The Enhanced Games Want to Let Athletes Dope Openly — and Las Vegas Is Hosting It

On May 24, a competition opens in Las Vegas that breaks the one rule every major sporting organization agrees on: athletes will be allowed — and in some cases encouraged — to use performance-enhancing drugs.[1]

The Enhanced Games is billing itself as "a new era of sport." Events include swimming, track and field, and weightlifting, with no drug testing and a $500,000 purse per event — $250,000 to the winner.[1] Athletes who break world records can earn up to $1 million.[1]

If that sounds like a stunt, the backers suggest otherwise. The competition is funded by Peter Thiel, crypto investor Christian Angermayer, and an investment firm run by Donald Trump Jr.[2] Founder Aron D'Souza, an Australian businessman based in London,[3] frames the project as an honest alternative to the hypocrisy of elite sport, where doping is widespread but officially prohibited.

How It Works

Athletes aren't required to use PEDs — natural competitors are welcome — but the competition removes the prohibition entirely. Steroids, testosterone, growth hormone, and other substances banned by WADA are all permitted.[4]

A select group of athletes will receive their PEDs through the Enhanced Games as part of what the organization calls a clinical trial, with all medical care provided.[1] Others can apply as independently enhanced athletes, using their own substances.

The only requirement? Pass a medical screening.[5]

What the Enhanced Games won't do is test for drugs.[3] No list of banned substances. No threshold that triggers disqualification, as long as the athlete clears their medical check. D'Souza has been upfront about this: he considers drug testing a failed system and isn't interested in replicating it.

The Backlash

The sporting world has responded predictably. Scientists have flagged safety concerns — encouraging PED use without long-term monitoring puts athletes at risk for cardiac events, liver damage, and hormonal disruption. Without testing, the organization can't track what athletes are actually taking or in what combinations.

Olympic officials have dismissed the project entirely.[4] WADA has declined to comment in detail, but the implication is clear: engaging with the Enhanced Games would legitimize a model that undermines their entire reason for existing.

Media coverage has leaned skeptical. The Las Vegas Sun ran an editorial arguing the event should be regulated as a medical experiment rather than a sporting competition.

The Case for Enhanced Sport

D'Souza's pitch isn't subtle: doping in elite sport is already pervasive, testing regimes are inconsistent and often politically motivated, and pretending otherwise insults the audience. The Enhanced Games, in this framing, isn't creating a problem — it's acknowledging one.

There's a version of that argument that has merit. Anti-doping enforcement has been plagued by scandals, from Russia's state-sponsored program to the inconsistent treatment of athletes across different sports and countries.[6] The system isn't clean. Everyone in elite sport knows it.

But here's where the argument breaks down. The leap from "the current system is flawed" to "remove all restrictions" skips over the actual reason doping is banned: athlete safety. Removing the prohibition without replacing it with meaningful medical oversight creates a competition where the most enhanced athlete wins, and the long-term health consequences become nobody's official responsibility.

D'Souza is right that the status quo is hypocritical. He's wrong that abandoning oversight is the answer.

What Happens in Vegas

The May 24 event will be the first real test of whether the Enhanced Games can exist as more than a provocation. Will competitive athletes actually show up? Will the performances be meaningfully different from what clean sport produces?

Will anyone get hurt?

The answers will determine whether this becomes a recurring spectacle or a one-off curiosity. Las Vegas has always been willing to host things that other cities won't. The Enhanced Games is betting that willingness extends to sport's most fundamental question: how far is too far?

References

1. Vanity Fair, "Inside the Enhanced Games, Where Athletes Compete on Steroids. And Growth Hormones. And Adderall.", 2026. Link

2. Forbes, "Pro-Doping Enhanced Games Valued At $1.2 Billion Before A Single Race", 2026. Link

3. Wikipedia, "Enhanced Games", 2026. Link

4. The Athletic, "Enhanced Games: Event for doped athletes backed by group who want to 'cheat death'", 2024. Link

5. The Conversation, "The outrage over the Enhanced Games ignores the risks many already accept in sport", 2026. Link

6. Muscle and Brawn, "The Enhanced Games: What It Is And Why It Matters", 2025. Link