The Enhanced Games are taking place under a temporary venue built outside of Resorts World in Las Vegas, where the athletes are allowed to take performance enhancing substances in the pursuit of breaking world records.
The games feature seven men’s and two women’s events in swimming, weightlighting and track, with many of the participants having Olympic experience. Unlike the Olympics, the athletes are allowed to take an array of substances including human growth hormones and steroids.
The substances
Enhanced Games officials provided a list of the substances that are being used the most by the 42 participating athletes. Tests showed that 91 percent of athletes used testosterone, 70 percent used HGH, 62 percent used Adderall, 50 percent used metabolic modulators, which are used alongside anabolic steroids, 41 percent used erythropoietin and 29 percent used an anabolic steroid agent.
The substances were taken by athletes under medical supervision, and the athletes were screened regularly to ensure they were in good health to compete. The athletes’ protocol occurred in Abu Dhabi and was eight weeks in length, after the initially planned 12-week cycle was shortened, when the Iran war began affecting the United Arab Emirates, according to Enhanced Games co-founder and CEO Max Martin.
Mitigating some risks
The participating athletes will be studied for five years, to determine what if any, impact the PEDs have on their bodies, according the Dr. Guido Pieles, who serves as chair of the Enhanced Games independent medical commission.
“Of course, theoretically, I’ve heard and I discussed it with colleagues, there’s a long-term risk, particularly anabolic steroids,” Pieles said. “We know this. If you take them for two, three, four, five years, then your mortality goes up. But hang on, all these studies, that’s why we’re doing it here, have no information on doses. Of course, if I take 10 times the dose, it has been done in gyms, of course. And of course, it’s a huge health risk. These athletes had eight, it was a bit more than eight to nine weeks of enhancements. Even the literature that we have would really, really doubt that there are any long-term effects. However important, how do we investigate this?”
Las Vegas native and Olympic medalist swimmer Cody Miller, 34, said he’s seen the result from the study, losing 4 percent body fat and gaining six pounds of lean mass in about nine weeks. He noted he stopped doing the program about two weeks ago heading into the event.
The World Anti-Doping Agency condemns the Enhanced Games, categorizing it as dangerous and irresponsible.
“The health and well-being of athletes is WADA’s number one priority,” a WADA spokesperson said in a statement. “Clearly this event would jeopardize that as it seeks to promote the use of powerful substances and methods by athletes. Over the years, there have been many examples of athletes suffering serious long-term side-effects from their use of prohibited substances and methods. Some have died.”
“The beauty and popularity of sport is based on the ideal of clean and fair competition. These values must be protected. Athletes serve as role models and WADA believes that this event sends a dangerous message to young people around the world.”
Athletes are not required to take any of the allowed substances, but just four of the 42 participants are running clean, including sprinter Fred Kerley. The track star who won the 2022 world championship at 100 meters, is banned from competing in traditional events until 2027, after he missed required testing to run on the regular track circuit. Kerley is eyeing Usan Bolt’s world record of 9.58 seconds.
Rick Adams, chief sporting officer for the Enhanced Games, who formerly served on the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic committee, said athletes who aren’t taking PEDs are being tested by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
“This week, for example, USADA was in this building testing a non-enhanced athlete on multiple occasions,” Adams said. “We not only welcome that, we want to facilitate that; we’ll normalize in future events.”
The money
There’s a $25 million prize pool for the event, with first place in each event winning $250,000. Second place is $125,000, third nets $75,000 and fourth place wins $50,000. Any athlete that breaks a world record in men’s and women’s 100-meter sprint track event or the 50-meter freestyle swimming event will win a $1 million bonus. A world record broken in the other events will win a $250,000 bonus.
The venue
The temporary venue was constructed on the east side of Resorts World and stands 85 feet tall and is 251 feet across. The materials to build the structure were brought in on 48 semi-trucks of equipment.
There are over 1,000 staffers who helped construct the arena and are helping stage the event.
The Olympic-sized pool is 50 meters in length, has 365,000 gallons of water and took 13 hours to fill the pool. The pool is officially 79 degrees for the competitors that are participating in the open-air facility. The water will begin to be emptied as soon as the Killers play a concert to end the event on Sunday night.
The pool’s systems, including mechanical, electrical, heating, chemical, are built into two 20-foot shipping containers, which allows them to be brought in for quick short build and then taken out and stored effectively after the conclusion of the event.
There’s also a 100-meter track and an area for weightlifting, with each area being built to Olympic standards.
Crowd
There are expected to be 2,500 spectators in attendance for the event, but no tickets were put on sale for the Enhanced Games. The tickets were given to guests who were invited to attend the controversial event.
The crowd will be split up into general admission grandstands on one side of the competition area and into suite spaces located on the other side. All food and beverages are complimentary for guests during the event.
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.
