Enhanced Games


The Enhanced Games is a proposed multi-sport event. Founded by Australian businessman Aron D'Souza, it would allow athletes to use performance-enhancing substances without being subject to drug tests. According to D'Souza, he created the Games because he believes that athletes are entitled to do what they wish with their own bodies, and that the International Olympic Committee is corrupt for exploiting them.
The first competition of TEG is scheduled for May 2026, and several former Olympic swimmers intend to participate. Reactions have been generally negative from the sporting world, the scientific community, and media outlets, with commentators highlighting the safety risks of encouraging performance-enhancing drug use.

Background

The Enhanced Games is to be the first event of its kind to support performance-enhancing drugs and not follow the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency. Performance-enhancing drugs will not be mandatory for participants. Such an event has been discussed hypothetically for many years but never been realised. Prosthetic limbs and shoe technology will be allowed. Aron D'Souza, president of the organisation, says that for insurance reasons, only FDA-approved substances will be allowed. Cocaine and heroin will not be allowed. According to D'Souza, athletes should also be categorised based on their chromosomal sex.
When announced in June 2023, the event was intended to be annual and to include five categories: track and field, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics, and combat sports. Originally planned for December 2024, D'Souza estimated the number of athletes to be "maybe a couple of thousand". By late 2025, organizers were aiming for 50 participants in the first event. Brett Fraser, chief athletics officer of the organisation, said that the planned included sports are a "core suite of products", and can be improved upon in the future. The scale will depend on funding, and the location was planned to be a university campus or similar facility in the southern United States. D'Souza said in early 2024 that he now had the equity capital to fund the first event.
By August 2023, representatives were saying that what would take place in 2024 would be a smaller "exhibition", with a "full event" taking place in 2025. CNN said in October 2023 that it was an open question whether the Games would ever take place. In May 2025, the organization announced plans to hold the games in May 2026 at Resorts World Las Vegas, and that the sports included are to be swimming, track and field, and weightlifting.
The company intends to go public in 2026, by merging with a company listed on Nasdaq.

People

Aron D'Souza, an Australian businessman based in London, founded the privately funded organisation. He says he had the idea for TEG in 2022 when noticing that many people at an American gym were obviously using steroids. He was, together with billionaire Peter Thiel, involved in the 2013 Bollea v. Gawker lawsuit, which led to Gawker filing for bankruptcy. In 2015, he co-founded the company Sargon with Phillip Kingston. D'Souza said,
D'Souza sees the International Olympic Committee as corrupt and greedy, and wants to eradicate the WADA, which he calls an "anti-science police force for the IOC." He also argues that the Olympic system doesn't pay athletes enough, and that the Olympics include too many sports that don't really matter. He states that he has never used performance-enhancing drugs himself. By late 2025, he had been replaced as chief executive by Maximilian Martin, investment banker and bitcoin miner.
Olympians attached to the organisation as of 2023 include Brett Fraser, Roland Schoeman, and Christina Smith. In 2025, Brett Hawke was named head swim coach. Other people include geneticist George Church. German biotech billionaire Christian Angermayer is co-founder of the organisation.
D'Souza became a Thiel's confidant in the process of leading the Gawker plan for him, and through Thiel's introduction, a friend of Angermayer. According to The Spectator, in December 2022, as D'Souza and other members of their small community of gay tech founders were about to gather for the annual party at Thiel's residence in Miami, D'Souza came up with the idea of the Enhanced Games. After receiving positive feedback from Thiel, D'Souza spent the next six months develop the project. Later, after reading about the plan on German media, Angermayer noticed D'Souza that he wanted to come on board as a co-founder. Thiel and Angermayer agreed to invest after a lunch, also held for members of the gay tech community, around mid-2023. The Wired notes that Thiel and Angermayer were not particularly interested in sports, but D'Souza was a savvy fundraiser.
Angermayer said his backing of TEG stems from his belief that AI will create more leisure time and boost demand for sports entertainment. He said, "Humans are wired to want to see the fastest man or woman They don’t want to see the fastest natural man."

Investors

In January 2024, TEG announced that it had secured a multi-million-dollar investment round from venture capitalists, including Thiel, Angermayer and Balaji Srinivasan. In February 2025, businessman Donald Trump Jr. said that his venture fund 1789 Capital would be involved in an investment round, saying "The Enhanced Games represent the future – real competition, real freedom, and real records being smashed. This is about excellence, innovation, and American dominance on the world stage – something the MAGA movement is all about." Others include Saudi prince Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, and cryptocurrency investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.

