A new sports competition featuring Olympic medalists will be held in Las Vegas on Sunday. The twist? Athletes may take performance-enhancing drugs.
The Enhanced Games, dubbed the “Steroid Olympics,” will feature 42 athletes competing in swimming, track and field, and weightlifting.
Although the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Olympic Committee have been highly critical of the announced 2023 Games, some see an opportunity.
Donald Trump Jr.’s investment firm 1789 Capital will join Peter Thiel on the tournament management company’s cap table and lead the 2025 Series B.
trading as enhanced groupwhose stock price rose about 35% in the last week ahead of the first game. However, it has fallen about 40% since listing on the New York Stock Exchange via a SPAC earlier this month.
“The Enhanced Games represents a future of real competition, real freedom, and real records to be broken,” Trump Jr. said in a statement announcing his participation.
What will happen?
The purpose-built arena will hold 2,500 spectators to watch dozens of athletes compete. You can also see a performance by rock band The Killers at the show after the event.
In addition to the standard training regimen that athletes follow for competitive events, most participants will also be using performance-enhancing substances.
Athletes may only use substances approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Organizers say participants who use such substances are monitored under strict medical supervision.
They have not released individual details of the athletes’ substance programs. However, the company said its competitors use testosterone, testosterone esters, human growth hormone, stimulants like Adderall, metabolic regulators used in conjunction with anabolics, erythropoietin, and anabolic steroids. All of these are prohibited by WADA.
And this event inspired several famous athletes to participate.
Among them is American Fred Curley, the 2022 100m world champion who won silver and bronze medals at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics. Australian swimmer James Magnussen, who won one silver and two bronze medals at the Olympics, will also be participating. U.S. Olympic gold medalist swimmer Cody Miller is also on the roster.
Sales of peptides
Beyond games, the company also has plans to sell performance-enhancing substances.
Enhanced introduced a variety of supplements in March, along with performance and longevity products such as hormone replacement therapy for men and women.
The company said in a statement that this is “the first step in the company’s plan to become a leading provider of personalized enhancement products that improve health, performance and recovery.”
There are also plans to provide access to peptides, whose use has been booming in recent years. Very popular GLP-1 drugs for weight loss, such as Wegovy, are peptide-based.
CEO Maximilian Martin said in March: “We understand how widespread the use of peptides is worldwide and we intend to invest significantly in this area.”
