The U.S.-based doping-approved competition “Enhanced Games” is nothing more than a human experiment that leads athletes to destruction — the fear as told by an Olympic silver medalist and a physician

Masahiro Kami, M.D., Ph.D. President, Medical Governance Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan

Recently, it was announced that the “Enhanced Games” will be held in Las Vegas, USA, in May 2026.

Participants may take part as subjects in clinical trials.

Events such as sprinting, swimming, and weightlifting will be held, but what is particularly noteworthy is that athletes can choose from three options:

1.     participating naturally without using any drugs,

2.     participating under their own enhancement protocols, or

3.     participating as subjects in clinical trials using drugs that are still under development by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

In other words, doping is permitted—an outright rejection of the norms of the sports world.

Let me first explain the basics of doping.

Its history is long; it has existed since the dawn of the modern Olympic Games, when substances such as the stimulant strychnine, as well as morphine and cocaine, were used. After World War II, amphetamines were introduced into sports, allowing athletes to mask fatigue and achieve performance levels beyond their limits.

The effects are tremendous. In August 2004, the New England Journal of Medicine published an article titled “Tainted Glory — Doping and Athletic Performance.” It warned that “the performance-enhancing effects of drugs surpass all non-pharmacological methods offered by modern sports science—such as specialized training techniques, nutritional management, and biomechanics. In other words, athletes who use such drugs form a separate ‘species’ of competitors whose abilities exceed the natural limits of the human body, thereby threatening the ethics and fairness of sport.”

Secret records from East Germany noted that anabolic steroids (muscle-enhancing drugs) could reduce 100-meter sprint times by up to 0.7 seconds, shave several seconds off performances in 400- to 1500-meter races, and increase distances in throwing events by several to more than ten meters.

A well-known example of dramatic changes in performance before and after doping is the case of track athlete, Ben Johnson.

Three categories of substances are designated as doping

Currently, the substances designated as doping agents fall into three categories: erythropoietin, anabolic steroids, and growth hormone (including insulin-like growth factors).

Erythropoietin promotes the production of red blood cells, increases oxygen-carrying capacity, and improves endurance; therefore, it has been widely used in events such as long-distance running and cycling.

Anabolic steroids increase muscle mass and strength, leading to frequent use in weightlifting and throwing events.

Meanwhile, growth hormone—also called a “recovery and rejuvenation” substance—promotes recovery from fatigue, regenerates muscles damaged by training, and stimulates bone growth. For these reasons, it had been used across a wide range of sports.

The competitions adopted for the upcoming Enhanced Games consist exclusively of events in which doping has historically been considered advantageous. This makes the organizers’ intentions clear.

The problems with doping lie not only in undermining the fairness of competition, but also in harming athletes’ bodies. Especially, regarding the latter, numerous cases and research findings have been reported.

A famous early example is the death of British cyclist Tom Simpson during the 1967 Tour de France, following amphetamine intoxication. It is said that extreme heat, a grueling ascent, and gastrointestinal issues compounded the situation.

This incident brought widespread attention to the dangers of doping in the world of sports and led to the introduction of doping tests at the Tour de France and the Olympic Games starting in 1968.

From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, the use of erythropoietin spread among professional cyclists, and multiple cases of sudden death from heart attacks and other causes were reported. On May 19, 1991, The New York Times reported that at least 18 European professional cyclists had died between 1987 and 1991 for reasons linked to erythropoietin.

Injecting erythropoietin increases red blood cell levels and raises blood viscosity. As a result, blood vessels may become obstructed, leading to myocardial infarction or stroke, and even death. However, because clear causal relationships cannot always be proven, the number of deaths is likely underestimated.

Anabolic steroids can cause cardiovascular problems such as myocardial hypertrophy, arrhythmias, and heart failure; liver dysfunction; reduced sexual function; and psychological instability (including aggression and depression). Long-term use increases the risk of addiction and sudden death.

Doping drugs leading to the murder of wife and child

The impact on mental health is particularly severe.

According to a study published in Scientific Reports in June 2022 by a research team at New York University, a survey of 492 male bodybuilders aged 18–47 found that users of anabolic steroids (154 individuals) had a 2.5 times higher risk of exhibiting psychopathic traits (a personality tendency characterized by a lack of empathy and guilt, emotional coldness, and self-centeredness), a 3.1 times higher risk of illegal drug use, and a 1.8 times higher risk of problematic sexual behavior, compared to non-users (338 individuals).

