A limited gift link to an Economist article (and an excerpt below, in case it is too limited) on the Enhanced Games scheduled for Las Vegas in May 2026. The prize money for winning events, including weightlifting, is $500k with a $1m bonus for setting a world record. As a natural lifter, I try not to be too judgy about others making informed and independent decisions. At a minimum, this could be interesting. Of course it is sponsored by rich bajillionaires interested in using drugs to expand the limits of human performance.
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My apologies if this has been covered before, but the point is the article. Since the Economist has become sterner with their gift links, here is an excerpt:
Excerpt:
Because the use of drugs will be declared and closely monitored, the organisers of the Enhanced Games insist it will be the “safest” sporting event in history. That claim deserves scrutiny. But the organisers’ commercial ambitions will be met only if athletes are seen to benefit from their interventions, because the games will double as marketing for a planned direct-to-consumer telehealth platform, also due to launch in 2026, which will offer supplements and “medically supervised interventions”. So far few details are available, but this will almost certainly include testosterone therapy, a treatment that is rapidly growing in popularity in America and elsewhere.
The signs are that the drugs do work, however. Kristian Gkolomeev, a Greek swimmer who worked with the organisers to test the concept, broke the 50-metre-freestyle record in 2025 while using PEDS. He will participate again in 2026, along with Ben Proud, James Magnussen and Andrii Govorov, three British swimmers.
Mr Proud explained his decision by saying that it would take “13 years of winning a World Championship title” for athletes to earn the amount on offer for a single race at the Enhanced Games. He noted that even Olympic champions seldom secure enough money for retirement. Britain’s national governing body for swimming condemned his decision to participate.
The Enhanced Games are being contested not just in the stadium, but also in the courts. After Mr Gkolomeev broke his record, World Aquatics, swimming’s global governing body, introduced a new bylaw banning athletes and any other staff (including coaches and doctors) if they participate in any events that permit banned drugs. The Enhanced Games’ organisers responded by filing an $800m antitrust lawsuit that alleges a predatory campaign to crush them by forcing a boycott.
There may be much more at stake than just sporting achievement. Mr D’Souza and his backers, who include Peter Thiel, a tech billionaire, and Christian Angermayer, who specifically invests in life sciences and human enhancement, imagine a future where taking drugs to boost performance in all kinds of ways becomes commonplace, redefining what it means to be human. Whether superhumanity is attainable is uncertain. But sports fans will be divided on whether they want to watch the games.
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I am 1000% in for this.
It’s not like Ancient Greece had a testing federation, so actually seeing human extremes sounds awesome.
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Hell yeah. Let er rip.
Like baseball in the 90s or Pride mma, everyone’s on shit, no one cares and by God what a spectacle.
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They already did this.
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The article also says:
Derided as the “doping Olympics”, the idea has drawn intense criticism from sporting bodies. Nonetheless, after years of speculation, the inaugural event will take place from May 21st to 24th in Las Vegas.
The programme will feature swimming, track events and weightlifting, with prize money of $500,000 per event (the aim is to add further categories in future years). And there is a $1m bonus on offer for any competitor who breaks a world record. The organisers promise global live-streaming and broadcast coverage, though details of these partnerships have yet to be announced.
Athletes do not have to use PEDs to compete, and may compete as “natural” athletes. But those who do enhance will have to do so under close medical supervision, and may use only products that have been approved by America’s drug-regulation agency. The organisers say that, to ensure a level playing field, every athlete will begin their drug protocols at the same time. This will happen in two rounds, with the second round taking place in the run-up to the event.
I’m wondering how many natural athletes will be there. Given the prize money, it might depend on the sport.
Enhancers might not help much with, say, archery. I don’t know the event list, whether the events were chosen to be like the olympics, or more to increase the chance of world records and such.
As a recreational archer, I know beta-blockers and alcohol are banned in those events.
But beyond that, I would love to see the door open to other nervous-sytem hacks or nootropics that we haven’t heard of.
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Its pretty bold. I’m neither here nor there on using performance enhancing drugs, but what I do appreciate is the honesty.
The thing that gets proven perennially is that just because something or an org. is tested doesn’t mean that the athletes are clean. And as testing measures become more sophisticated, so do the doping techniques.
So getting that out of the way right up front is great.
Thats an interesting one. I was on metoprolol for several years post heart attack, and it really flattened out anxiety and related effects.
I was re-reading this thread and apparently I skimmed over this.
It seems like a stupid thing to do.
The point of allowing enhancements is that the viewers do not want a level playing field. But this is ultimately about business and launching and further popularizing enhancing drugs. They do not want athletes to die or do something unwise and want to claim safety. But it is hard to see what is accomplished by that - does it just give an illusion of safety, and will it be carefully enforced?
Yes. I can’t count how many times Ive read or heard “I get my bloods checked on the regular…”.
It means nothing if the results are ignored in lieu of their pursuit of what ever, other than that they’re willing to do just enough to convince themselves that they’re right and should continue doing what they’re doing.
The biggest issue I see with this is that it’s not going to have the intended effect. It may actually achieve the opposite of intended effect. We’re NOT going to see the maximum of human potential here, because the humans with the best GENETIC blessings aren’t going to show up. Because the places that pay MORE are the places that still test. China and Russia still going to groom kids from birth to compete in the real Olympics, and kids with incredible athletic talent in the US are going to still try for the NFL or NBA.
Buuuuuut….what will be interesting is that now we’ll get a bunch of runner-ups/washouts that take as many drugs as possible to try to catch up to the genetically great, and we can compare just how significant of a role genetics play in terms of freak athleticism. Which, actually, this could serve as one of the best “anti-drug” campaigns ever for youth athletes. Imagine if we have games where you allow ALL the drugs to be taken, and average dudes STILL can’t match the numbers of drug tested genetically elite athletes? It may convince some high school kid that juicing ain’t worth it. Not because they could get caught or they could get sick or die (because that never works): but because it really ISN’T worth it. It’s not going to do nearly what they think it will do. They STILL won’t make it to a D-1 school.
It’s kinda like how one of the best ways to get kids to not drink underage is to have them raised by alcoholic parents. Suddenly it’s really uncool.
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While I agree, the amount of money offered may attract some with genetic ability too. The proof is in the pudding - will records be broken?
the amount of money offered may attract some with genetic ability too.
Some, yeah, but not elite. Not the pinnacle. We still won’t be able to observe true “maximum” potential.
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I kinda agree with @T3hPwnisher here, in that the genetically elite that are already competing in the top tier of the sports are not going to sign up for this, so we may not see the results we expect or want.
The sceptic in my also has to wonder how many of the elite in currently tested sports are still using peds to fully take advantage of their genetic potential. There are so many cases of elite sportsman getting caught for doping in pretty much all sports, I doubt an enhanced games will provide any better results.
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I’m a Steelers fan, and even watch their games sometimes (
), and being a local- I see stuff about them on the news now & then.
So, they only use drug testing as a way to break a players contract when he acts the jagoff or starts making a ruckus in public.
Then the head of their strength & conditioning program a few years ago got arrested for distribution of anabolics, so there’s that.
What I find interesting are the players they’ve let go without playing that card.
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