The Enhanced Games is the newest, and perhaps most controversial introduction into the world of sports in recent years

The new event founded by Australian businessman Aron D’Souza encourages the use of performance enhancing drugs under medical supervision. Such practices are banned in all sanctioned professional sports including Olympics and World Championships. The idea being to test the limits of the human body and push the boundaries of human performance. The Games were launched in Las Vegas announcing that the inaugural Games are due to take place in Las Vegas in May 2026. Athletes will initially compete in sprint swimming and weightlifting. It has attracted some respected figures from the world of swimming to take part, including Australian former world champion James Magnussen and Ukrainian world record holder Andrii Govorov.

The Games have garnered significant media attention following the announcement that one of its athletes, swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev, had swum a 50-meter freestyle time trial faster than the World Record held by Brazilian Cesar Cielo. Cielo set a time of 20.91 in 2009. Gkolomeev swum a time of 20.89 after a prescribed and supervised programme of performance enhancing drugs and specific sprint training, while also wearing a banned polyurethane body suit. He also did a time trial in a textile jammer that complies with current World Aquatics suit regulations swimming a 21.03 which is faster than anyone has gone without the use of the full-length body suits. His previous best time when competing cleanly was 21.44. As a result of this improvement, Gkolomeev is taking home $1million of prize money for beating the world Record, on top of the $100 thousand he earned for signing up to the Enhanced Games. This has led to questions of the Games’ ethics and risks of athletes’ health chasing the lucrative prize money on offer.

Concerns about athletes’ pushing the limits without medical supervision

Athletes may push the drug use too far in pursuit of the prize money, damaging their health. The strain the drug use can have on the brain, cardiovascular system and muscles is unknown but is being studied by UK and US anti-doping agencies. The Enhanced Games do have a team of doctors that examine and monitor the athletes to ensure safety when devising a prescription programme for them. But there will always be risks when taking performance enhancing drugs. The exact substances taken have been kept secret in order to prevent other athletes copying the regime without supervision, and due to patient doctor privacy laws.

World Aquatics and anti-doping organisations have criticised the Games citing the compromise on fair and equal sport and the responsibility athletes have as role models to the younger generation. World Aquatics have gone as far as banning everyone associated with the Enhanced Games from competing or coaching at World Aquatics sanctioned events. This is an understandable step for organisations who prioritise fair, clean and ethical competition.

While there is much criticism of the event and its ethics and practices there are some plus points

The biggest one being the injection of money into a sport that has long struggled to fund its athletes. While purists of the sport will say that they never got into the sport for money, ultimately athletes do need to make a living from their sport. Especially at the very highest level, as training is a full-time job and if the governing bodies or sponsors do not pay the athletes particularly well, it is understandable why the athletes are drawn to a possible $1million prize if they break a world record. Even the $100 thousand just for joining is pretty appealing for some athletes. Another point to consider is that the athletes are not forced to take performance enhancing drugs in order to compete. The Enhanced Games are allowing doping, not enforcing it. They can sign up and take home the $100 thousand dollars while competing as a clean athlete and accept the ban from World Aquatics. If they beat the world record they are still entitled to the $1million prize money. Whether World Aquatics recognise the swim as a world record is another question. Gkolomeev himself said in a statement that joining the Enhanced Games was purely a business decision after competing at 4 Olympic Games and every World Championships in between and not being paid well enough to live comfortably. Also consider the fact that athletes who are top 20 in the world in their event have to register with the relevant anti-doping agency where they will be at any given time and day in case of a random drugs test. The removal of having to worry about that is a plus point.

The Games may also allow some athletes to keep competing longer, not just because of the prize money but the use of performance enhancing drugs allowing them to train harder and recover faster too. The Games are almost a real-life experiment to see what the human body can be capable of when taken to the absolute limit of performance enhancement. Many will find this very exciting and interesting. This may even raise the profile and appeal of the sport of swimming to new heights and inspire the new generation of swimmers. But at the cost of fairness and equality, is it really worth it?

The biggest concern people have about the Enhanced Games is the example it sets to young up and coming swimmers who may believe it is now acceptable to use performance enhancing drugs or even that it is something they need to do in order to progress in the sport. This is a dangerous precedent if athletes start taking drugs unsupervised and competing in clean sports taking advantage and in essence cheating.

The long-term impact of the Enhanced Games is yet to be seen

The inaugural Games taking place in Las Vegas in 2026 will be the first time we get to see the impact and influence of the Games. Whatever the outcome it will be a very interesting spectacle.