Enhanced Games, a sports competition where performance-enhancing drugs are not only allowed but encouraged, will be held for the first time in May next year, in Las Vegas.
Ever wondered how much better top human athletes could be if they were allowed to use performance-enhancing substances in competitions? Well, in May of next year, these questions will be answered, as the first edition of Enhanced Games kicks off. Marketed as an event designed to remove the stigma of using PEDs and to safely push the limits of human athletic performance, Enhanced Games has rightly been nicknamed the “Olympic Games on Steroids”. Originally announced as a concept in 2023, the Enhanced Games will host its first ever edition in May of next year, in las Vegas, with eight different events in swimming (50- and 100-meter races in freestyle and butterfly), track (100-meter sprint and 100/110-meter hurdles) and weightlifting (snatch, clean and jerk).
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“We are here to move humanity forward, the old rules didn’t just hold back athletes, they held back humanity,” Aron D’Souza, Enhanced Games president and founder, said during a lavish presentation on the stage of a club on the Las Vegas Strip.
But how does a controversial sporting event like this draw the kind of athletic talent that people genuinely want to see? After all, those entering the competition would most likely have to give up any short-term aspirations in sanctioned international sporting events. Financial incentives seem to be the most logical answer, with hundreds of thousands of dollars being offered for each event, as well as appearance fees and bonus for breaking world records.
Enhanced Games has already received millions of dollars in funding from venture capitalists like PayPal founder Peter Thiel, Christian Angermayer and Donald Trump Jr, as co-founder of 1789 Capital. Although D’Souza has not disclosed all his sources of funding, he did reveal that his company plans to make money by selling direct-to-consumer performance enhancers, in a model similar to that of Red Bull, which sponsors all sorts of extreme sporting events to market its energy drinks.
Although anti-doping agencies see Enhanced Games as a “clown show” that puts profits over principle, D’Souza claims that the current anti-doping rules are outdated, and his idea is a better alternative. Nutrition and technology already play a big role in all major sports, giving distinct advantages to athletes and organizations who can afford to invest in them, so why should PEDs be any different? Instead of what many are calling a broken anti-doping system, putting these performance-enhancing drugs front and center for the entertainment of the masses is a much better idea.
Enhanced Games has announced that next year’s event won’t be a free-for-all with respect to PEDs. Participating athletes will be allowed to take substances that are legal in the United States and prescribed by a licensed doctor, such as testosterone, growth hormones, and various anabolic steroids.
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