Enhanced Games Debut Sparks Debate Over Drug-Permissive Sports Model

The debut Enhanced Games — branded by critics as the “Steroid Olympics” — closed with an unexpected mix of spectacle, business noise and awkward results that undercut the event’s central pitch: that sanctioned drug use could reliably supercharge human performance. The meet’s headline moment came from Greek sprinter Kristian Gkolomeev, who touched the wall in the men’s 50m freestyle in 20.89 seconds. That time is faster than the official world record and earned Gkolomeev a $1 million prize from organizers, a payoff that underscored the commercial ambitions behind the experiment. “The [Enhanced Games] last Saturday were not only a spectacular event–they were also a major business success,” investor and co-founder Christian Angermayer wrote on X, adding that the organization expects further partnerships. But several marquee results cut against the Games’ premise. American sprinter Fred Kerley — competing as a non-enhanced athlete — won the men’s 100m in 9.97 seconds, a strong time though still 0.39 seconds shy of Usain Bolt’s 9.58 world record from 2009. After the race Kerley reportedly taunted his enhanced rivals: “They gotta do better than that…They need to train a little harder, get on that shit a little bit more, and go a little harder some more,” he told SB Nation. In other headline upsets, Tristan Evelyn won the women’s 100m as a declared clean athlete against five enhanced competitors, and swimmer Hunter Armstrong beat two enhanced rivals to take the men’s 50m backstroke. The event is the end point of a campaign launched by Australian lawyer Aron D’Souza, who founded the Enhanced Games in 2024. His backers include high-profile figures from tech and finance: Donald Trump Jr., investor Peter Thiel, and Balaji Srinivasan, the former Coinbase CTO and prominent crypto commentator. D’Souza has argued that anti-doping rules are relics of an older ethos — “The Olympics are all about the past… They’re about this natural sports ethos, and they’re stuck in the past. We’re about the future, science, and progress,” he told Decrypt. Organizers leaned into Silicon Valley’s optimization culture by positioning the Games alongside biohacking and longevity narratives and even enlisted biohacker Bryan Johnson as a host. That tech-and-sports crossover, and the clear money behind it, is precisely what makes the Games newsworthy for crypto and venture communities: it’s an attempt to create a spectacle-driven, investor-backed alternative sports market. Still, the competition drew sharp pushback from the established sports and anti-doping world. The World Anti-Doping Agency and World Aquatics immediately rejected the event’s legitimacy and said performances will not be recognized as official records. Critics warned the spectacle risks normalizing dangerous drug use for profit and attention. “Everything about the enhanced games seems so deeply unserious and stupid,” author Brad Stulberg wrote on X. Sports scientist Steve Magness also posted a pointed breakdown suggesting many enhanced athletes underperformed relative to their personal bests. Organizers, meanwhile, framed the weekend as proof of concept. “Now that we have broken the ice and proven the Games can be done at the highest level, I expect many more partnerships to be signed in the months ahead,” Angermayer wrote. Whether the Enhanced Games become a new commercial frontier for biohacking and performance tech — or a short-lived provocation dismissed by regulators and purists — will depend on whether investors, athletes and governing bodies are willing to accept the ethical and legal trade-offs of a deliberately drug-permissive sports model.