Top athletes from around the world, including Olympic medal winners, are gathering this Memorial Day weekend for a new Donald Trump Jr.-backed sports competition—and drugs are not only allowed but encouraged.
Taking place in Las Vegas, the Enhanced Games will host 42 athletes engaged in swimming, weightlifting, and running competitions. A tournament fit for Sin City, some 90% of the participating athletes admittedly use performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), which are otherwise banned for both domestic and international competitions like the Olympics.
These games are organized by Enhanced, which describes itself as a “direct-to-consumer longevity medicine company committed to giving athletes . . . the ability to optimize their health, performance, and recovery.” The company, which went public on May 8, has attracted major investors including Trump Jr.’s 1789 Capital, and billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel.
Dubbed the “Steroid Olympics,” the event will be held in a custom-built arena for around 2,500 invite-only spectators, according to the organizers. The games, which were first announced in 2023, have unsurprisingly received widespread criticism from organizations like the International Olympic Committee and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). But criticism alone is not stopping the event, which looks to push the limits of human capacity in sports.
The format is simple, with juiced and non-juiced athletes competing to break records and deliver elite performances with $25 million up for grabs.
Despite the surrounding controversy—and risk of being banned from other international competition permanently—some notable athletes are participating, including American sprinter Fred Kerley, American swimmer Cody Miller, and Australian swimmer James Magnussen, all Olympic medalists.
And while this may seem like the Wild West of sports, there are some rules in place. Enhanced athletes are allowed to use only substances approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. While organizers are not releasing specific information on the drug regimens of participating athletes, reports say common substances include human growth hormones, testosterone, testosterone esters, metabolic modulators, Adderall, and more. While these are legal substances, they are banned by WADA.
Some competitors are part of the Enhanced Performance Team, receiving “monthly stipends, coaching, medical oversight, nutritional support, and training camps,” the company’s website says.
The event will conclude with a concert headlined by the Killers, with performance-enhancing substances like peptides—which have grown dramatically in popularity this year—available for purchase by attendees.
