‘Worthless spectacle’: World champion Evan Dunfee speaks out in opposition to Enhanced Games

Evan Dunfee’s historic gold medal on the World Athletics Championships in Japan is proving significant in methods he by no means imagined. 

That’s as a result of after listening to O Canada from the highest of the rostrum and amassing $70,000 US in prize cash, the Richmond, B.C., race walker seized a chance led to by his elevated profile to talk out on one thing he cares deeply about: moral sport.

It all began with a social media message from somebody who mentioned they work for the Enhanced Games, congratulating Dunfee on his win and winner’s cheque.

The Enhanced Games is a brand new billionaire-backed multi-sport enterprise with no guidelines round using performance-enhancing medicine and no testing. 

“To get a message from somebody … mentioning their association with the Enhanced Games, thinking that I, of all people, wouldn’t find that deplorable, was very interesting,” mentioned Dunfee, a ChildSport ambassador and frequent faculty speaker.

His response to the overture on social media learn partly:

“My message is that an athlete’s value is in showing their communities that a dream, any dream, is worth chasing. That the pursuit of that dream is what transforms us as individuals for the better. The enhanced games are the antithesis of that message … a valueless spectacle that jeopardizes the ability of clean athletes to inspire their neighbours.”

‘Doping to the gills’

Dunfee mentioned he’s bothered by the Enhanced Games’ pitch that it’s pushing the envelope of sport science when what he believes organizers are actually messaging is “doping to the gills and taking home bags of cash.”

“Something like the Enhanced Games, where that moral contract is broken, it’s no longer about achieving personal potential, it’s about manufacturing yourself into something unhealthy, and potentially dangerous,” he mentioned.

One of Canada’s pre-eminent sports activities physiologists feels the identical.

Trent Stellingwerff, chief efficiency officer on the Canadian Sports Institute Pacific, mentioned the Enhanced Games’ promotion of no-holds-barred doping makes him consider skilled wrestling.

“I joke that the WWE was like the beta version of this,” mentioned Stellingwerff. “There’s at least two published studies I’m aware of where the life expectancy of those wrestlers — and there’s a whole host of other reasons —  is incredibly short. Eight to 16 per cent of them are dying before the age of 50.”

Stellingwerff can be in Toronto subsequent week for a sport science symposium that includes a presentation from the Enhanced Games CEO.

‘Would you place your youngsters within the Enhanced Games?’

“I have some questions I hope to ask in a fair and collaborative way just to understand that when they talk about science, are they going to publish? What ethics committee would ever approve [unlimited doping]? What scientific journal are they going to put their research in?” he mentioned. 

“I want to ask the CEO next week, would you put your children in [the Enhanced Games]?”

By distinction, Stellingwerff mentioned his focus is utilizing fashionable information in the very best manner whereas defending and supporting athletes’ long-term bodily and psychological well being and happiness.

The Enhanced Games have garnered widespread condemnation. World Aquatics, the governing physique for swimming, introduced that any athlete, coach or official who participates within the video games can be banned for all times, whereas the pinnacle of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has referred to as it a “dangerous clown show.”

Perhaps sarcastically, the cheque Dunfee is cashing after 20 years of striving for a world title would have been smaller if not for the penalties assessed to dope cheat nations.

“World Athletics gold medal prize money is $70,000, which interestingly is elevated from $60,000 off of money that Russia had to pay as a fine for their historic doping issues,” he mentioned.