Drug-Juiced Athletes Are Happy To Break Ultimate Taboo at Enhanced Games

Steroids? No problem. Human growth hormones? Take all you want. Testosterone supplements? The more the merrier.The Enhanced Games, scheduled to take place Sunday night at Resorts World at Las Vegas, is an Olympic-style competition in which the use of performance-enhancing drugs is not only allowed but encouraged.Forty-two athletes are slated to compete in track, swimming, weightlifting and strongman disciplines with $25 million at stake and another $1 million offered to those who surpass legal world records.The competition’s only regulatory guardrail is that all substances must be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This opens the floodgates to substances like testosterone, steroids, amphetamines and human growth hormone, compounds traditionally banned in elite competition.Investors that include PayPal founder Peter Thiel and 1789 Capital, operated in part by Donald Trump Jr., have called the international competition the “future of sports and human performance,” arguing that performance-enhancing drugs are safe if taken under medical supervision.Mr. Trump, according to the Associated Press, said the games represent, “excellence, innovation and American dominance on the world stage — something the MAGA movement is all about.”Beyond the athletic and political bravado, the games serve a corporate purpose. Organized by Enhanced Group Inc., the games will actively promote the company’s longevity medicine business, which sells products such as testosterone and peptides, a class of drugs that includes the GLP-1 weight-loss medications. The concept, organizers say, is similar to Red Bull sponsoring extreme sports to sell its energy drinks.Enhanced CEO Max Martin says the juiced-up competition is also intended to take performance-enhancing drugs out of the dark. “The approach is, let’s not be naïve and pretend it’s not happening,” he told USA Today. “Let’s just take what’s happening in the shadows, put it out in the open, put the right medical and clinical framework around it.”Promoted as an exploration of what the human body can achieve free of anti-doping restrictions, the event has attracted a number of decorated former Olympians and medal winners.Among those competing are: American sprinter Fred Kerley, who won the silver medal in the 100-meter sprint at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and bronze in the same event at the 2024 Paris Olympics; Australian swimmer James “The Missile” Magnusson, who has won three Olympic medals; and American swimmers Cody Miller, who won a gold and bronze in the 2016 Rio Olympics, and Hunter Armstrong, who claimed gold in the 4×100 medley relay in Tokyo as well as a gold and silver in Paris.Mr. Miller said using PEDs has helped him add muscle, reduce knee pain, and improve his sleep and recovery. “Now I can kick breaststroke every day,” he said. “I can snap my kick. I can squat heavy in the gym. And there’s just no pain. It’s kind of awesome.”Mr. Armstrong said he is participating without using any performance-enhancing drugs in hopes of competing in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Yet, his entry into the competition left him alienated from his coaches. “There’s definitely been a little bit of excommunication with the swimming world,” he said.Others competitors include Ben Proud, who won a silver medal in the 50-meter freestyle for Britain in Paris; former NFL player Marvin Bracy-Williams; Icelandic strongman weightlifter Hafþór Björnsson, who played Ser Gregor “the Mountain” Clegane on HBO’s “Game of Thrones;” and American sprinter Shania Collins.The athletes say they were attracted to the training stipend they received and the chance to win $1 million for anyone who breaks the world record in swimming’s 50-meter freestyle or track’s 100-meter sprint.The Enhanced Games has drawn fierce condemnation from anti-doping bodies. Travis Tygart, who heads the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, called the games a “dangerous clown show,” that puts profits over principal. “While those behind the Enhanced Games might be looking to make a quick buck, that profit would come at the expense of kids across the world thinking they need to dope to chase their dreams,” Mr. Tygart said in a statement posted on the USADA website. “We desperately wish this investment was being made in the athletes who are currently training and competing the real and safe way. They are the role models this world so desperately needs and they are the ones who deserve our support.”Dr. Matt Fedoruk, USADA’s chief science officer, added, “These things aren’t just banned because they’re effective at making athletes stronger or faster. Many are banned because they’ve been proven to be dangerous for athletes, with some harmful side effects being potentially irreversible.”The International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency said in a joint statement, the Enhanced Games “are a betrayal of everything that we stand for” and “undermine the integrity of sport.”The 2026 event will stream free on Roku, Rumble, Twitch, Kick, and YouTube. Opening events start at 6:30 p.m. ET on May 24, with main coverage from 9 p.m.

Drug-Juiced Athletes Are Happy To Break Ultimate Taboo at Enhanced Games

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