Clarence Munyai wants to use the Enhanced Games — which allows competitors to take banned substances — as a launching pad to regain his form and get back into the national team.
The event in Las Vegas, which will feature track and field and swimming sprint disciplines as well as weightlifting events, is scheduled to make its debut in late May.
Munyai, who intends to compete without taking illegal performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), says organisers have given him more support than he received while competing for South Africa across almost a decade.
Munyai, holder of the 19.69sec 200m national record, was also a mainstay in the 4x100m relay team until early 2024. But since losing his Puma contract that year, he has survived on his savings.
“They [Enhanced Games organisers] came with support that I’ve never received [before]. It is something a professional athlete should have been getting in the first place. Compensation-wise, they’re taking very, very good care of me,” said Munyai, adding his contract extends way beyond the showpiece.
He is receiving a monthly salary, and all his medical costs, from extensive tests to physiotherapy, are covered. And they pay promptly. “They pay the next day. They don’t even pay two days later. They don’t take a month or a year.”
The married father-of-one plans to fly out to Abu Dhabi next weekend to base himself there until the games — all his costs will be taken care of, including up to five tickets to bring family members over to stave off homesickness.
[People] just see Enhanced Games, and they think, ‘oh, okay, needles and steroids’. Enhancement is a broad term … no one is forced to take steroids
— Clarence Munyai, South African sprinter
Losing gold medal was painful
Munyai was a member of the South African 4x100m relay that broke the national record at the 2019 world championships and the one that won gold at the 2021 World Relays in Poland, though he and his teammates had to return their medals after Thando Dlodlo, who ran the first leg, failed a drug test. “It was painful,” recalled Munyai.
“We were basically the first team — myself, Akani [Simbine], Gift [Leotlela] and Thando — to win the first [global] relay medal [since 2001]. It was something special, and it was stripped away just like it was nothing.”
But he has no problem competing against athletes using PEDs at the Enhanced Games because it’s within their rules.
He said organisers required athletes to undergo thorough medical testing to reach their best. “I’ve done tests I’ve never done in my life before. I’ve done tests that cost almost R50,000.”
Munyai was also blown away by the state-of-the-art medical facilities he saw while visiting Las Vegas, which were way ahead of anything he’d seen in South Africa.
Munyai, who will compete in the 100m, made it clear he would not use PEDs. “That’s actually a choice you have, you know, that you can run clean. [People] don’t know that. Some athletes will [use PEDs], yes. Some athletes will be announced [as taking PEDs], some athletes will not be announced,” he said.
Enhancement is a broad term
“[People] just see Enhanced Games and they think, ‘oh, okay, needles and steroids’. They explained to me when they recruited me that enhancement means vitamin B12. As an athlete, if you take vitamin B12, it’s an enhancement. Having the correct nutrition is [an] enhancement. Enhancement is a broad term … the contract, no one is forced to take steroids.”
He added that competitors planning to use banned substances were advised by games organisers to retire from their professional leagues and undergo a battery of tests.
“They [organisers] say if someone were to do it, they should do it under medical supervision so that they don’t harm themselves.
“Most athletes that do it — which I don’t know of — would be most likely buying off the black market. They wouldn’t know of any underlying condition which they might have that could harm them.”
Munyai ran his 19.69sec record in Pretoria in March 2018, which stood as the 200m world lead for a couple of months until he was joined by then little-known American Noah Lyles on the identical time.
Since then Munyai has not run under 20 seconds, while Lyles has lowered his best to 19.31 and won three Olympic medals and 10 world championship gongs.
Different trajectories
Munyai, who turns 28 next month, has pondered their different trajectories. “My career has been hampered by a lot by injuries,” he said.
“There’s a lot of stuff I could have done better as an athlete … Did I put enough effort in? On the other side, what was done to make sure that I was performing at that level consistently? Because I was very inconsistent. It’s a team effort.
“My diet wasn’t always necessarily good … so that could be a factor. You know, there are a lot of things that could be factors.”
Munyai believes this new level of support will help him break his way back into the national team, regaining a spot in the high-flying relay outfit that won silver at the 2024 Olympics and 2025 World Relays gold.
“I really feel that I can still run properly, like I can still run a proper 200m and the relay.”
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