Look forward to a revolutionary change in the sporting circuit! Just as the Greater Las Vegas area gets set to host the inaugural Enhanced Games next May. This new competition will open their doors to openly doped athletes, providing huge financial rewards to them. Athletes can make as much as $500,000 per event, plus bonuses for setting world records. Yet, the initiative has triggered huge outcry from public health officials and anti-doping advocates.
In its own harsh warning regarding the Enhanced Games, Sports Integrity Australia found that the event is unsafe and illegitimate. They paint this idea as reckless, immoral, and damaging to the purity of competition. They call for action to focus on the health of athletes first. They think that uncontrolled use of performance-enhancing drugs is detrimental to this health. Olivier Rabin of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) told us he was deeply opposed, saying,
“We think this is dangerous and an irresponsible concept by all means… having a free pass to use whatever substance or whatever method to enhance performance without consideration for health for us is absolutely nonsensical.”
Dr. Aron D’Souza, founder of the Enhanced Games, is hoping to change the face of sports science through this new competition. Today, Chris believes the Enhanced Games will create a third classification of athletes. We hope this new category will empower them to take the boundaries of human performance even further. Dr. D’Souza believes that this new endeavor has the potential to accomplish truly historic victories.
He continued by painting a picture in which, for several years, the Olympics will oversee a new natural world of sports. In the meantime, we’ll be left controlling a universe of improved athletics. “Ultimately, world records matter. As a race, we’re only really in it to watch the fastest humans.
One athlete already generating headlines in advance of this new project is James Magnussen, a retired Australian world champion swimmer. As part of her camp under the Enhanced Games, Magnussen’s ultimate target is doubling Cesar Cielo’s Olympic record for 50m freestyle. His involvement highlights the increasing willingness among elite athletes to engage in performance enhancement.
Christian Gkolomeev recently made waves by swimming two hundredths of a second under the official world record in the 50m freestyle. Here’s the kicker — he achieved this incredible milestone when he was just 31! This accomplishment is anything but small! It occurs five to ten years later than what we typically register as a swimmer’s apex performance. Dr. D’Souza praised Gkolomeev’s achievement, asserting that,
“Kristian Gkolomeev is now the fastest swimmer in human history… Why? Because he used technology and science to enhance his performance.”
The Enhanced Games will host unique events like the 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 50m butterfly and 100m butterfly. Though advocates such as Dr. D’Souza continue to advocate for the promise of these competitions, detractors are deeply concerned about what they could mean.
World Anti-Doping Agency has spoken out against the Enhanced Games. Rabin discussed the greater dangers athletes encounter in this rigged competition. They’ll suffer bans and long-term health consequences as a result of using the performance-enhancing drugs. He stated,
“They would probably risk committing an anti-doping rule violation… we know today that there are, for some of them, long-term beneficial effects, in particular on the muscle, of using performance-enhancing substances.”
Victor Conte, architect of past performance enhancing drug controversies, admitted the allure of the Enhanced Games. He cautioned against being hypocritical as a society to accept performance enhancement everywhere else but the playing field. He posited that this shift might even be true in athletics, as well.
“None of us can avoid this, we live in a performance-enhanced society,” Conte noted. Men and women get nose jobs… Men take Prozac to increase their productivity at the office… So I understand. These athletes are looking to take their performance to the next level.”
Now, as the launch date draws nearer, the controversy over the Enhanced Games is growing. Proponents are concerned that leaving doping regulation completely open does violence to the sanctity of sport and puts athletes in danger by encouraging them to abuse their bodies. At the same time, advocates argue that this program is a sign of progress within competitive sports.