Athletes

Australian swimmer and Olympic medalist James Magnussen said in February 2024 that he intends to come out of retirement to compete in the games in an attempt to break the 50m freestyle world record. D'Souza pledged a US$1 million prize if he did break it, and Magnussen said that he will "... juice to the gills... break it in six months". He also said that the money could set him up for the next decade, that sport is about entertainment and is sometimes taken too seriously, and "This is not for everyone, and it is certainly not something for young athletes." According to Magnussen, as of May 2025 the performance-enhancing drugs he has taken include testosterone, BPC-157, CJC-1295, ipamorelin and thymosin.
In May 2025, TEG announced that Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev had unofficially broken the long course 50 metres freestyle world record at a February 2025 private event, beating Magnussen to the record and winning the $1 million prize. He reportedly swam the course in 20.89 seconds, 0.02 seconds faster than the current record by César Cielo. The performance-enhancing drugs he used, if any, were not disclosed. American swimmer Megan Romano, first female participant, Ukrainian swimmer Andriy Govorov, as of 2025 world record holder of the 50m butterfly, and Bulgarian swimmer Josif Miladinov have also joined TEG.
In September 2025, British swimmer and 2024 Olympic 50m freestyle silver medallist Ben Proud announced he would be joining TEG. Also in September, TEG announced that American sprinter and 2022 100m world champion Fred Kerley will be competing.
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Reactions

Fraser stated in July 2023 that over five hundred athletes had contacted him asking for more information. In August, D'Souza said that he had 500 "sleeper athletes" who are "breaking world records in their basement and sending us videos of it" ready for competition. In February 2024, he said that thousands of athletes interested in participating had contacted him. CNN commented in October 2023 that so far none of these athletes appeared willing to speak publicly. Magnussen said that other Australian swimmers had contacted him, expressing interest, and D'Souza says that the first TEG will include athletes from the 2024 Summer Olympics. The event has been dubbed the "steroid Olympics" by multiple media outlets.File:Lord Coe - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2012 cropped.jpg|thumb|Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics, said: "No one within athletics takes the Enhanced Games seriously."

Organizations

The IOC stated, "If you want to destroy any concept of fair play and fair competition in sport, this would be a good way to do it.... This is completely at odds with the idea and values of the Olympic Games." Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics, said, "No one within athletics takes the Enhanced Games seriously." WADA stated that it "warns athletes and support personnel, who wish to participate in clean sport, that if they were to take part in the Enhanced Games, they would risk committing anti-doping rule violations under the World Anti-Doping Code." WADA president Witold Bańka said TEG is a "ridiculous idea" and "very dangerous", and called for all anti-doping authorities to unite in opposition to the games.
World Aquatics stated, "The Enhanced Games are not a sporting competition built on universal values like honesty, fairness and equity: they are a circus, built on shortcuts". In June 2025, it announced that people involved in events like TEG would be banned from World Aquatics events. The International Federation of Sports Medicine expressed worry that TEG would exploit young people.
The Australian Olympic Committee called the idea "dangerous and irresponsible." The CEO of Sports Medicine Australia said that no member of the organization had expressed support for TEG in their capacity as healthcare professionals. The CEO of the Australian Sports Commission said, "I cannot see any responsible and ethical person thinking the Enhanced Games is even remotely sensible". A representative of the Swedish Olympic Committee said, "I see it as ill-conceived, short-sighted and foolhardy and something other than sport."
The UK Anti-Doping organisation said in a statement that "UKAD's mission is to protect sport from doping cheats. There is no place in sport for performance enhancing drugs, nor the Enhanced Games." Travis Tygart, CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, said: "farcical … likely illegal in many states" and "a dangerous clown show, not real sport." Rahul Gupta, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, stated that the Biden administration had deep concerns regarding TEG. The China Anti-Doping Agency stated that it is in "firm opposition to any attempt to portray doping as so-called scientific advancements, and calls on the global sports community to stand united in rejecting the Enhanced Games."
TEG filed a lawsuit in the US against several sporting bodies in August 2025, including World Aquatics and WADA. The allegation is that these organizations are violating anti-trust laws by preventing athletes from competing in TEG. The suit was dismissed in November 2025.