The inaugural Enhanced Games was a showcase of drug-fueled pro athletes attempting to chop down world records and personal bests. The competition, which took place in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 24, claimed it would redefine human limits. Instead, what the Games might have unintentionally proven is that training with performance-enhancing drugs doesn’t guarantee success.
Out of 22 events, only one world record was broken during the 5-hour event. Kristian Gkolomeev, clad in a futuristic, Enhanced-designed super suit, touched the finish of the 50m freestyle race at 20.81 seconds — 0.07 seconds under the standing world record set by Cameron McEvoy in 2026. The accomplishment won him $1 million in prize money.
“It was a great race, I had a lot of fun,” Gkolomeev said in a post-event interview. “It’s been such a blessing.”
Gkolomeev’s performance was impressive. However, while he swam the 50-meter freestyle faster than McEvoy’s world record time of 20.88 seconds, it’s unlikely to be ratified by any official governing body. Like most of the athletes who competed, Gkolomeev was using performance-enhancing drugs that would have disqualified him from any recognized national or international sporting event. On top of that, he was wearing a swimsuit banned in World Aquatics competitions since 2010.
While Gkolomeev’s 50m freestyle time made headlines, the impressive performances by non-Enhanced athletes didn’t get as much attention. Fred Kerley, Hunter Armstrong, and Trystan Evalyn all competed in events without performance-enhancing drugs and won several of them.
For Enhanced Games executives, the results were surprising.
The Enhanced Games: Personal Records & Unexpected Results
Despite Enhanced Games CEO Max Martin’s admission in a post-event press conference that he had “expected more world records,” organizers called the Games a success. Twenty-two personal records (PRs) were broken. $6.6 million was awarded to athletes. And one world record makes investors a lot happier than none.
Mitchell Hooper, a professional weightlifter from Canada, and Thor Bjornsson, a world-famous strongman from Iceland, competed head-to-head in an attempt to break the deadlift world record of 510 kg (1,124.36 pounds). Neither was successful, but both were proud of the event.
“More people have never paid attention to track, swimming, weightlifting, and strongman in history,” Hooper said in an interview following his last deadlift attempt. “From a sporting event perspective, I think the success is how many people are interested in what’s going on.”
Cody Miller, who won the men’s 50m and 100m breaststroke races, called his races “sh*t” despite setting a new personal record at 34. Still, he was thrilled to have won.
“Two wins, 500 grand. It’s way more than I’ve ever made in swimming, in one night, especially,” Miller said. “I feel pretty good right now. That’s gonna be invested in my kids’ future, that’s for sure.”
Non-Enhanced Athletes Held Their Own
Shockingly, the drug-free athletes dominated several events. For them, maintaining their eligibility for other events was one reason to compete “clean.” Using banned performance-enhancing substances would disqualify them from mainstream national and international events.
“I still haven’t fully retired from traditional sport, and so I just wanted to give myself the option in the event that I do decide to go back,” Trystan Evelyn, one of the non-Enhanced athletes, told GearJunkie.
Similarly, Hunter Armstrong, who also competed without enhancements, said he hopes to compete in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. However, the International Olympic Committee has “neither confirmed nor denied” whether they will allow him to compete after his participation in the Enhanced Games — even though he said he has taken no banned substances and has been repeatedly subjected to drug testing by the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) and passed.
Evelyn won both of the Women’s 100m sprint races. Armstrong won the Men’s 50m backstroke. And Olympic sprinter Fred Kerley (also competing as a non-Enhanced athlete) won both men’s 100m races.
“They gotta do better than that!” Kerley said of his competition after he’d won. “Get on that sh*t a little bit more!”
The Future of Sports?
The Enhanced athletes were supposed to undergo a 10-week clinical trial training and treatment period in the UAE ahead of the games. However, due to the conflict in Iran, it was cut to just 8 weeks. That meant that these athletes didn’t get to use as many performance-enhancing substances over as long a training period as initially intended. GearJunkie asked one of the spectators what could have made this competition better.
“I don’t think the athletes took enough drugs,” they responded.
Whether a longer doping period (or higher dosages) would have made a difference is impossible to guess. The Enhanced Games fell short of achieving the cascade of records that CEO Max Martin had hoped for. But what they unintentionally solidified is how impressive those WRs truly are. The amount of training, talent, dedication, and hard work behind them cannot be replicated easily, even by professional athletes undergoing an advanced regimen of performance-enhancing drugs.
That much, the athletes were more than willing to admit.
“We still train all year; we still get out of bed every morning when we don’t want to … Nutrition is still big, sleep is big, coaching is big, and showing up is big. The enhancements work, but if you don’t do all the other stuff too, it doesn’t matter,” Miller said.
“And let the haters hate,” he added. “The world is changing.”
