“The Future of Sports Is Here: We are on a mission to redefine superhumanity through science, innovation and sports.”
An unabashedly bold purpose, or not less than selection of phrases. But “redefining superhumanity” isn’t sufficient for the Enhanced Video games, a start-up that plans to carry an Olympic-style competitors subsequent yr in Las Vegas.
The enterprise additionally seeks to “reinvent sports with science.”
Translation: Not simply enable performance-enhancing medication (PEDs), not simply encourage their use, however have fun their use.
Or, within the juice-flecked hyperbole of Enhanced Video games copywriters, “We are pioneering a new era in athletic competition that embraces scientific advancements to push the boundaries of human performance.”
Breaking a world document in monitor or swimming dash occasions will set off a $1 million payout to the athlete, one in every of a number of efficiency bonuses promised by Enhanced. The place will the cash come from? Traders reportedly embrace conservative billionaire Peter Thiel, Saudi prince Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, and Donald Trump Jr.From the audacity of the message to the deep pockets funding the enterprise to the athletes tempted by the prospect of constructing huge cash and setting world information, the Enhanced Video games are price a more in-depth look.
Why are the Enhanced Video games within the information?
World Anti-Doping Company (WADA) president Witold Banka sounded an alarm final week at a gathering of Summer season Olympics sports activities leaders, warning that the Enhanced Video games pose a menace to all that’s hallowed and respectable in international sport.
“This initiative seeks to normalize the use of potentially dangerous drugs,” Banka stated. “For the sake of athlete health and the purity of sport, of course, it must be stopped.
“As the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles approach, we cannot allow what should be a celebration of honest sporting endeavor to be overshadowed by this cynical attempt to undermine clean sport. We will urge the U.S. authorities to find legal ways to block this initiative.”
Witold Banka, president of the World Anti-Doping Company (WADA), attends a press convention on the 2024 Summer season Olympics on July 25, 2024, in Paris.
(Michel Euler / Related Press)
WADA refused to research claims of 23 Chinese language swimmers testing constructive for a PED earlier than the Tokyo Olympics. With the LA Video games in 2028 and Salt Lake Metropolis Video games in 2034 looming, the Senate committee additionally plans to handle claims that inconsistent enforcement by WADA has resulted in unfair competitions impacting American athletes.
USADA chief govt Travis Tygart accused Banka of mentioning the Enhanced Video games to distract from the upcoming Senate listening to, telling the Related Press, “Banka’s indignation equals his misinformation or ignorance about how free democratic societies and markets work.”
That doesn’t imply Tygart is A-OK with an endeavor that encourages using PEDs and the ensuing tainted accomplishments.
The primary international sports activities physique to push again is World Aquatics, which handed a rule two weeks in the past that bans any swimmer who helps the Enhanced Video games — even when they’ve by no means competed — from representing their nation once more.
Former Olympic athlete Michael Phelps, (from left) Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Company, and former Olympic athlete Allison Schmitt are sworn in throughout an Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee listening to on Capitol Hill on June 25, 2024.
(Nathan Howard / Getty Photos)
The rule applies to those that “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,” a World Aquatics assertion stated.
When and the place will the Enhanced Video games happen?
The Enhanced Video games will take goal at world information in swimming, weightlifting and monitor at Resorts World in Las Vegas on Memorial Day Weekend, 2026.
Scheduled swimming occasions are the 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle, and the 50-meter and 100-meter butterfly. Weightlifting will embrace the snatch and the clear & jerk. Monitor occasions will embrace the 100-meter sprint and the 110-meter hurdles.
Chef Ray Garcia’s restaurant, ¡Viva!, positioned contained in the Resorts World Las Vegas on Thursday, June 24, 2021.
(Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Instances)
Every occasion will carry a prize purse of $500,000, with $250,000 awarded to every winner. As well as, bonuses shall be paid for world information, together with $1 million for information within the 100-meter dash and 50-meter freestyle, which the Enhanced Video games web site describes as “the two definitive tests of raw human speed.”
The Enhanced Video games will happen inside the resort. The competitors advanced contains a four-lane pool, a six-lane dash monitor and a weightlifting stage.
Who got here up with this and why?
The founder and president of the Enhanced Video games is Aron D’Souza, an Australian entrepreneur. D’Souza has been on a campaign to create an alternative choice to the Olympic Video games, which he believes don’t compensate athletes pretty.
He advocates for using PEDs, arguing that athletes ought to have the liberty to make selections about their very own our bodies and that WADA acts as an “anti-science police force” for the Worldwide Olympic Committee.
Beforehand, D’Souza led Thiel’s litigation towards Gawker Media involving the wrestler Hulk Hogan, which resulted in one of many largest invasion of privateness judgments in historical past, and is the topic of the e-book “Conspiracy” by creator Ryan Vacation.
D’Souza is the founding father of Sargon, a expertise infrastructure firm in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. He offered his stake within the firm in 2018.
(L-R) Amy Chua and Peter Thiel attend Inauguration Eve hosted by Uber, X and The Free Press at Cafe Riggs on January 19, 2025 in Washington, DC.
