Enhanced Games expose the limits of sport’s steroid experiment

A drug-friendly sports spectacle promises an inhumane revolution, but clean athletes, modest results and ethical concerns tell a very different story, writes Dr Binoy Kampmark.

TAKE STEROIDS, KID. You know you want it.

That was the stark message given to competitors in Las Vegas for the first games involving all drugs. Advanced GamesThe event, held in Las Vegas on May 24, 2026 and attended by 42 athletes, had the advantage of being open about the use of steroids in sports performance, at least in spite of its founder. Aron D’SouzaHe intended it to be much more than that.

The Australian entrepreneur saw this as a matter of freedom and choice. promising with “Break world records and fundamentally change the course of not only sport but humanity as a whole.”.

Here the process can be truly transparent, but also scientific, and technological skill can be transferred to athletic sport. Cheerfully, given that he has the support of the most dedicated billionaire misanthropes. Peter Thieland attracted the publicity interest of the US President’s son, Donald Trump Jr.There is some skepticism.

Thiel is as good a start for skeptics as anyone. His position on the human species ranges from chillingly ambivalent to unfathomably terrifying. In an interview with New York Times In an article published in June last year, he was asked the following question: “I would rather the human race survive.”.

Thiel hesitated; This was a point made clearly by the interviewer and the columnist. Ross Douthatbefore answering:

“Um, I don’t know. I… I…”

Finally, after thinking that there is “Many questions are hidden in this”Thiel offered to resign “Yes”.

What follows is a compelling portrait of Thiel, digital eugenicist and ardent transhumanist. People must be allowed to endure, but in a greatly modified form.

Thiel said:

“We want more than cross-dressing or changing your genitals. We want you to be able to change your heart, change your mind, and change your entire body.”

Before the games, the drug use rates of 36 of the participating athletes were made public. Some are part of a clinical trial listed clinicaltrials.gov. Two of the 36 people who clearly wanted to continue the experiment were included, while two of the six who were not included were not using performance-enhancing drugs.

Five categories of items, apparently all compliant with U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations, show that the system is unregulated and luxuriously libertarian. approved: testosterone esters, anabolic agents, peptides and growth factors, metabolic modulators and stimulants.

This sports licensing action is very much in line with the Trump Administration, which favors self-enrichment and plunder over the drudgery of regulation and bureaucracy.

Donald Trump Jr. said in a statement following the announcement of his support: vibrated:

“This is about excellence, innovation, and America’s dominance on the world stage; it’s about the entire MAGA movement.”

Officials of the late German Democratic Republic (GDR) can be seen voicing many similar comments, albeit behind a veil of authoritarian secrecy that involves pumping athletes full of devastating steroids in a sports commercial depicting a proletarian paradise. What is the price that irreversibly alters hormonal systems, hardens arteries, increases the risk of stroke or causes liver damage?

Sports idealists, or what remains of them, claim that these games provide a rich service of deception and fraud.

In their gloomy article published in December last year International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, Øyvind Sandbakk And Sigmund Loland situation:

‘We argue that many of the claims made by proponents of EG are flawed and that the use of scientific rhetoric is often misleading.’

The authors also claim that the games represent:

‘…a high-risk social experiment with potentially profound medical, social and ethical consequences that abandons the principles governing current elite sports: respect for athlete autonomy and health, fair competition and the pursuit of sporting and human excellence.’

Striking a conservative note, the authors are adamant that such principles should be revived rather than abandoned:

‘Unlike EG, strengthening anti-doping systems and investing in safe, evidence-based performance support are viable paths forward.’

The audience’s feeling that they were witnessing a major open-air laboratory enterprise was confirmed by the limited number of guests, limited to 2,500. What they achieved didn’t quite meet the stratospheric expectations of the organizers.

Of the 22 races allocated, one world record was set. Greek swimmer dressed in futuristic water suit Kristian Gkolomeev He won the 50-meter freestyle race in 20.81 seconds, 0.07 seconds shy of the official record. But commentators were quick to indicate He did something similar in his demonstration swim last year.

Things didn’t get any better when it was revealed that three athletes won the competitions despite not having any additional equipment. Fred Kerley He ran the 100-meter race in 9.97 seconds, won the race and pocketed $250,000. (The American’s clean victory encouraged him to say Other competitors will hit steroids with greater dedication: “They need to work a little harder, get on this shit a little more.”)

Barbadian female sprinter Tristan Evelyn She also beat her opponents in the women’s 100 meters in 11.25 seconds. US Olympic gold medalist Hunter Armstrong He won the 50 meter backstroke in 24.21 seconds.

crunchy evaluation What Advanced Games leaves us with is Byron HydeThe words of Dr., a researcher and philosopher of science, were devastating:

‘This was not a sports revolution, but rather a one-night event in Las Vegas that did not show any noticeable dramatic leap in athletic ability. ‘The ethical question of whether the risks are worth it has been answered by the market and the leaderboard, not by philosophers or regulators.’

There is a lot of skepticism about sports institutions and how athletes are treated in sports, some of it both harmful and justified. But spectators ultimately want to see a worthwhile show, regardless of the risks presented to the athlete.

The Enhanced Games replaced the oversight process by doctors and administrators who monitored the use of performance-enhancing substances with a general policing process against the ingestion of such substances in other competitions. Transhumanism’s obvious example in this field has failed. The clean one has proven to be more than capable winners.