between 9.79 and 9.85 at the event.

So, even with the drugs and $10 million incentive, the numbers show Bolt’s record remains relatively safe. Chief executive of the Games, Maximilian Martin, addressed this issue in his letter announcing the bounty on Wednesday. 

Maximilian Martin cites three reasons why Las Vegas games didn’t break the record

The inaugural Enhanced Games took place on May 24 in Las Vegas, Nevada, but the event ultimately ended in disappointment, as no new records were broken. That was, after all, the entire premise of the Games. However, Martin believes he knows why the athletes fell short.

He pointed to three reasons in his letters to shareholders, after the parent company, Enhanced Group Inc.’s shares dropped 43% earlier this week.

The first, according to him, was that athletes were on enhancement protocols for only nine weeks instead of the planned 20 weeks. 

Martin blamed the regulatory and procurement delays for the shortened enhancement protocols cycle. He also pointed toward the absence of the two strongest world-record contenders, weightlifters Arley Mendez and Beatriz Piron. They apparently broke world records in training but got injured in competition. 

“Many of the very best athletes in the world have not joined us yet,” he said in the letter. “Largely because of fear of repercussions from the traditional sports establishment.”

From Quincy Hall’s mockery of the Enhanced Games, it appears the competition still has a lot to prove. Its controversial decision to allow performance-enhancing drugs had already made it an outlier, but even with that advantage, some athletes still don’t seem to take the event seriously.

“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,” Martin said in his letter, as he vowed to make the Games more attractive to elite stars.