Blogger’s Note: I have been told that even in “clean” (conventional) sport – drug companies compete to a) produce untraceable performance enhancing drugs, and b) provide athletes with “screening” medications that prevent these drugs from being “detected” pre or post competition. The same drug companies also “sell” the drug tests they provide to the various athletic bodies – which are used to test and regulate the competing athletes. Many retired Olympic athletes have stated that drug-taking is the only way to dominate for most athletes at world level – with all other aspects being equal. The Socialist countries, supporting their people with compassion and wisdom from the cradle to the grave – have often produced world record-breaking athletes – who have then been accused by the West of “drug-taking”, when no evidence has ever been found. During the days of the USSR, for instance, strong women were accused of “being men” pretending to be women (sound familiar)? This Western (“White”) criticism has been particularly strong when aimed at all non-White athletes.

Be that as it may, the Olympic ideal is supposed to support non-paid athletic performance (the athletes are often indirectly paid via “sponsorship” deals). This requires dedication, hard-training, and sacrifice. Of course, as the bourgeois West controls the Olympic Games and world sport – there is a very real element of racism and political manipulation. Neo-Nazi Ukraine is permitted to compete – but a Russia which is fighting Neo-Nazi Ukraine is banned for defying the US wish for Ukraine to be both “Neo-Nazi” and a member of “NATO”. Furthermore, Adolf Hitler was a firm supporter of a drug-enthused society, and authorised medical experimentation of every kind (although animal experimentation was banned – with testing switched to various human groups held in Death Camps). Hitler believed that sport should be enhanced through drug-taking. Not only this, but many of his troops regularly took stimulants that made them aggressive, energetic, and able to carry-on fighting whilst tired, hungry, and injured. This Hitlerite drug-taking is very well recorded in Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany by Norman Ohler. Indeed, it was often these performance enhancing drugs that was responsible for the fanaticism often seen in the Nazi German troops – and not necessarily the Hitlerite ideology they followed! ACW (4.6.2025)

What are the Enhanced Games and why are they controversial?

Jonty Colman

BBC Sport journalist 22.5.2025

The multi-sport Enhanced Games will allow athletes to use performance-enhancing substances without being subject to drug tests.

Those behind the proposal claim it will be the ‘Olympics of the future’, allowing athletes to take drugs in a bid to break ‘world records’.

Founder Aron D’Souza believes athletes should be entitled to do what they wish with their own bodies.

But the Australian businessman’s concept has been heavily criticised for the potential impact on athletes’ health, and undermining fair play.

UK Anti-Doping (Ukad) said last year its mission was “to protect sport from doping cheats”. It added: “There is no place in sport for performance-enhancing drugs, nor the Enhanced Games.”

At a launch event on Wednesday, Las Vegas was announced as the host of the inaugural Enhanced Games, which will run from 21-24 May 2026.

Organisers said that under their permitted conditions, Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev had gone quicker than the 50m freestyle world record, which has stood since 2009.

How have the Enhanced Games come about?

D’Souza’s idea has been backed by a venture capital fund which includes Donald Trump Jr – the son of the US president – and billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel.

It was first launched as a concept in 2023, when it was presented as an opportunity to beat world records for cash prizes up to $1m (£746,570).

World Athletics president Lord Coe has said taking part would be “moronic”, and any competitor would face a lengthy ban.

D’Souza said his concept – which he wants to make an annual feature – was “truly extraordinary” and “shaping the future”.

The first Enhanced Games will consist of events in short-course swimming, sprinting and weightlifting.

Are there limits on substances competitors can take?

Participants are permitted to use some substances that are banned from elite sport, but cocaine and heroin are among those banned.

The Enhanced Games have said they will carry out some doping measures under medical supervision.

Only substances approved by the United States’ Food and Drug Administration, external (FDA) can be taken. That is a different list to the one the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) allows for elite athletes.

Who will compete at the Enhanced Games?

Gkolomeev is among those who will compete.

Ukrainian swimmer Andriy Govorov, who holds the world record for the 50m butterfly, and Bulgaria’s Josif Miladinov – a European silver medallist in the 100m butterfly – have also signed up.

Australian former world champion James Magnussen came out of retirement to join the Enhanced Games in 2024.