Enhanced Games In Las Vegas Feature Doping, Only One Official World Record Claim

The inaugural Enhanced Games in Las Vegas featured performance-enhancing drugs and, after more than five hours of competition, organisers could point to only one “official world record” claim as Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev swam 20.81sec in the men’s 50m freestyle.

“After the bloodwork and the medical screening, a month of hard training naturally, after one last meeting with doctors to review the do’s and don’ts of the regimen he was about to start, Boady Santavy hustled from a conference room to his suite at Earth, a luxury resort in suburban Abu Dhabi, clutching his drugs”

CBC

The Guardian reported that Gkolomeev’s time was 0.07 quicker than the time set by Australian Cameron McEvoy in March, but noted that Gkolomeev’s record will not count officially because he was wearing a special skinsuit that is outlawed in elite sport and was also doping.

CBC

In early contests, eNCA said juiced-up athletes “narrowly failed to ‘beat’ world records” despite using performance-enhancing drugs, with the vast majority of the 42 sprinters, swimmers and weightlifters taking combinations including testosterone, peptides and anabolic steroids.

eNCA also said weightlifter Beatriz Piron attempted to get the Games off with a bang by lifting 100kg in the women’s snatch but narrowly failed, while Canada’s Boady Santavy and US lifter Wesley Kitts attempted record snatch lifts of 183kg and 197kg respectively but fell short despite organisers bending the rules to give each a fourth attempt.

While the Games’ organisers promoted “transparency” and predicted “quite a few” world records would be unofficially “beaten,” eNCA said the day’s first swimming event was won by an athlete who chose not to dope as Hunter Armstrong won the men’s 50m backstroke in 24.21sec.

The Guardian described how three athletes who were competing clean won, including Paris silver medallist Fred Kerley, who after winning the men’s 100m told his rivals: “Man, they need to do better than that. They need to work a little bit harder, get on that shit a little bit more.”

eNCA

The Guardian also quoted Tristan Evelyn, who won the women’s 100m in 11.25sec and said: “This proves that winning takes more than chemistry.”

eNCA framed the event’s medical and regulatory posture by quoting chief medical officer Guido Pieles describing the risk of the medications as “clearly there” but “really manageable,” while also noting that Enhanced Games officials said all medications were approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Beyond the results, eNCA said health experts warned that several of the substances being taken could risk “life-shortening and fatal consequences,” including heart, liver and kidney issues, as so little is known about the long-term effects of doping.

“They promised multiple world records”

The Guardian

The Guardian reported that organisers had made “several crazy claims” since the Enhanced Games were launched in 2023, and it quoted CEO Maximilian Martin saying, “We have changed the world tonight.”

CBC described how weightlifter Boady Santavy, a Sarnia, Ont., native, began his Enhanced Games cycle after bloodwork and medical screening, with doctors giving him the option to mix substances but Santavy opting to keep them separate as he started with testosterone, human growth hormone, and another anabolic agent.

CBC also said Enhanced Games advocates counter that allowing performance enhancers simply moves the action to a new arena, and it quoted Santavy asking, “How is it cheating if it’s not going against the rules,” while also stating that all participants earn a salary and will receive follow-up medical monitoring for five years.