Inaugural Enhanced Games Host Doping-Permitting Competition in Las Vegas

The inaugural Enhanced Games debuted on Sunday, May 24, at a $50 million arena located in a casino parking lot in Las Vegas. This event distinguished itself as the first sporting competition explicitly designed to permit and encourage participants to use performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). A wide array of substances, including testosterone, methenolone, nandrolone, human growth hormone, EPO, meldonium, modafinil, mixed amphetamine salts, clomiphene, anastrozole, levothyroxine, and liothyronine, were observed or discussed as being part of athletes' regimens.

Organizers stated their intention to challenge established sporting norms and promote a vision where individuals could achieve better and longer lives. The event offered millions of dollars in prize money for athletes capable of breaking world records. In contrast, critics labeled the competition an embarrassment, arguing that it glamorized hazardous substances and jeopardized the well-being of its participants.

The venue featured a six-lane, 100-meter track, a four-lane Olympic-length swimming pool, and a weightlifting platform. Advertisements for Enhanced brand products, such as injectable peptides and daily supplement powders, were displayed between events.

Australian swimmer James Magnussen, one of the first athletes to join the Enhanced Games, finished last in his two events in Las Vegas and did not break any world records. Notably, some athletes competed without using drugs. Hunter Armstrong, a 25-year-old American swimmer and triple Olympic medalist, won the backstroke by over a second. Similarly, non-enhanced US athlete Fred Kerley secured an easy victory in the men’s 100-meter sprint, commenting on his opponents, "Man, they gotta do better than that. They need to train a little harder, get on that shit a little bit more." Lukas Lakutsin, a Russian bodybuilder, acknowledged using testosterone replacement therapy but did not consider it a performance-enhancing drug due to his age. Jeremy Sigal, an influencer and author, identified himself as "natural" in his health. The official "protocol" for Enhanced athletes allowed for the use of only FDA-approved drugs, with individual athletes making the final decision on what, if anything, they would take.

According to MIT Technology Review, the event presented a libertarian thought experiment in action, though the observed outcomes indicated that non-enhanced athletes outperformed some of their enhanced peers in certain events.