(Leigh Vogel / Getty Photos for Uber, X and The Free Press)
The extent to which billionaire traders, resembling Thiel, Alwaleed Al Saud and Trump Jr., will fund the Enhanced Video games is unclear. Cash isn’t an issue, if statements on the occasion’s web site are believed: “We are backed by some of the world’s most successful venture capitalists, allowing us to operate independently without government and taxpayer funding.”
D’Souza informed the Related Press that Trump Jr.’s group, known as 1789 Capital, is bringing “double digit millions” to the Enhanced Video games. Trump Jr. made a video trumpeting his partnership, that features an look by his father, President Trump.
Trump Jr., in a press release accompanying the announcement of the funding, stated: “This is about excellence, innovation, and American dominance on the world stage — something the MAGA movement is all about.”
D’Souza is thrilled by the backing of America’s first household and different moneyed pursuits.
“To know that some of the most significant figures in American social and political life support the Enhanced Games is more important to us than any investment,” he stated on a video name in February. “I’ve had the great fortune of working alongside many members of the administration and other prominent figures of the Trump movement over the years, so it’s a very natural fit.”
D’Souza and his crew specific lofty objectives past juicing athletes, setting information and paying race winners. Final week, D’Souza posted as a lot on LinkedIn:
“This isn’t just about enhancement. It’s about economic freedom. About athletes having a choice. About breaking the monopoly that old institutions hold over human performance.
“At the Enhanced Games, we are unapologetic: We’re not backing down. We will fight — in the courts, in the public square, and in the arena of ideas — for every athlete who’s been silenced, underpaid, or discarded.”
Why are performance-enhancing medication forbidden anyway?
The listing of well being dangers related to taking anabolic steroids — which haven’t any medical use accredited by the U.S. authorities — is lengthy and scary:
Males may even see their breasts and prostate gland develop and their testicles shrink. Ladies might get a deeper voice, develop physique hair and lose hair on their head. Each women and men would possibly tear tendons or develop liver tumors, extreme zits, elevated blood strain, coronary heart issues, points with anger and despair.
The Enhanced Video games say the competitors shall be beneath the supervision of a medical crew, however by the point the video games start, injury from taking PEDs might have already developed.
“Protecting athletes is our top priority,” the Enhanced Video games web site proclaims. “Every competitor will undergo rigorous, state-of-the-art medical profiling before participating in the competition.”
The primary athlete to point out outcomes from utilizing the Enhanced Video games PEDs routine is Kristian Gkolomeev, a Greek swimmer who by no means medaled in 4 Olympics.
In February, Gkolomeev swam two-hundredths of a second quicker than the 50-meter freestyle world document with a time of 20.89. He wore an inline full-body open water swimsuit that’s prohibited by World Aquatics.
“I’m kind of like the driver in the car, but I need the team behind me,” Gkolomeev stated throughout an Enhanced Video games promotional occasion final month in Las Vegas.
Greece’s Kristian Gkolomeev competes within the Swimming Males’s 50m Freestyle Semifinal 1 in the course of the LEN European Aquatics Championships, on the Milan Gale Muskatirovic sports activities centre in Belgrade, on June 22, 2024.
(Andrej Isakovic / AFP by way of Getty Photos)
Many imagine that breaking information beneath the affect of PEDs is meaningless.
Paul Ifrim, a Romanian Luger who completed twentieth on the 2010 Winter Olympics, responded to D’Souza’s LinkedIn submit with this remark:
“I earned my place at the Olympics through hard, clean work and unwavering dedication over the course of many years. Integrity, fair play, respect, and perseverance are what inspire and shape true athletes. Your argument for ‘enhancing’ drugs, viewed as ‘athlete compensation,’ is a disgrace to those principles.
“What message are we sending young, aspiring athletes? That cheating and cutting corners is a valid path to success? These are pathetic excuses for undermining the true spirit of competition. You’re delusional for promoting this agenda. True athletes rise through grit and honor, not shortcuts and hypocrisy.”
Tygart, the CEO of USADA, had an analogous response: “While those behind the Enhanced Games might be looking to make a quick buck, that profit would come at the expense of kids across the world thinking they need to dope to chase their dreams. We desperately wish this investment was being made in the athletes who are currently training and competing the real and safe way.
“They are the role models this world so desperately needs and they are the ones who deserve our support — not some dangerous clown show that puts profit over principle.”
A counterpoint was revealed final summer time by anti-doping skilled Michael Ashenden, who helped create the athlete blood passport system and develop a take a look at for the blood-boosting drug Erythropoietin (EPO).
Initially against the Enhanced Video games, Ashenden modified his thoughts, writing that the failures of WADA to fight doping within the Olympics make an alternate viable.
“Today I advocate for the concept of an Enhanced Games to co-exist with the Olympic Movement, provided their athletes do nothing illegal,” Ashenden wrote. “I realized that not following the WADA rules was not so radical after all….”
“I acknowledge that by offering incentives for record performances, the Enhanced Games are tacitly encouraging the use of performance-enhancing substances. But by offering a gold medal, the Olympic Movement also incentivizes the use of performance-enhancing substances….
“Although it may be a bitter pill for the Olympic Movement, it was foreseeable that the commercialization of sport under their stewardship would create an environment that seeded a corporate disruptor.”
