The Enhanced Games is a planned international sports event where the athletes will not be subject to drug testing. It is headed by Aron D’Souza, an Australian businessman. The event is meant to take place in 2025. Reactions from the sporting world have been generally negative, with commentators highlighting the safety risks of encouraging performance-enhancing drug use. Critics have dubbed it the Steroid Olympics. Some of the prominent investors in the Enhanced Games include Peter Thiel, Balaji Srinivasan, and Donald Trump Jr.
The event is intended to be annual and to include track and field, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics, and combat sports.
The Enhanced Games is meant to be the first event of its kind to support performance-enhancing drugs and not follow the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Performance-enhancing drugs will not be mandatory for participants. Such an event has been discussed hypothetically for many years but never been realized. Prosthetic limbs and shoe technology will be allowed. Aron D’Souza, president of the organization, says that for insurance reasons, only FDA-approved substances will be allowed. According to D’Souza, athletes should also be categorized based on their chromosomal sex.
D’Souza says he had the idea for the Enhanced Games in 2022 when noticing that many people at an American gym were obviously using steroids. He was, together with billionaire Peter Thiel, involved in the 2013 Bollea v. Gawker lawsuit, which led to Gawker filing for bankruptcy. In 2015, he co-founded Sargon with Phillip Kingston. D’Souza said, “Athletes are adults … and they have a right to do with their body what they wish – my body, my choice; your body, your choice, … And no government, no paternalistic sports federation, should be making those decisions for athletes – particularly around products that are FDA regulated and approved.”
D’Souza sees the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as corrupt and greedy, and wants to eradicate the WADA, which he calls an ‘anti-science police force for the IOC.’ He also argues that the Olympic system doesn’t pay athletes enough, and that the Olympics include too many sports that don’t really matter.
Australian swimmer and Olympic medalist James Magnussen said in February 2024 that he intends to come out of retirement to compete in the games in an attempt to break the 50m freestyle world record. D’Souza pledged a US$1 million prize if he did break it, and Magnussen said that he will ‘ … juice to the gills … break it in six months.’ He also said that the money could set him up for the next decade, that sport is about entertainment and is sometimes taken too seriously, and ‘This is not for everyone, and it is certainly not something for young athletes.’
The IOC stated, ‘If you want to destroy any concept of fair play and fair competition in sport, this would be a good way to do it. … This is completely at odds with the idea and values of the Olympic Games.’
Cyclist Joseph M. Papp, suspended for doping in 2006, referred to a 1988 ‘Weekend Update’ skit, saying: ‘I don’t think you’d actually see guys tearing their arms off … A doping free-for-all just invites the most ambitious person to be the most reckless person, and to take the most drugs possible without literally killing themselves.’ Swimmer and Olympic gold medalist Leisel Jones stated that while she would not participate herself due to the risks, she’d be interested in how fast people could get with doping, saying: ‘If this clears out people who … are doing illegal things in sport, if that clears them out our clean sport, that would be wonderful.’
Brett Fraser, chief athletics officer of the Enhanced GHames, said that ‘Each athlete must be under clinical supervision.’ According to D’Souza, ‘We will focus on athlete safety by mandating athletes have pre-competition full-system clinical screenings including blood tests and EKGs.’
The production companies More Better Productions and Ridley Scott Associates intend to co-produce a docuseries about the games. Rob McElhenney, founder of More Better Productions, was involved in the sports docuseries Welcome to Wrexham. The series is meant to follow athletes as they train for, and then compete in, the Enhanced Games.
The Daily Omnivore 