A new international sporting competition called the Enhanced Games has rocked the world of sports, where athletes will be allowed to use performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), find out more about the games and location
The Enhanced Games, dubbed the Doping Olympics, will not just permit the use of PEDs but encourage it.
What are the Enhanced Games dubbed as ‘Doping Olympics’, date, location, sports list and format
Peter Thiel and a group of venture capitalists are funding the Enhanced Games — an Olympic-style competition that allows performance-enhancing drugs.
Events include:
• Track and field
• Swimming
• Gymnastics
• Weight lifting
• Combat SportsThe 1st event will be in 2025. pic.twitter.com/NN1lSjRVfu
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) February 1, 2024
He’s the fastest man in the world and a proud enhanced athlete. He has broken Usain Bolt’s world record. The new Olympics are here, backed by VCs Christian Angermayer and Peter Thiel, where performance enhancements are allowed. https://t.co/OydUh3J6uw pic.twitter.com/P0zKpTzA4T
— Enhanced Games (@enhanced_games) January 31, 2024
Notably, the Enhanced Games will be open to athletes of all levels, while prioritizing the health and wellbeing of all competitors.
Billionaire Peter Thiel backs Enhanced Games
The competition was initially proposed back in early 2023, with the concept first coming from an Australian named Aron D’Souza. D’Souza is a venture capitalist and currently serves as the president of the private company behind the Games. As proposed by D’Souza, the Games will not just permit the use of PEDs but also allow banned performance technology such as the infamous swimming’super suits’ and currently banned running shoes.
Most notably, the event has managed to bring in an impressive array of investors. Among them, Peter Thiel, who is the billionaire co-founder of PayPal, stands out as the most impressive. Alongside Thiel are Balaji Srinivasan (former CTO of Coinbase) and Christian Angermayer (biotech investor).
Enhanced Games expected date and venue
According to the founder, D’Souza, the organizers are trying to host the inaugural Enhanced Games in mid-2025. There were initial plans to host the event in December 2024; however, this has become impossible.
Currently, the registration process for the event is set to open later this year. As of now, there is no fixed location confirmed for the first-ever Enhanced Games. However, unlike the Olympics, the competition will be set up in such a way to utilize pre-existing infrastructure. The event’s official site states that the games were designed so that they could be held at a Division One university campus if needed.
The scale will depend on funding and the location is planned to be a university campus or similar facility in the southern United States and Aron D’Souza, president of the organisation, said in early 2024 that he now had the equity capital to fund the first event.
Enhanced Games list of sports set to feature
As opposed to the Olympics, the Enhanced Games will feature quite a small list of sports. Notably, the organizers have chosen to remove team sports and focus on individual events across five categories: athletics, aquatics, combat, gymnastics, and strength. According to President D’Souza, over 900 athletes have already expressed their interest in competing.
Enhanced Games athletes to receive a base salary and prize money
Another key difference between the Olympics and the Enhanced Games is that every athlete competing in the latter will receive a base salary as well as compete for cash rewards. This compensation package will arguably prove attractive to many athletes who compete in underfunded sports.
Enhanced Games faces criticism from various quarters
Unsurprisingly, the upcoming proposed event has received lots of backlash from various quarters. Travis Tygart, who is the CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), described the event to CNN as follows:
A dangerous clown show, not real sport.”
Meanwhile, Anna Meares, who is a former Australian Olympic gold medalist and current Australian chef de mission, stated:
It’s a joke, to be honest.”
“Unfair, unsafe — I just don’t think this is the right way to go about sport.”
Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, who is a Russian doping whistleblower and subject of the documentary ‘Icarus’, called the event:
danger to health, to sport”
Meanwhile, Lord Sebastian Coe, who is the current head of World Athletics, stated:
No one within athletics takes the Enhanced Games seriously.”
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