The Enhanced Games
Why Not?
B. N. Dent
Prior to a recent finding, I had, foremost, known Peter Thiel to be a billionaire who was a co-founder of PayPal and an early investor of Facebook – a man involved with reputable businesses. Thus, it was to some surprise and amusement when I stumbled across a post headlining that Peter Thiel had recently invested in a drug friendly sports contest that is to be positioned as a reinvention of the Olympic Games – a sporting event where the use of performance enhancing drugs is not only allowed but encouraged. Well, in all of Peter Thiel’s past ventures, he would’ve had people telling him that he was crazy, and in many of his past ventures, he found great success. So, let’s not be too quick to eliminate the possibility of this idea’s future success.
Following my initial exposure, I began to dig deeper into this event, which I find very intriguing due to my astute interest in both sports and steroi… never mind. Officially called “The Enhanced Games” and set to take place in 2025, the event is spearheaded by Australian businessman Aron D’Souza, who has a background in law. In response to obvious health-related backlash from sports science specialists, the games have attempted to be marketed as a safe way to compete by ensuring that the use of performance enhancing drugs is under clinical supervision. In D’Souza’s reasoning behind the games, he states that it will allow athletes “to push the limits of humanity”. Inspired by this idea, other deep-pocketed investors such as Balaji Srinivasan, former Chief Technology Officer of Coinbase, and Christian Angermayer have also jumped on board. With this strong endorsement, from a financial perspective, it seems likely that the games could possibly proceed in 2025. However, one issue that The Enhanced Games still faces comes from attracting athletes to compete in the event. But, for the sake of things, let’s assume they are able to achieve this. Should the games go on?
Aron D’Souza, Founder of The Enhanced Games.
Ever the optimist, let’s look at some of the positive outcomes that could arise from The Enhanced Games. Firstly, with the free use of performance enhancing drugs, there will be a clear increase in the quality of athletic ability. From a sporting perspective, performance enhancing drugs can provide a plethora of improvements, including strength, reaction time, speed, stamina, and anticipation – all key contributors to an athlete’s proficiency. As observed in the sporting world, an increase in quality is almost directly proportional to a boost in viewer entertainment. Secondly, by pushing humans to their physical maximum and subsequently improving performance quality, it will allow us, and analysts, to view sports in a different light, likely resulting in newfound insights and areas of optimisation.
But does this increase in quality and possibly entertainment outweigh the potential harm that such an event could plague the sporting world with? In my opinion, no. Even if we were to disregard the main argument opposing the free use of performance enhancing drugs (i.e., the detrimental and potentially fatal impact that they can have on individuals’ health), I still believe that the rise in this phenomenon would be a net negative for sport on two premises. Foremost, I think that if performance-enhanced sports were to become popular, an uncomfortable environment would arise whereby, whilst some athletes would choose to jump ship, others would be hesitant and stay in their respective leagues. Thus, this would potentially result in top-level players being isolated from each other, therefore depriving us of being able to witness their rivalry. Furthermore, performance-enhanced sport would lead to unequal benefits for organisations that are financially prosperous, as affluent associations would have greater access to high-end drugs and steroids. Ultimately, this would intensify an already prominent issue, which is the disparity of wealth between sporting clubs that leads to unfair benefits.
Research has estimated that between 14-39% of current elite adult athletes have intentionally used performance enhancing drugs, so it may just be that The Enhanced Games is our current reality. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how this venture plays out and the implications it will have on the sporting world.