Enhanced Games: Sports Event that Encourages Doping

The first Enhanced Games is scheduled to be held in the year 2024, where athletes will not be tested for performance enhancements. The time and venue haven’t been announced yet; however, it is disclosed that there will be five categories of games in the event – track and field, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics and combat sports.

According to its website, Enhanced Games is an alternative to the Olympic Games and seeks to be the “most efficient international sports event”.

Stressing upon an individual’s right to bodily autonomy, the president of the Enhanced Games, Aaron D’souza, remarked that “no government, no paternalistic sports federation, should be making those decisions for athletes—particularly around products that are FDA regulated and approved”.

Condemning the event, the Chief Executive of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), Matt Carroll, expressed that sport needs to be “clean and it needs to be safe for all athletes”. He also stated that the Committee considers the concept of such drug-enhanced games as both “dangerous and irresponsible”.