I don’t think I’m the only one who’s enthralled by watching sports. Grace, power, courage, guile and seemingly superhuman execution, attributes that when admired, fleetingly become part of us, a psychological moment that Freud termed our embrace of the superego, might in part explain our fascination for these seemingly magnificent humans. There’s only one minor caveat here. We don’t really know what we’re witnessing. Is it a profound and spectacular pristine achievement or a synthetic performance, one that’s generated by chemicals and artificial hormones, a tainted ploy to seduce our enchantment by deception? Is the focus of our adulation merely a drug cheat?
I used to have a deep fondness for Yannik Sinner. He’s modest, shy and unassuming, the opposite of the bellicose, brash, entitled and often way too loud current batch of premier tennis players and yet when he was apprehended for using steroids, a misdemeanour he attempted to deflect by claiming that his physical therapist was using these to manage a cut, (steroids are never deployed for those purposes) my affection became muted but only by a little.
However, in 2026 all of our doubts and ambivalence about sporting achievements are about to be put to bed. Enter the ‘Enhanced Games’ when athletes will be able to juice themselves up to the gills without sanction and they won’t be required to tell us what they’re taking. The plan is to stage an Olympic style event in May 2026, fittingly in Las Vegas, the centre of well cloistered deceptions, where athletes who were once world champions will be able to achieve herculean status, although their achievements and world records if any are attained won’t be official. The prize money is intended to be sizeable, part of the enticement, but are we rewarding stellar human achievements or exceptional chemical cocktails?
Lord Sebastian Coe has called this enterprise ‘a load of bollocks.’ Echoing Coe’s sentiments other experts have labelled it a ‘Roman circus,’ and the World Anti-Doping Agency have described the ‘Enhanced Games’ as ‘dangerous and irresponsible.’ While speculations still swirl about the honesty of athletes who claim they are clean organizers of these games indicate that their participants will be subject to medical surveillance and that performance enhancing drugs will be used in a safe manner. They even go one step further asserting that we can learn from the steps they are taking and use their formulations to live happier, healthier, more productive and perhaps even longer lives. I remember attending a conference a few years ago when one of the fellow lecturers informed me that we can be guided by athletes who utilise various forms of chemical enhancement to improve our own performance. When I first entered the anti-ageing arena the founders of this movement acknowledged Olympians and body builders as the forerunners of the longevity landscape who were no doubt consuming all forms of preternatural potions, all way ahead of their time. Athletes are rumoured to have confessed that they will take anything to break a world record even if it kills them. We have only to remember Florence Griffith Joyner,
affectionately known as ‘Flo Jo,’ who broke a whole slew of world records at the 1988 Olympic games, a feat which remain unsurpassed to this day, only to tragically die in her sleep at the age of 38 as the result of an epileptic seizure. Despite allegations she never tested positive for any drugs and persistently denied using them.
Aside from the ‘Enhanced Games’ as a spectacle organisers are hoping to enrol athletes in a clinical trial assessing the effect of performance enhancing drugs on athletic achievement. Together with blood tests and a battery of assessments including brain, cardiovascular and bone status they claim that this can provide us with vital information which might even allow us to become healthier, longer living humans.
As much as we can gauge what they might be taking as this is intended to be a no holds barred Colosseum of gladiators here is a list of some of the ingredients that might be in their smoothies with the scientific evidence which outlines their utility and potential downside.
Anabolic steroids
These remain the most popular enhancer in the ‘juicer’s’ medicine cabinet and despite their ability to pump up muscles and make them stronger there is a dearth of concrete evidence confirming that they actually improve sports performance. Then there’s a laundry list of side effects including adverse effects on cholesterol profiles, the heart and the liver and most alarmingly their tendency to increase red cells which can heighten the risk of developing heart attacks and strokes. For those using these long-term the possibility of developing liver cancer, kidney failure and testicular cancer awaits but these more disastrous consequences are not common.
Selective androgen receptor modulators
Athletes take these because they are seeking the muscle building effect of taking steroids without the possible downside and like anabolic steroids they do promote muscle growth but they can enlarge the kidneys, liver and prostate and are harmful to the heart.
Growth Hormone
Like steroids this is an athlete’s favourite and although they build muscle this does not translate into any performance benefits in terms of speed, power or endurance. Side effects are many including joint pain, soft tissue swelling, carpal tunnel syndrome and adverse effects on the heart.
Erthropoetin
Famously embraced by Lance Armstrong having more red cells ensures more oxygen delivery to the tissues but there is little evidence to show that performance is enhanced although these were at doses lower than those used by athletes. Having more red cells ensures thicker blood and increases the risk of strokes.
Stimulants
Stimulants like phenethylamines, caffeine and methamphetamines can improve cognitive and physical endurance but this comes at a cost, especially when overdosed and tragically lead to the death of one of the cyclists participating in the Tour de France in the sixties.
Peptides
With regard to enhancing performance peptides are growth hormone like or growth hormone promoting agents which have been used by athletes because they are difficult to detect. Their side effect profile is similar to that of growth hormone. Their benefits have not been submitted to any scientific scrutiny.
Gene doping
Now that we can alter our DNA gene editing can no doubt be incorporated to manufacture superhumans but this can go horribly wrong if for example we engineer athletes with excessive amounts of hormones which turbocharge their performance while significantly upscaling the risks associated with amplified hormone levels. Will athletes even care if they are breaking world records.
The ‘Enhanced Games’ might witness the emergence of the super athlete, a prototype we could seek to copy at our peril.
