That's so DOPE!

In 2023, the Enhanced Games proposed a new kind of sporting event, one where athletes were allowed to use PEDs. Yesterday, the organization announced the 2026 Enhanced Games would take place in May 2026 as the first official games. Event organizers have called these games the future of sport, noting they are “on a mission to redefine superhumanity through science, innovation and sports.” Athletes are not only allowed to use PEDs, but it is encouraged in part with large prize purses and a $1 million incentive to break an existing world record.

Oh.

One one hand, it’s fairly easy to recognize this as sport entertainment. Is this the new WWE, where we consider the wrestlers to be athletes, but we all elbow each other knowing that the primary point is entertainment? This is not meant to diminish the athletes, or their past accomplishments. The announced athletes (all four of them) have competed on the world and Olympic stages. They aren’t coming in off the street, with a fresh PED cocktail in hand. They are putting in the effort and work through their training, spending hours upon hours in the pools, on the track, in weight rooms, and monitoring their diets and recovery. The work is there, with the modern chemistry. Are these games, then, serious sport?

Consider why these games are even happening, and more importantly, the potential implications.

"Citius, Altius, Fortius - Communis.”

The IOC adopted the motto in 2021. How fast can a human go? How high can a human leap? How strong can a human be? The answer to these questions are some of the many reasons we watch sports. We want to see the boundaries of human potential. We celebrate breaking world and Olympic records. We speculate about the possibility of achieving times that were unthinkable a few decades earlier. We joke during Olympic Games that we want to see the common man get in the pool or run on the track alongside the Olympians, so we can recognize their excellence. Some of us follow their training, not just looking at how much time they spend practicing their sport, but what they do for recovery, how they fuel, and what kind of supplemental work they put in.

We also look at what technological advances have done in improving human performance. When gutters were added to swimming pools, times dropped. Today, pool engineers design pools to maximize the speed of a pool. That’s right - the pool. Speed suits have been replacing shorts and tanks on the track to minimize drag. Bicycles have gotten lighter and more aerodynamic. The torpedo bat allowed the Yankees to tie a MLB home run record on opening weekend. Recovery tools, such as compression boots, massage guns, cupping, dry needling have allowed athletes to recover quicker. While some advances have been controversial (see: full body high tech suits in swimming or banned super shoes), we generally seem to accept the majority of them without question.

But PED use, that’s a different story. For the past several years, I have shown the documentary Icarus in several of my classes. At one point, the documentarian who is engaging in PED use notes that he can tell a difference in his performance; he’s less sore, recovers more quickly, and makes significant gains. We know that PEDs help; after all, if they didn’t why would anyone bother? By and large, my students agree that PED use in sport is wrong, there should be sanctions, and it constitutes cheating. This mimics what we see in larger public opinion. A recent study from UK Anti-Doping found clean sport and values of fair play still matter to the general public.

The Enhanced Games have been called “dangerous and irresponsible,” “a reckless endeavor,” and raise serious questions about long-term health implications. A statement from the USADA’s Chief Science Officer Dr. Matt Fedoruk noted:

“These things aren’t just banned because they’re effective at making athletes stronger or faster. Many are banned because they’ve been proven to be dangerous for athletes, with some harmful side effects being potentially irreversible.”

So back to the question of why. Why is there a market for these games? The reasons may be simple. The desire to see the human limit pushed. The potential for entertainment and spectacle. A challenge to traditional norms. Perhaps even a curiosity to see if PED use can be used in a safe manner.

The potential impacts are far more complicated. I’ll leave the discussion over the specific health risks to the medical professionals who study them. We value spectacle and profit over ethics, but we should discuss why, and at what cost. How many athletes who are on the cusp of making it, on the cusp of getting cut, on the cusp of earning a scholarship or attaining professional status, or who may be considering how to maximize an NIL deal will try to seek out ways to ‘safely’ use PEDs? If the athletes competing in these games are winning a couple hundred thousand dollars for a podium finish, or even better, a $1 million bonus for breaking a world record, isn’t the message there that ethics be damned? Is the potential for more significant earnings worth the risk? A sporting event that essentially glorifies the use of PEDs may just be the permission that someone needs to take that risk.

I read this article from ESPN yesterday, and I keep circling back to this quote and one word in particular: stigma.

“Organizers say they hope to remove the stigma of using these substances and promote safer ways to push the limits of human performance.”

Why do these substances have a stigma attached? Not only for the potential detriment to health, but also because we have long considered it to be cheating.

As noted above, public opinion continues to hold that using PEDs is cheating, and it is wrong. The practical, personal, consequences of this type of cheating are severe. Athletes who have been caught doping have been stripped of world titles, Olympic records, and banned from sport. Phillies relief pitcher José Alvarado was just handed an 80-game suspension for PED use.

Are these games are going to challenge the Olympic Games or other world events in terms of stature and viewership? No. Are most people are going to recognize them for what they are, as a form of ‘sportainment’? Yes. If a world record is broken, will it then count as the new official world record? No. Ratification of world records are typically subject to WADA global anti-doping standards. Are there are going to be implications to the notions of integrity and ethical standards? Of course. Will people see this as permission to take a shortcut to achieve a result they want to? Also yes. Are there going to be negative effects with regards to health messaging and ideas around body image? Absolutely.

Initial reports said the Enhanced Games were looking to raise $300 million. That’s a decent amount of money to glorify doping. Consider ways that same amount of money could actually make sport better. Investing in youth sports and grassroots sport efforts, investing in programs to make sports more inclusive for all, or funding healthcare initiatives at all levels of sport.

Those things wouldn’t just make sports better. Those initiatives would create positive impacts that would ripple out beyond the field of play and into society.