Why the Enhanced Games won’t work

If like me you’re convinced a lot of professional sportspeople are doped to the gills, perhaps you’re excited by the launch of the Enhanced Games – a proposed rival to the Olympic Games in which competitors will be encouraged to take as many performance-enhancing drugs as they can get into their bloodstream. 

After all, if so many are already juicing – and, crucially, not being caught – why not just be open about it? That’s the argument being made by Enhanced Games founder and president Aron D’Souza – bizarrely the man who helped tech billionaire Peter Thiel to bring down the Gawker website – who not only seeks now to make drugs in sport acceptable, but also to paint anti-doping authorities as enemies of progress.

‘When used correctly, the inclusion of performance enhancements can have significantly positive effects on the results of training and exercise routines. Simply put, performance enhancements augment the effects of training,’ reads a statement from D’Souza on the Enhanced Games website. 

‘After years of oppression, we are seeing a push-back against the anti-science dogma purported by the incumbent sporting leagues.