The first edition of the “Enhanced Games”, a competition where doping is authorized and regulated, takes place on Sunday in Las Vegas with swimmers, sprinters and weightlifters having turned their backs on the world of traditional sport, which for its part vilifies these “Doping Games”.
The competition – for some an exploration of human and technological limits, for others a dangerous circus intended to sell miracle products based on testosterone – has caused a lot of ink to flow since the announcement in 2023 of the project of Australian businessman Aron D’Souza, whose company went public at the beginning of May.
On Sunday, 42 athletes (29 men and 13 women) will therefore participate in these “Improved Games” in a Las Vegas casino with 2,500 spectators. On the program: athletics (100 m), swimming (freestyle, butterfly) and weightlifting (snatch, shoulder jerk and deadlift).
If an athlete breaks a world record – which will obviously not be approved – they will receive a bonus of one million dollars. Each winner will receive a check for $250,000.
“The Enhanced Games are an opportunity to earn much more money than I could imagine in traditional athletics, where everything can quickly stop. I signed a contract for several years. I don’t see how we can refuse that, except for the way people look at it,” sprinter Mouhamadou Fall told AFP in November.
“It’s a game changer”
Currently suspended for doping, the 34-year-old athlete (the only Frenchman to participate in the Enhanced Games) has decided to turn his back on traditional sport, motivated by the bonuses, curious “from a performance point of view” and reassured by the “guarantees” received in terms of health.
He will be at the start of the 100m alongside the American Fred Kerley, Olympic bronze medalist in the 100m in Paris in 2024 and also under suspension for doping.
The participants, also including the British Ben Proud, Olympic vice-champion in the 50m freestyle, followed a protocol supervised by doctors during which they received – in varying quantities which were not communicated – anabolic steroids, testosterone or even growth hormones.
The results are “crazy,” assured AFP Irish swimmer Max McCusker, who says he is “swimming faster than before the 2024 Games” even though he stopped swimming for a year after the Olympics. “It’s a game changer,” he added. Records are bound to fall.”
Convinced that “clean sport does not exist”, he considers that we must live “with the times”: “people want to see times that are breaking, athletes who break records and who have impressive bodies”.
“Dangerous” and “irresponsible”
The competition has received the support of influential businessmen in tech, such as the libertarian, ultraconservative and transhumanist billionaire Peter Thiel, and the son of American President Donald Trump Jr.
The International Swimming Federation has banned any return to its circuit for anyone participating in the Enhanced Games. The president of the International Athletics Federation Sebastian Coe, for his part, described the competition in 2024 as “rubbish”. For the World Anti-Doping Agency, the Enhanced Games are “dangerous” and “irresponsible”.
The organizers, who also sell testosterone products, say that only products approved by the US Food and Drug Administration have been authorized and that everything has been checked by an independent medical team. “It’s science, it’s not done haphazardly. From a business perspective, they had better be careful. If a problem occurs, they would sell less,” estimates Mouhamadou Fall.
Professor at the University of Birmingham specializing in doping issues Ian Boardley, however, told AFP that the athletes were “putting themselves in danger”, citing possible complications in the heart, liver or kidneys. No traditional broadcaster has agreed to broadcast the competition, which will be broadcast live on YouTube and on the Roku streaming platform.
