An athletics event, called the ‘Enhanced Games’ – where competitors will not be subject to any testing for performance-enhancing drugs – is set to take place at the end of this year, having been bankrolled by a US billionaire, among others.
Peter Thiel one of the major funders of the event, dubbed ‘Olympics on Steroids’, which was first announced last year, to a largely negative reception.
Thiel is a co-founder of PayPal, Founders Fund and Palantir Technologies, with a net worth said to be more than $6 billion. He also funded wrestler Hulk Hogan’s 2016 lawsuit against Gawker Media – Hogan’s attorney in that lawsuit was Aron D’Souza, who just happens to be the founder of the Enhanced Games.
Other investors in the games include Balaji Srinivasan, a cryptocurrency investor, and Christian Angermayer, who is known as being a biotech investor.
The Enhanced Games website bills the event as “the Olympics of the future” adding: “When 44% of athletes already use performance enhancements, it is time to safely celebrate science.”
D’Souza has said the event will be a fair competition without drug testing. The Australian was inspired to form the games having seen how many people in US gyms were obvious steroid users.
The event was announced in June 2023, and the intention is for it to be annual games and to include track and field, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics and combat sports. Organisers have previously said that they are hoping for about 2,000 athletes to compete.
Traditional athletic events shun performance-enhancing drugs of any form, with the World Anti Doping Agency overseeing the testing of athletes in various sports. However, the temptation for athletes to use drugs is present, and there have been many high-profile cases of sportspeople being stripped of medals and titles won and being banned from competing in their sports for using banned substances.
