The 'Doping Games' financed by Trump's son

BarcelonaThey have been named Enhanced Games, which would mean some Enhanced Games. But whether they're an improvement is a relative question, since this sporting event scheduled for May 2026 in Las Vegas encourages the use of performance-enhancing drugs. A controversial idea founded in 2023 by Australian businessman Aron D'Souza has been financed by a venture capital fund backed by Donald Trump Jr., son of the US president, and billionaire Peter Thiel. A few days ago, the organizers announced, to promote the event, that Greek swimmer with Bulgarian roots Kristian Gkolomeev had broken the world record in the 50-meter freestyle, surpassing Brazilian Cesar Cielo's 2009 mark of 20.91 seconds with a time of 20.89 seconds. He achieved this while swimming alone and doped; an unofficial record, then.

The organizers' idea is to hold the Games in Las Vegas with three disciplines: swimming, track and field, and weightlifting. They will offer prize money to those who participate and large sums of money to those who break records. The organizers have explained that "athletes can choose to compete as natural or enhanced athletes," a euphemism they use to describe who is doping and who isn't. "And they can continue to comply with the World Anti-Doping Agency regulations once the effect wears off. It's their choice, as it should be." They argue that an adult can choose what to do. This is the theory of D'Souza, the driving force behind it. An Australian lawyer and businessman living in London, he explains that he got the idea after seeing how in gyms in the United States "everyone was taking substances to get stronger or feel better." "They do it legally, making decisions like adults. Why can't you do it while competing? We want to create as safe an environment as possible, and we want to push the limits of humanity as much as possible," he said in a statement to The Athletic.

Behind the Enhanced Games There's the obsession of people like D'Souza, who defines aging as a "disease" that must be "eradicated." He admits he dreams of never dying with the help of science, or at the very least, living old age with a strong body by taking whatever it takes. He wants to be immortal. "It's about cheating death, overcoming our bodies. I like to say that artificial intelligence was like science fiction just five years ago; until one person, Sam Altman, made it a reality with ChatGPT. Similarly, the idea of transhumanism—the fact that we can overcome our weak biological bodies—sounds like science fiction. It's something that changes the social psyche. And this will be the first Enhanced Games, when an athlete breaks the world record for the 100 meters, shatters it... The first question everyone will ask will be, 'What are they taking?' and 'How can I do it?' I think we need to treat aging, cure it, and ultimately solve it," he says.

"We're not interested in a live heart attack."

De Souza was an amateur cyclist but ended up with a thorn in his side as a young man, as he explains, he couldn't make the leap to the professional category because his rivals were doping. In fact, he takes advantage of the ethical flaws in professional sports to gain exposure. "Many athletes dope secretly, and doing so carries a risk. It's better to dope legally with doctors supervising everything," he says, referring to the numerous cases of athletes who doped in the 1970s in countries like the former GDR and ended up dying or suffering from chronic problems. De Souza has hired former Cayman Islands Olympic swimmer Brett Fraser to create the Games calendar and try to select athletes. Fraser, a three-time Olympian, says he has never doped, adding: "We're creating a better model for athletes to be improved. If we want to do this, we'll talk to doctors and scientists, but as for the details, I can't really talk about them as I'm not a medical professional. We'll do it properly, because if an athlete were to suffer a problem, an attack, we'd have a safer Games."

To promote themselves, they opted for a first exhibition, where the 31-year-old Gkolomeev stood out. He participated in the Paris Games (2024), where he finished fifth in the 50-meter freestyle. Last January, the swimmer began taking performance-enhancing drugs and began receiving training from Australian Brett Hawke, the coach who had worked with Cielo when he set the world record in 2009. Veteran Australian James Magnussen, 34, also accepted the challenge by doping and earning a million dollars in one fell swoop. In 2009, Cielo broke the record wearing a polyurethane full-body swimsuit, which would be banned weeks after the Brazilian's world record, because the fabric made a difference in the pool and was considered to alter the competition by being an external element that benefited whoever could wear it.

WADA opposes 'enhanced games'

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) issued a statement a few days ago declaring that its athletes' council is "firmly" opposed to the Enhanced Games, as this event "puts the safety of athletes at serious risk and fundamentally undermines the essential values of sport. These Games "represent a dangerous concept that ignores decades of medical evidence and the lived experiences of athletes harmed by doping," they said. WADA will try to inform athletes of the risks, offering to help those hesitant and tempted by money. "They need to be able to make informed decisions," their statement said. The Enhanced Games did not explain what substances were used, but said they were supplied "legally". Hovorov, 33, and Bulgarian Josif Miladinov, 21, have both entered breaststroke competitions.

According to Travis Tygart, CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), the Enhanced Games are a "clown show" and "not a real sport." Brent J. Nowicki, CEO of World Aquatics, the International Swimming Federation, says: "No one who participates in this event should ever be able to participate in any sport again. It goes against everything we're trying to prevent." De Souza has been looking for investors to raise a lot of money, taking advantage of the fact that in professional sports, the most famous people earn a lot, but in reality, Olympians tend to have low salaries and live on scholarships. Most professional athletes in sports like swimming or track and field cannot have savings, which is taken advantage of by the Games D'Souza to offer him a lot of money. "The Olympic Games will have to give athletes more incentives, or else many of them will opt for this Enhanced Games route," said British Olympic medalist Duncan Scott recently.

Right in the middle of the Olympic cycle leading up to the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, Donald Trump is in contact with the International Olympic Committee to hold a successful Games in three years, while his son promotes events that are contrary to the Olympic spirit. Trump Junior and his partners have invested in this spectacle, believing it can attract athletic audiences through its morbidity and the birth of a "new man." If the father wants to build a new country, the son wants to explore the paths to creating eternal men. As the organizers said when presenting the agreement with Trump Junior, "In Trump's America, the best we do is the impossible."