Retired Greek Olympic swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev at an event sponsored by the Enhanced Games.Kerrigan Zambrana/Supplied
The organizers of a sporting competition that would allow doping are promising a spectacle that will wow the public, raising the prospect of human potential unleashed and big prizes for athletes who break world records. The reality of the “Enhanced Games” would probably be something much more tawdry.
That is, if the repeatedly-delayed event even goes ahead next year as planned.
Ideally, the games will be put off again, preferably permanently. They promise to be a sad spectacle, one that debases the concept of human achievement. And by reducing the stigma around doping, which carries serious physical risks, such an event could make this behaviour more popular.
It comes as little surprise that the company behind the competition announced recently that it would begin selling performance enhancers such as testosterone. The company is also looking to cash in with plan to go public next year. None of this reduces the suspicion that the idea of the Enhanced Games is a provocation, aimed more at raising money than hosting competitions.
There are several valid points made by the people behind the idea. It’s true that even good amateur athletes in most disciplines can live a meagre existence. It’s also true that many sports have struggled to keep their competitions clean. No one is surprised any more when an athlete gets busted.
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But the solution to these problems is not a free-for-all. No one has to look at the old Saturday Night Live skit about the “All-Drug Olympics,” in which a weightlifter tears off his own arms attempting a mammoth clean-and-jerk. Real-world history shows what open drug use can do to a sport.
In the 1980s professional cyclists discovered that the anti-anemia drug erythropoietin (EPO) would boost endurance. There was no test in the early years and it’s generally accepted that the drug became widespread in the sport. But as the athletes figured out how to use it, EPO was suspected in the deaths of 20 cyclists. Doping filtered into junior cycling, with teenagers pushed to keep up.
Revelations of rampant drug use turned that era of cycling into something close to a joke. Champions were banned and results invalidated. Many sponsors quit, deciding the negative attention wasn’t worth the exposure, and spectators learned to distrust every remarkable effort.
The fan base for the Enhanced Games may not have such scruples, and organizers say they will have policies to keep it safe, but the event would not be without risk.
While only FDA-approved drugs would be acceptable at the games, many performance enhancers have legitimate medical uses. For what it’s worth, EPO is approved for people with kidney disease. And requiring a physician to sign off on an athlete’s doping plan offers little but a fig-leaf of safety.
Some sporting federations have said that anyone participating in the games will be banned from their events. Also, doping for these games would mess up what’s called the biological passport – a way of assessing athletes’ bodies over time to identify anomalies – rendering them unable to perform at clean events later.
Which is why it’s a bogus claim from the Enhanced Games that it would feature the best athletes, with a chemical boost. For people at the top of their game the career and reputational risks are just too high. The more likely scenario is that these would be aging athletes who can no longer compete at the highest level, or juniors unable to break in.
Such competitors might turn out good performances, but world-beating results seem a stretch. And even if this happens, records are typically ratified under World Anti-Doping Agency rules. With most sponsors leery of association with doping and official recognition impossible, a “world record” would be worth no more than bragging rights at the bar.
It’s not hard to see the parallel between the Enhanced Games and the dreams of extreme bio-hackers. These are people who seek to extend their lifespans through scientifically baseless means such as infusing the blood of their own offspring, DIY gene editing or injecting urine.
Human health may be improved through exercise, good diet and an engaged social life. But the clay of life is the body in which we were born. Some people are lucky to have great physiology. Most aren’t.
Trying to boost natural abilities through performance enhancers is no more unleashing human potential than it would be to add a motor to a bicycle.