The Olympic Games have had two incarnations: the Ancient Greek Olympics and the Modern Olympic Games. But a third evolution is looming — one where athletes will be compensated fairly, sponsored by brands, and juiced up with performance-enhancing substances by scientists striving to create “superhuman” competitors.
“We’re reinventing the Olympics for the 21st century, for an era of science and technology, where we can push human achievement and boundaries,” Dr. Aaron D’Souza, the president of the Enhanced Games, told GearJunkie. “I don’t think of this as a company or as a business. I think of this as a social, political, and scientific movement that will inevitably lead to superhumanity.”
Since the 1968 Games in Grenoble, France, Olympic athletes have been tested for both performance-enhancing drugs like anabolic-androgenic steroids as well as illegal narcotics. It has become the global standard in all competitive sports to regulate drug use strictly.
In contrast, the Enhanced Games will allow athletes to use any drug or substance they want. Athletes will surround themselves with a team of their own choosing, including scientists, physical therapists, trainers, medical advisors, and more. Their health will be closely monitored. Their performance metrics will be closely tracked, and they’ll be free to test their limits and those of the human body.
However, not everyone fully supports this experimental endeavor. Some critics believe that this event will glorify drug use and endanger the athletes. They argue that there are serious risks in both the short-term and long-term when it comes to using performance-enhancing drugs, and that this format of competition could seriously limit both athletes’ physical and career potential.
D’Souza isn’t phased by the doubters, though. In fact, he sees them as a major inhibitor to human potential and scientific progress in this field.
“Why shouldn’t we have the opportunity to overcome our biological limits and become extraordinary?” D’Souza said. “So much scientific progress has been held back by a bunch of sports bureaucrats.”
Enhanced Games: Every Year, No Nations
D’Souza is a serial entrepreneur, author, attorney, and Ph.D. who sees other big problems with the Modern Olympic Games — problems that he plans to fix. First and foremost, he said, the Enhanced Games will be held annually instead of every 4 years. That will provide more opportunities for engagement, a more consistent stage for athletes to compete on, and more opportunities to monetize the games.
Second, athletes will not be there to represent nations but to represent themselves. D’Souza likened it to tennis or Formula 1 racing, where athletes compete as individuals instead of state-sponsored competitors.
Unlike the Olympics, the Enhanced Games will also only play host to five categories of sport: swimming, track and field, weight lifting, gymnastics, and combat. D’Souza said he and his team chose those categories very mindfully because they’re the most viewed Olympic events and also because they require the least amount of infrastructure.
“This avoids the core problem about the Olympic Games, which is that they build a dozen stadiums, and they throw them away after two weeks,” D’Souza said. “We’re going to avoid that problem by focusing on the sports that have the lowest level of infrastructure requirement.”
It’s Not Cheating, It’s Competing
James “The Missile” Magnussen is a retired Olympic swimmer from Australia. He’s not only won eight gold, five silver, and three bronze Olympic Medals, but he is also a two-time world champion in the 100m freestyle race and has held world records in that event. He retired in 2018.
But he’s making a comeback for the Enhanced Games. Though Magnussen is currently the only publicly known athlete signed on, D’Souza claims others have committed to compete.
Magnussen was always a clean competitor. However, he said he’s long been intrigued by the idea of how far the human body could be chemically pushed.
“Are we near the limits of our athletic potential, or is there room for improvement?” Magnussen asked. “That’s something that I’ve queried and spoken about throughout my career.”
Magnussen points out that using performance enhancers to gain an edge in competitive sports has always been a practice. It’s become stigmatized, though, because many performance enhancers are prohibited. With the format of the Enhanced Games, he sees a much more fair competition. You can’t cheat this system, he said.
Take the doping scandal that erupted around the Chinese Olympic swimming team prior to the 2024 Paris Games or the Russian Olympic doping scandal that resulted in the nation’s suspension from the 2017 Games. Controversies like those won’t happen at the Enhanced Games. According to D’Souza, there will be no drug testing or restrictions of any kind.
And when athletes don’t have to hide what they’re taking, Magnussen believes it will make competition safer, too.
“There’s nothing to hide. There’s no one doing dangerous things in the shadows,” Magnussen said. “It’s all open, honest, safe, medical, and creates an even playing field for everyone, which I really like the idea of.”
Magnussen said that’s the biggest thing people will have to wrap their heads around: Using substances isn’t cheating. It’s competing.
Idolizing Drug Users?
Predictably, D’Souza and the Enhanced Games have critics. U.S. Anti-Doping Association (USADA) chief Travis Tygart has publicly denounced the concept. He told CNN Sport that the idea was “a dangerous clown show, not real sport.”
“No one really wants our children growing up idolizing unbridled drug use in sport,” Tygart said. “Even if some profiteers think otherwise.”
Tygart offered GearJunkie this statement on the Enhanced Games: “We are all for disrupting ineffective systems to better protect athletes, and the current [World Anti Doping Association] anti-doping program cannot remain as the status quo as it is failing athletes. But throwing in the towel is not the answer.”