In 2007, Canadian professional wrestler Chris Benoit murdered his wife and child before taking his own life. Postmortem tests detected high concentrations of anabolic steroids in his body, and he was diagnosed with steroid-induced psychopathic traits.

As these examples show, doping causes a variety of health harms. From a medical standpoint, regulating doping is entirely reasonable in order to protect athletes’ health. However, doping never truly disappears.

Most recently, at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the International Testing Agency (ITA) collected 6,130 samples and conducted 4,770 tests. As a result, approximately 39% of all athletes—4,150 individuals—were tested, and doping violations were confirmed in 5 cases during the Games and more than 40 cases in the six months leading up to the event.

Outside the Olympics, the ITA reported that in 2023 it investigated 485 potential anti-doping rule violations and imposed sanctions in 168 cases. These are likely only the tip of the iceberg.

In the world of doping, whenever a new testing method is established, new drugs are developed to evade it—an endless game of cat and mouse.

What does the Olympic silver medalist think?

When I spoke with Tomohiro Nagatsuka, silver medalist in the team sprint cycling event at the Athens Olympics, he said, “In tests conducted immediately after competitions, new drugs are often not yet included among the substances being screened, so the results come back as ‘negative.’ In later tests, however, medications used to flush out banned drugs—such as diuretics—or metabolic byproducts of new drugs may be detected.”

He also noted, “In cycling, when new banned substances are announced and regulations are tightened, race speeds can suddenly drop.”

According to him, athletes become trapped in doping because victory brings money and fame. Nagatsuka explained, “Many athletes take a detached view and think that even if their doping is discovered after retirement and their records are voided, it doesn’t matter as long as they’ve already earned enough.”

Lance Armstrong, who won the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005 and was celebrated as a hero for overcoming cancer, is a prime example. Suspicion had surrounded him throughout his career, but no proof had been found.

In 2012, based on extensive testimony and investigation, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) determined that he had engaged in doping and stripped him of all titles earned after August 1, 1998. Permanently banned from the world of professional cycling, he admitted to doping in a television interview in 2013.

What kind of athletes are likely to participate in the upcoming Enhanced Games? I believe that athletes who have lost their honor for various reasons will take part in pursuit of money. This is because the prize money offered by the Enhanced Games is extremely large.

A maximum of 500,000 dollars is awarded per event, and if a world record is broken in the 100-meter sprint or the 50-meter freestyle, a bonus of 1 million dollars is paid.

The organizers will presumably generate revenue through broadcasting rights and similar sources for the Enhanced Games, part of which will be redistributed to the athletes.

So then, who exactly is Aaron D’Souza, the organizer?

He is an entrepreneur from Australia. After graduating from the University of Oxford, he founded Sargon, a tech company serving the pension industry, and built his wealth by selling his equity stake in 2018.

D’Souza is well known for supporting professional wrestler Hulk Hogan’s defamation lawsuit against Gawker Media. The lawsuit ultimately led to Gawker’s bankruptcy and was criticized as a threat to freedom of the press.

Among the other investors is Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook. He was also a co-supporter of the aforementioned lawsuit against Gawker Media, and he has repeatedly expressed skepticism about democracy.

Donald Trump Jr. is also one of the investors in the Enhanced Games. Through the investment fund “1789 Capital,” he is contributing tens of millions of dollars.

Although the USADA has criticized those behind the Enhanced Games for “trying to make quick money,” they do not seem to be concerned.

Gene doping: a whole different magnitude

What I am most concerned about is the introduction of “gene doping.”

This involves applying rapidly advancing gene therapy technologies to doping; at the level of animal experimentation, there are already reports of, for example, a 40% increase in muscle mass. This is an entirely different order of magnitude from conventional doping. For this reason, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has repeatedly stated that it is “the greatest concern.”

Gene therapies that increase muscle mass already exist in practical form. Elevidys, a gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy—a severe disease that causes progressive loss of muscle strength throughout the body—was approved in the United States in 2023 and is sold at a treatment cost of 3.2 million dollars per dose. Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is currently considering its approval.

It would not be surprising if similar technologies were applied to the human body at the Enhanced Games without sufficient ethical discussion. This goes beyond “individual freedom” and amounts to “human experimentation for profit.”

Now is the time for the international community to fundamentally reexamine its ethical standards and norms.

This article was originally published in Japanese in TOYO KEIZAI ONLINE on Ｍay 28, 2025.