In February 2025, Kristian Gkolomeev dove into a pool at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in North Carolina and touched the wall 20.89 seconds later. The four-time Greek Olympian had just beaten Cesar Cielo’s 50-meter freestyle world record, a mark that had stood since 2009. He collected a $1 million check on the spot, earning more in 21 seconds than most Coachella headliners make for a full set. Two weeks earlier, Gkolomeev had started taking performance-enhancing drugs for the first time in his career. He did it openly. He did it on camera. And nobody sanctioned him, because the competition he swam for doesn’t believe doping should be banned.
The Enhanced Games is a Las Vegas-based athletic competition launching May 21-24, 2026, at Resorts World, where athletes are allowed to use performance-enhancing substances under medical supervision. Think of it as the anti-Olympics: same sports, same world-class athletes, but with a PED policy that would get you a lifetime ban from any traditional governing body. Backed by Peter Thiel, a projected $1.2 billion Nasdaq valuation, and a roster of athletes who’ve competed at the highest levels of traditional sport, the Enhanced Games is either the future of athletic competition or, as USADA CEO Travis Tygart put it, “a dangerous clown show.” In an era when economic uncertainty is pushing athletes to seek new revenue streams, the timing may not be a coincidence.
Last updated: April 2026
How the Enhanced Games actually work
The Enhanced Games features eight events across three sports: 50m and 100m freestyle, 50m and 100m butterfly (swimming), 100m sprint and 100/110m hurdles (track and field), and snatch and clean and jerk (weightlifting). Everything takes place inside a purpose-built complex at Resorts World Las Vegas with a four-lane 50-meter pool, a six-lane sprint track, and a dedicated weightlifting stage.
Each event carries a $500,000 purse, with $250,000 going to the winner. Athletes who break an existing world record earn a $1 million bonus on top of that. There are appearance fees too, though the organization hasn’t disclosed those numbers publicly.
The PED policy is where things split from every other organized competition in the world. Athletes are allowed to use testosterone, growth hormone, anabolic steroids, and other performance-enhancing substances, provided they’re legally prescribed by a licensed U.S. doctor. The organization bans recreational drugs like cocaine but doesn’t conduct drug testing. Instead, it requires pre-competition medical screening: blood tests, EKGs, echocardiograms, cardiac MRIs, and ultrasounds. Athletes must disclose every substance they’re using.
There are three tiers of participation. “Clinical trial athletes” receive medical care and PED protocols directly from the organization. “Independently enhanced athletes” manage their own regimens. And “natural athletes” compete without any performance-enhancing substances at all. American swimmer Hunter Armstrong, a 2020 Olympic gold medalist in the 4x100m medley relay, is competing in the clean category.
Who is competing in the Enhanced Games 2026?
Thirty-eight athletes have confirmed as of early 2026, with organizers targeting 50 for the inaugural event. The roster reads like a mix of Olympic medalists, world champions, and athletes whose best competitive years in traditional sport are behind them.
Fred Kerley is the biggest name on the track side. The American sprinter won the 100m world championship in 2022 and took silver at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He’s joined by Marvin Bracy-Williams, who holds a 9.85-second personal best in the 100m but is currently serving a USADA suspension through 2028. British sprinter Reece Prescod, Liberian sprinter Emmanuel Matadi, and French sprinter Mouhamadou Fall round out a field that includes two-thirds of the 2022 World Championship 100m podium.
In the pool, Gkolomeev is the headliner after his record-breaking swim. Ben Proud, Britain’s sprint swimming star who won 50m freestyle silver at the 2024 Paris Olympics, has also signed on. Cody Miller, an American who won Olympic gold in the 100m breaststroke at the 2016 Rio Games, and Irish swimmer Shane Ryan are confirmed. Megan Romano became the first female athlete signed to the competition.
The weightlifting roster includes Beatriz Piron, a four-time Dominican Olympian who finished fourth at the 2016 Games, and strongman competitors Hafþor “Thor” Bjornsson (of Game of Thrones fame) and Mitchell Hooper, who have both been announced for world-record deadlift attempts at the event.
Who founded the Enhanced Games and who is funding it?
Aron D’Souza, an Australian businessman based in London, founded the organization in 2022. D’Souza’s previous claim to fame was his role alongside Peter Thiel in the Bollea v. Gawker lawsuit that ultimately bankrupted Gawker Media in 2016. He says he got the idea after watching steroid use at an American gym and realizing the gap between public conversation about PEDs and private reality.
D’Souza was replaced as CEO in late 2025 by Maximilian Martin, an investment banker and bitcoin miner. D’Souza remains involved as founder but the leadership transition raised questions about organizational stability heading into the first event.
The money behind the Enhanced Games reads like a who’s who of Silicon Valley libertarianism. Peter Thiel’s involvement goes back to the January 2024 seed round. Christian Angermayer, a German biotech billionaire, invested through his Apeiron Investment Group. Balaji Srinivasan, the former Coinbase CTO, is also an early backer. The investment mix widened in 2025 when Donald Trump Jr.’s venture fund 1789 Capital came aboard. The Winklevoss twins and Saudi Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud also participated in later rounds.
The organization announced a merger agreement with a firm called A Paradise Acquisition in late 2025, projecting a $1.2 billion valuation for a Nasdaq listing. If the listing goes through, the Enhanced Games would become a publicly traded sports property before it even completes its first event. The company is headquartered in the Cayman Islands.
Are steroids allowed in the Enhanced Games?
Yes, anabolic steroids, testosterone, growth hormone, and other performance-enhancing substances are all permitted, provided they’re FDA-approved and prescribed by a licensed U.S. physician. This is the single biggest departure from traditional athletic competition, where organizations like WADA maintain a prohibited substance list of hundreds of compounds.