Julian Woolf, a Ph.D. assistant professor at the University of Illinois’ College of Applied Medical Sciences, is also skeptical of the Enhanced Games. He studies the role of sport in human development and augmentation and doesn’t think that allowing athletes to do drugs guarantees record-breaking performances.
“It is a truism that many [records are] broken in training, but attempting to get everything right on the day is a challenge,” Woolf said. “Having unrestricted drug use does not remove that challenge, and an assumption of the Enhanced Games is that if athletes have unrestricted drug use, it will lead to world-record performances. It won’t be that simple.”
Furthermore, Woolf doesn’t think that having teams of scientists and medical personnel on hand makes this event safer for athletes. Many of the substances they might be using have little research behind them, and others have been shown to have negative long-term health effects, like anabolic steroids.
“Having unrestricted access does not necessarily mean it will be safe, especially if athletes take large dosages of multiple substances,” he said. “Moreover, people’s reactions to drugs are variable, and not everyone responds the same.”
Finally, there is the issue of legality. Tygart pointed out to CNN that these games might be illegal in many U.S. states and even at a national level. Anabolic steroids are classified by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) as a Schedule III substance. That means they are only legally available through a prescription from a physician.
Without any drug testing or substance regulation, Tygart suggested athletes could be breaking laws.
Who Will Compete?
When asked what kind of athletes will be attracted to compete in the Enhanced Games, Magnussen said it will start with athletes like him. But as the event grows, he expects that to change.
“I think, initially, you’ll get athletes at the back end of their career or newly retired. Because it’s an opportunity to prolong your career,” Magnussen said. “But I think as we move forward, athletes in their prime will come across without any trepidation.”
Woolf, however, disagreed that these games would be attractive to truly elite athletes. Using substances that are prohibited in more mainstream competitive circuits means you disqualify yourself from competing in almost any other sports event. It could jeopardize an athlete’s physical and career potential. He thinks the Enhanced Games will have to draw from a pool of much less talented competitors.
“You can’t make a racehorse out of a donkey,” he said. “I suspect a more likely scenario is athletes who are or were good but are not truly elite but have charismatic personalities will participate. The viewer will then be subject to seeing a product that is entertaining but not necessarily world-class.”
Compensation: Sponsorships & Beyond
Leveling the competitive playing field isn’t the only way the Enhanced Games aims to make elite sports competitions fairer. Competitors at the Enhanced Games will actually be compensated like professional athletes.
That’s in stark contrast to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules for the Olympic Games.
“Guess how much the [IOC] pays me as an Olympian?” Magnussen asked, a hint of vitriol sneaking into his tone. “Nothing. Nothing for a gold, nothing for a world record. I get paid nothing. So this is going to be so much more fair.”
Enhanced Games athletes will also have a lot of leeway and opportunity to promote sponsors. Magnussen believes brands will line up to support athletes like him. D’Souza said he’s getting calls from potential event sponsors on a daily basis.
“The reality is that the fastest people in the world will no doubt be at the Enhanced Games. And so if you’re [a brand like] Nike, you don’t just want to sponsor the Enhanced Games. You sort of have to,” D’Souza said. “I think brands that would normally sponsor UFC or the X Games or more extreme sports will start to filter into athletics and swimming through these games.”
Big Pharma also represents big sponsorship opportunities. Just like the largest names in the motor industry want to have their brand of vehicle competing in Formula 1, pharmaceutical companies will want athletes competing on their substances, D’Souza said. It isn’t beyond the scope of reality to imagine pharma-sponsored teams at these games.
“This is the ultimate avenue for showing the effectiveness of their products,” D’Souza pointed out. And beyond that, it will also be the largest platform for research on performance-enhancing drugs to have ever existed.
R&D: One Gigantic Study
From square one, D’Souza has seen the Enhanced Games as a stage for scientific research. It isn’t just for entertainment. These competitors are going to be lab rats, in a sense, testing new substances and regimens of previously prohibited chemical enhancers. D’Souza plans on collecting data throughout the competition and then using that to publish possible studies.
“The core of this project has always been a very rigorous scientific effort,” D’Souza said. “We’ve always sought to make this a very important scientific project because, ultimately, an athlete is going to break world records. And the first thing everyone is going to say is, ‘What are they on, and how do I get it?'”
D’Souza expects the Enhanced Games to create immense consumer demand for enhancement products. That could, in turn, draw more money and more interested partners. It becomes a positive feedback cycle, he said, which will continually result in better, more effective, and safer compounds.
“I think the conclusion of that effort is where aging becomes a disease that we can treat here and eventually solve,” D’Souza said.
The Enhanced Games: ‘Sit Back and Enjoy the Ride’
Details surrounding the location and date of the first Enhanced Games are still under wraps. But D’Souza said they will be revealed at an “Apple-style keynote announcement” sometime in December 2024 or January 2025. The goal is to host the first Enhanced Games next year, and he wants them to be available for everyone to watch on one of the big streaming platforms. Despite his criticisms, Woolf said he would be tuning in too.
Magnussen, for his part, has moved from Australia to Los Angeles to start training and preparation and “to be closer to the action,” he said. He’s excited to be among the first wave of athletes to compete in these norm-shattering games.
“Just sit back and enjoy the ride,” he said; it’s going to be a wild one.
