Doping-friendly: Experts aghast at ‘Enhanced Games’

Unlike the athletes at the Paris Olympics competing this month, participants of the planned Enhanced Games will be encouraged to take advantage of medical advancements to break world records. —photo by Olympia de Maismont/Agence France-Presse

PARIS, France — Athletes at the Paris Olympics later this month will be tested for performance-enhancing drugs, but at a competition plotting to rival the Games, doping will be the point.

The Enhanced Games, currently planned for late next year, will not test competitors for drugs but instead encourage them to take advantage of medical advancements to break world records.

The organizers say that by freeing athletes from the tyranny of antidoping agencies and embracing technology, the Enhanced Games aim “to safely evolve mankind into a new superhumanity.”

READ: 11 swimmers in doping scandal named in China team for Paris Olympics

But researchers who have studied the effects of performance-enhancing drugs told Agence France-Presse (AFP) they fear the Games will push athletes to dope at such extreme levels they could risk heart attack, stroke or even death.

It remains unclear if the Enhanced Games will actually be held at all. World Athletics president Sebastian Coe has dismissed the whole idea as “bollocks.”

But momentum seems to be building after retired Australian Olympic swimmer James Magnussen signed up earlier this year and the competition announced millions of dollars in funding from investors including US libertarian billionaire Peter Thiel.

‘Juice to the gills’

Astrid Kristine Bjornebekk, a researcher at Oslo University Hospital, said she was shocked to find out there was even a chance this “extremely dangerous” idea could become reality.

Bjornebekk, who has studied how anabolic steroids damage the brains of weightlifters, warned that the Games would “trigger use with no boundaries.”

Illustrating how the concept could incentivize such use, Magnussen told a podcast he will “juice to the gills” to get the $1 million (920,000 euros) on offer for breaking the 50-meter freestyle world record.

As well as swimming, the Games also plan to host track and field events, gymnastics, weightlifting and combat sports.

Bjornebekk warned that mixing steroids and combat sports such as mixed martial arts “significantly escalates” the risk of someone dying during the competition.

To avoid such risks, a spokesperson for the Enhanced Games told AFP that all athletes will be “continually supervised” once they sign up.

This will include health checks, psychological screening and monitoring using new tech such as a “real-time portable echocardiogram,” the spokesperson said.

However, Dominic Sagoe of Norway’s University of Bergen, who has led research finding that one in three steroid users become addicted, warned the consequences of a successful Enhanced Games “could spill into society.”

Influence on kids

He feared that children inspired by their sporting heroes could seek out steroids, or that ’roid rage-induced violence by aspiring athletes could be pushed into the streets.

“We cannot even fathom the consequences,” he said. “It’s not something to laugh at.”

Anabolic steroids would likely be the most commonly used drug at the Games, the experts said.

Excessive use of these steroids has been found to cause liver or kidney damage, high blood pressure and cholesterol, infertility, mental health problems, and a higher risk of cancer.