The Enhanced Games, a controversial event where athletes are encouraged to use performance-enhancing drugs, is underway in Vegas. Giant billboards advertise “Live Enhanced” as a sports announcer introduces athletes, including British swimmer Ben Proud.
Inside the Enhanced Games Arena
The inaugural competition will feature athletes using performance-enhancing drugs to try and break world records in track, weightlifting and swimming. Some $25m in prize money is up for grabs, with cash prizes for winners. US sprinter Fred Kerley is eyeing up world records in certain events, with a $1m bonus available.
The drugs they use must be legal, and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Substances like testosterone and human growth hormone, banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, are encouraged and for sale here.
The project was founded by entrepreneurs Aron D’Souza and Maximilian Martin in 2023 and has attracted backing from investors including billionaire Peter Thiel and Donald Trump Jr.
Concerns and Criticisms
Health experts warn that anabolic steroids and growth hormones can cause strokes and cardiovascular damage, among other risks.
Event organisers claim Enhanced will push the limits of human performance while critics, especially in the Olympic movement, dismiss it as an affront to the spirit and founding principles of competitive sport.
USADA CEO Travis Tygart says that athletes shouldn’t be pressured to use drugs to be the best. He says that while there are failures with the Olympics’ anti-doping protocols, the answer is reforming the system, not to dope.
He adds athletes need to be assured the Olympics are clean and cheats will not be tolerated.
Enhanced claims it is bringing out into the open what it says is an undercurrent of many athletes cheating and taking performance-enhancing drugs in the shadows.
Athlete Perspectives
Enhanced athletes answered media questions for two hours in Vegas. Strongman Hafthor Bjornsson, who hopes to break his own deadlift record of 510kg (1,124.4 pounds), was the only athlete to say which drugs he was taking, while other athletes were tight lipped.
Bjornsson, who played the Mountain in Game of Thrones, says he’s open about his steroid use because it’s accepted in the professional strongman world.
American sprinter Shania Collins says the fact that those taking part in the games admit to do