The inaugural Enhanced Games are underway in Las Vegas and are set to be a novel spectacle that promotes drug-induced “enhancement”.
The International Olympic Committee has condemned the occasion as a approach to “destroy any concept of fair play” and “moronic”.
Read extra:
The Enhanced Games: ‘dangerous clown show’ or a wake-up name for conventional sport?
But the Enhanced Games stay interesting to many athletes and followers.
In our latest research, we analysed a number of the organisers’ claims, together with:
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doping is an inevitable development of sport
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athletes needs to be free to decide on what they do with their our bodies
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many athletes already use performance-enhancing medicine (PEDs)
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ageing is a “disease” that may be overcome utilizing PEDs.
Jae C. Hong/AP
How all of it works
Forty-two athletes will compete in swimming, sprinting, weightlifting and strongman. They can declare $1 million bounties for “breaking” world records (beforehand set by drug-tested athletes).
The athletes concerned embrace Australian former 100 metres freestyle world champion James Magnussen, US 2022 world 100m sprinting champion Fred Kerley, and the UK’s Ben Proud, who received silver within the Paris Olympics within the 50m freestyle.
Unlike “mainstream” athletes, these competing within the Enhanced Games can use US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved performance-enhancing substances below a proposed framework of medical supervision. This consists of physician-supervised use of medication resembling testosterone, human progress hormone and erythropoietin (EPO), pre-competition medical screening and well being profiling.
Any information set received’t be ratified by worldwide sporting federations (which implement anti-doping guidelines and doping controls). So, this “record-breaking” will solely rely contained in the Enhanced Games ecosystem – and maybe within the minds of others who deem it reputable.
What we studied
In our newly accepted paper within the Journal of Drug Issues, we analysed 13 key YouTube interviews that includes the founding father of the Enhanced Games, Australian tech entrepreneur Aron D’Souza. We discovered D’Souza returns to the identical handful of arguments designed to destabilise and discredit anti-doping coverage, justify PEDs and legitimise the occasion.
The first argument claims all elite athletes are doping and that “clean sport” is a fantasy. A favourite study cited by D’Souza claims 40% (or extra) of elite athletes use PEDs, even though only about 2% get caught. On this foundation, D’Souza highlights failures in anti-doping to hunt justification for a brand new method.
A second argument centres on bodily autonomy – athletes needs to be free to decide on what they do with their our bodies (assume “my body, my choice”).
But autonomy throughout the Enhanced Games doesn’t maintain up. Mandatory blood testing for well being markers is invasive and strips selection away from athletes. Beyond this, athletes are given drug protocols – they’re informed which medicine can be utilized, during which portions and for a way lengthy.
This just isn’t selection, it’s a type of management.
As athletes are paid mid-to-high six-figure salaries merely to participate, the notion of selection can be blurred.
In a 3rd argument meant to discredit anti-doping, D’Souza claims athletes in
“regular” sports activities use PEDs below the guise of Therapeutic Use Exemptions – medical approvals to make use of an otherwise-banned substance for a reputable well being situation.
But the information D’Souza presents are selective. He overlooks a research that discovered the variety of athletes competing with legitimate exemptions on the Olympic Games is less than 1%, with no affiliation between being granted an exemption and profitable a medal.
Nonetheless, such claims are highly effective and unfold extensively over social media platforms.
D’Souza additionally argues the occasion will “end the stigma” of PED use. While that is constructive from a hurt discount perspective, it may also increase the numbers of people who use them.
Finally, D’Souza argues ageing is a “disease” that may be overcome utilizing PEDs. However, with Enhanced Games organisers and sponsors directly marketing and selling testosterone, peptides and longevity medicine to customers, there’s a clear battle of curiosity in such claims.
Read extra:
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The cash and the politics
Beyond social media, the Enhanced Games has some wealthy and highly effective backers. These include 1789 Capital (Donald Trump Jr’s fund) and Peter Thiel (a billionaire entrepreneur and conservative political activist finest generally known as a co-founder of Palantir Technologies).
They appear to have political backing too. In 2026, the FDA, below Robert F. Kennedy Jr, loosened restrictions on testosterone prescribing and certain peptides.
These broader regulatory shifts have occurred alongside the Enhanced Games’ enlargement into shopper well being and longevity merchandise. Using athletes, influencers (resembling Joe Rogan and Bryan Johnson), the Enhanced Games has sought to broaden visibility, entice followers on-line and acquire legitimacy, rising its potential market as a part of a broader commercial ecosystem.
The doable well being dangers
The normalisation and commercialisation of enhancement medicine is regarding from a public well being perspective.
Considering a number of the well-documented health risks, in addition to the unknown long-term well being harms, Enhanced Games’ aggressive propotion of PEDs is worrying.
Unlike the Enhanced Games, the place athletes could have around-the-clock entry to healthcare professionals, most people will probably be uncovered to a a lot wider diploma of harms.
Notably, the over-prescription of testosterone is one such concern, exposing folks to probably irreversible damage. This is very harmful for youthful males caught up within the “T Maxxing” phenomenon.
Where’s the responsibility of care?
Despite the boldness in launching a so-called “steroid Olympics”, the Enhanced Games nonetheless has an obligation of care to guard its true goal market: most people.
Failure to take action displays not scientific innovation however institutional recklessness.
The video games ought to draw on its quickly increasing world attain on social media to share health-focused messages.