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Ever wondered what it would be like if Olympic athletes were allowed to juice as much as they wanted?
Just imagine the 100-metre sprint being run by athletes who were not only allowed but encouraged to dip into any of the 400 prohibited substances deemed as ‘performance-enhancing’ by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Sounds crazy, right? Well, Aron D’Souza believes the Enhanced Games is inevitable and is now planning to stage a kind of steroid-Olympics where performance-enhancing drugs can shine.
At the Enhanced Games, envisioned by D’Souza as a televised stadium event, there would be no national teams or traditional four-year competition cycles. Initially, the games will feature events like swimming, track and field, and strength competitions, with future editions including combat sports like mixed martial arts and boxing.
D’Souza portrays the Enhanced Games as a “pioneering venture for human advancement”, particularly in the realm of anti-aging treatments. He reckons the event will offer both participants and spectators a chance to imagine themselves as the most enhanced, fine-tuned versions of themselves.
The ultimate goal, however, is to promote performance-enhancing drugs already used by athletes, with athletes collaborating with hospitals, research institutes, and biotech companies to create an event that blends the excitement of the Olympics with the rigor of a scientific symposium.
While it may seem controversial, the project has already received significant financial backing from high-profile investors, including billionaire Peter Thiel, known for his connections to the Trump administration, crypto investor Balaji Srinivasan, formerly of Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, and biotech and psychedelics advocate Christian Angermayer.
Even Donald Trump Jr joined in funding the idea, saying, “This is about excellence, innovation and American dominance on the world stage – something the MAGA movement is all about.”
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D’Souza told the Financial Times, “The world is beginning to see that we have a right, we may even have a duty, to become enhanced.”
“It’s not cheating, it’s not breaking the rules, it’s just inventing a new set of rules.”
The project has escalated significantly since the first idea came to D’Souza, and by 2024, his team was in the process of hiring several staff members who had worked at blue-chip sports companies, including Red Bull and Nike, and a major documentary with Ridley Scott’s production company was even being discussed.
The idea may sound reckless, but D’Souza believes that “Forty-four per cent of athletes are already doping.” Citing a lie-detector study commissioned by WADA, he says the evidence was “incontrovertible”.
According to him, performance-enhancing drugs were an open secret and “natural” athletics was a hypocritical idea peddled by men’s magazines.
“They showed these enhanced humans but lied about them: ‘Just eat chicken and broccoli and do six-minute abs at the gym and you’ll look like Adonis. No. He’s using anabolic steroids. Just be open and honest about it.”
So that’s why stomach crunches aren’t getting rid of my beer belly. Huh. Check out the interview D’Souza did with Joe Rogan below, where he explains the idea behind the Enhanced Games:
The first Enhanced Games are planned for the latter part of 2025, but there has been no official date set yet.
Regardless of what your feelings are towards this idea, we have to admit that it would be interesting to see how doped-up athletes’ performance compares to your ‘clean’ counterparts.
[Source: FinTimes]