James Magnussen, an Australian Olympic swimming medalist, publicly disclosed his pre-competition regimen: testosterone, BPC-157, CJC-1295, ipamorelin, and thymosin. Gkolomeev said he’d only been using PEDs for two weeks before breaking the 50m freestyle world record, and he swam in a Jaked-brand polyurethane suit that would also be illegal under World Aquatics rules.
But there are limits. Cocaine, heroin, and other recreational drugs are banned. PED use isn’t mandatory, and athletes who want to compete clean can do so. The organization says it runs comprehensive medical monitoring before, during, and after competition to track cardiac risks and other health markers.
Whether this amounts to genuine harm reduction or just liability management is the question that researchers are still debating. A 2025 paper in the International Journal of Drug Policy examined whether the Enhanced Games’ medical framework could realistically make PED use “safe” and concluded the evidence remains thin.
Why the sports world wants the Enhanced Games shut down
The opposition isn’t subtle. Practically every major sports governing body has condemned the competition, and several have taken concrete steps to isolate it.
The International Olympic Committee called it an attempt to “destroy any concept of fair play.” World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said “no one within athletics takes the Enhanced Games seriously.” WADA president Witold Banka called the whole thing a “ridiculous idea” and “very dangerous.” Travis Tygart at USADA was blunter: “a dangerous clown show, not real sport.” The Chinese Anti-Doping Agency issued a statement of “firm opposition.”
World Aquatics went further than statements. In June 2025, the swimming governing body announced it would ban any swimmer who participates in the Enhanced Games from all World Aquatics-sanctioned events. That’s a career-ending decision for active competitive swimmers. It’s why the roster skews toward athletes who are retired from traditional competition or nearing the end of their Olympic careers.
The Enhanced Games tried to fight back legally. In August 2025, the organization filed an antitrust lawsuit against World Aquatics, WADA, and others in U.S. District Court, claiming anti-competitive practices. Judge Jesse Furman dismissed the case in November 2025 with a 33-page order. The organization didn’t refile within the 30-day deadline.
Former Olympic athletes have been split. Australian cyclist Anna Meares called it “unfair, unsafe.” Olympic swimmer Kyle Chalmers said he supports retired athletes participating and criticized how poorly the Olympics compensates athletes, a point that resonates with many competitors across sports. Olympic swimmer Leisel Jones expressed curiosity about the performance potential but said she wouldn’t compete herself because of health risks.
The health risks nobody can fully quantify
The Enhanced Games’ medical screening protocol sounds thorough on paper: ECGs, echocardiograms, cardiac MRIs, regular blood work. But the scientific community keeps raising the same concern: there’s no long-term safety data for openly combining multiple PEDs at competitive doses under physical stress.
The acute risks are documented. Stimulants can cause dehydration, dangerously high blood pressure, and heart palpitations during competition. Anabolic steroids carry long-term risks of liver damage, cardiovascular disease, and hormonal disruption. The synergistic effects of stacking multiple substances, which is what athletes chasing records actually do, are largely unstudied in controlled settings.
One of the most persistent criticisms, raised by researchers writing in PMC, is that the Enhanced Games could normalize PED use among younger athletes who see the prizes and media attention without fully understanding the health tradeoffs. A high school sprinter watching Fred Kerley compete on PEDs for $250,000 receives a very different message than a high school sprinter watching Kerley compete at the Olympics.
The organization’s counter-argument is transparency. D’Souza and his team argue that doping already happens across elite sport, that the current system of testing and sanctions is broken, and that bringing PED use into the open with medical oversight is safer than the status quo. It’s a philosophical position that some academics have engaged with seriously, even if most sports institutions reject it.
What the Enhanced Games mean for the future of sport
Strip away the controversy and there’s a real business question underneath: is there a market for athletic competition where human performance has no chemical ceiling?
The sports investment landscape has changed dramatically in the last five years. Teams are valued in billions. Media rights deals keep climbing. And the Enhanced Games is betting that a segment of the audience, particularly the same crowd that follows strongman competitions, UFC, and combat sports with looser testing, will pay to watch athletes perform with every advantage available.
The $1.2 billion Nasdaq valuation projection is aggressive for a company with zero completed events. But the investor roster suggests the backers see this as more than a sports play. Thiel and Angermayer have deep ties to the longevity and human enhancement space. The Enhanced Games sits at the intersection of sports entertainment, biohacking culture, and the libertarian “bodily autonomy” movement that has gained traction in certain tech and political circles.
The Reddit skeptics might be right about one thing: the records may not be as earth-shattering as the marketing promises. As one highly upvoted comment on r/Futurology put it, “top athletes in most sports are already using PEDs.” Gkolomeev’s 50m freestyle record beat Cielo’s mark by just 0.02 seconds after 16 years and open PED use. The gains from transparency might be marginal compared to what already happens behind closed doors.
What is new is the money. The athletes who’ve crossed over to the Enhanced Games are, in many cases, choosing guaranteed six-figure paydays over the unpaid prestige of Olympic competition, following the same diversification logic that drives athlete investment portfolios. Gkolomeev earned $1 million in 20.89 seconds. Most Olympic swimmers earn nothing for their medals. That economic argument, more than any philosophical one about bodily autonomy, may determine whether the Enhanced Games survives past its first event.
The first Enhanced Games takes place May 21-24 at Resorts World Las Vegas. Every event will be streamed globally. Whether it becomes a permanent fixture in sports or a cautionary footnote depends on what happens in that pool, on that track, and in the court of public opinion over the next five weeks.
