An Australian businessman has launched a premier sports competition called the ‘Enhanced Games’ this week, designed to rival the prestige and heritage of the Olympic Games. The only difference? There’s no drug testing of any kind – permitting athletes from all over the world to compete in the Enhanced Games whilst openly taking performance-enhancing drugs, in an attempt to obliterate existing world records and “reach their full potential.”
There was nothing quite like the sensational sight of Usain Bolt’s first Olympics in the Beijing 2008 Games. A relatively unknown athlete to the everyday fan – unless you’re particularly across the world of athletics – Bolt entered the Games as the favourite for the 100m, having set a world record time of 9.72s in New York earlier that year.
Entering the arena, fans all over the world marvelled at Bolt’s physique, his confidence and undeniable aura. Standing nearly 2m tall, Bolt eclipsed the competition in more ways than one that day, winning Gold in his maiden Olympic Games, setting a new world record of 9.69s. Bolt, the Olympian, had arrived.
Yet according to Dr Aron Ping D’Souza, President of the newly-launched Enhanced Games, Usain Bolt, the fastest man in history, had not yet reached his full potential.
Together in a consortium of Australian athletes and medical professionals, D’Souza has set out a visionary plan to introduce the next stage of elite sport, away from the “corruption” that exists within the current sporting landscape; one that encourages the use of performance-enhancing drugs such as anabolic steroids and controversial gene transfers to “help athletes reach the true peak of their athletic ability.”
It’s a controversial take, to say the least, but D’Souza’s vision claims to put the welfare and financial stability of the athlete first, pushing back against “years of oppression” by the IOC, highlighting the disparity in wealth between the athletes and Games organisers.
The announcement has been met with widespread criticism from sports body officials, with many claiming that the use of performance-enhancing drugs sets a very dangerous precedent. Australian Olympic Committee CEO Matt Carroll said on Monday: “We know next to nothing about this organisation, but sport needs to be clean and it needs to be safe for all athletes. The Australian Olympic Committee believes the concept of a drug-enhanced Games is both dangerous and irresponsible.”
WATCH how the Enhanced Games claim to have an enhanced athlete that has beaten Usain Bolt’s 100m world record below.
According to its website, the Enhanced Games would host five sports categories: athletics, swimming, gymnastics, combat sports such as wrestling, and weightlifting and would be held at Division One universities that boast existing infrastructure, to avoid the superfluous costs of recent Olympic Games.
RELATED: Why Professional Sports Is Better With Doping
There’s also an official Enhanced World Records, celebrating a “cohort of brave athletes” that have won Olympic medals and set world records, all under the influence of performance-enhancing drugs. Within the list sits shamed sprinter – and second fastest man of all time – Tyson Gay, who was stripped of his London 2012 Olympic medals on anti-doping charges. Lance Armstrong also appears on the list from 2005, who achieved the highest recorded pace in Tour Cycling following his sixth consecutive Tour de France.
“The International Olympic Committee has committed itself to vilifying enhanced athletes. Each Olympiad, another cohort of brave athletes sets new world records, only to have their medals revoked, their careers suspended, and their names dragged through the mud. It is time to end this oppressive cycle.”
Enhanced Games
The controversy surrounding the proposed new competition is clear; sport is meant to be fair for all who compete, celebrating the achievements of a select few who stand unopposed at the top of their disciplines. The use of anabolic steroids feels dirty, like the moving of the goalposts or a fast track to the finish line.
The undeniable sense of intrigue does not outweigh the underlying fears of enhanced competition, but it certainly piques new interest were we to witness the full potential of what is humanly possible.