The Enhanced Games — a one-night, privately funded sports event that allows performance-enhancing drugs — takes place Sunday in Las Vegas and has become a flashpoint in the debate over safety, sport and commercialization.
What the event is: Organizers bill the Enhanced Games as an experiment in letting “elite athletes push the limits of human performance.” The competition will be staged in a custom-built arena at Resorts World Las Vegas with a four-lane, 50-meter pool, a six-lane sprint track, a weightlifting platform and a strongman deadlift showdown. More than 40 athletes are entered across swimming, sprinting, hurdling and weightlifting events.
Money and incentives: The company behind the Games, the publicly traded Enhanced Group, says the total prize pool is $25 million. Each event has a $500,000 purse with $250,000 for first place. Organizers also promised an extra $1 million if an athlete breaks the world record in the 100-meter sprint or the 50-meter freestyle — though such marks would not be recognized by official governing bodies because the competition does not follow standard anti-doping rules.
Drug policy and medical claims: Unlike the Olympics and other global competitions that follow the World Anti‑Doping Agency (WADA) prohibited list, the Enhanced Games allows athletes to use substances that are normally banned, including testosterone, human growth hormone and stimulants. Organizers say the drugs used in the program are FDA-approved and prescribed, administered under personalized protocols and monitored by medical and scientific commissions. Enhanced is also selling related products and plans to document drug effects on athletes as part of its research and commercial strategy.
Who’s backing and running it: The event has drawn high-profile financial backing, including 1789 Capital (a firm associated with Donald Trump Jr.) and investors such as Peter Thiel. The Games were founded by Aron D’Souza; Max Martin is the company’s CEO and has helped lead the launch.
Which athletes will compete: Notable entrants include U.S. Olympic swimmers Cody Miller and Hunter Armstrong, British swimmer Ben Proud, and U.S. sprinter Fred Kerley. Kerley and Armstrong have said they will compete without performance-enhancing drugs at this event. Most other athletes reportedly trained with Enhanced in Abu Dhabi as part of the company’s study.
What the company disclosed about use: In a pre-event update, Enhanced said large shares of athletes used particular substances: about 91% used testosterone or testosterone esters, 79% used human growth hormone, and 62% used stimulants such as amphetamines or prescription stimulants. The company has not disclosed which individual athletes used which drugs.
Expert concerns and criticism: Medical researchers, anti-doping officials and sports bodies have strongly criticized the Games. They warn that “medical oversight” cannot eliminate the short- and long-term health risks of high-dose or off-label use of performance-enhancing drugs. Experts point to evidence linking substantial steroid and hormone use to cardiovascular problems and other harms. Dr. Aaron Baggish, a physician and sports-medicine researcher, cautions that FDA approval for a drug does not guarantee safety when it’s used in ways or doses not covered by that approval, and that short-term absence of obvious harm does not mean there are no long-term consequences.
Institutional reactions: The U.S. Anti‑Doping Agency’s CEO called the event a dangerous, profit-first spectacle. WADA, the International Olympic Committee and the International Federation of Sports Medicine have also condemned or expressed deep concern about the games. Those organizations argue the event undermines the principles of fair and safe sport and that the proposed medical supervision is insufficient to mitigate risks.
Organizers’ defense: Enhanced’s leadership says their approach aims to reduce the harms of unregulated doping by administering substances under clinical supervision, and that transparency and research are preferable to clandestine practices. They frame the Games as exploring athletic enhancement in a responsible, scientifically monitored way.
Takeaway: The Enhanced Games will be watched closely, not only for the athletic performances and the sizable prize money, but for what the experiment reveals about safety, ethics and commercial incentives when elite sport and pharmaceutical enhancement are combined. Supporters say it’s a new frontier for performance and science; critics say it risks athletes’ health and undermines established anti-doping standards.