The inaugural Enhanced Games concluded with a mixed outcome, featuring a record-breaking swim, strong weightlifting performances, and victories for clean athletes over their enhanced rivals in several key events.
Record-Breaking Swim and Financial Rewards
Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev delivered the event’s highlight, clocking a time of 20.89 seconds in the men’s 50-meter freestyle. This performance surpassed the official world record and earned him a $1 million prize from the organizers.
“The [Enhanced Games] last Saturday were not only a spectacular event – they were also a major business success,” wrote Christian Angermayer, an investor and co-founder of the Enhanced Games, on X.
Unexpected Results and Criticism
Despite the initial hype, several results contradicted the core premise of the Enhanced Games. Multiple athletes using performance-enhancing drugs were defeated by competitors who claimed to be competing without such enhancements.
American sprinter Fred Kerley, competing as a non-enhanced athlete, won the men’s 100-meter final in 9.97 seconds. While this was 0.39 seconds slower than Usain Bolt’s 2009 world record of 9.58 seconds, it came despite claims that Bolt’s record would be “destroyed.”
Kerley reportedly mocked the enhanced athletes he competed against. According to SB Nation, he said in an interview after the race, “They gotta do better than that. They need to train a little harder, get on that shit a little bit more, and go a little harder some more.”
In other events, Tristan Evelyn, a non-enhanced athlete, won the women’s 100-meter final, and swimmer Hunter Armstrong defeated two enhanced competitors to win the men’s 50-meter backstroke.
The Vision and Backing of the Enhanced Games
The event marks the culmination of a multi-year effort by Aron D’Souza, an Australian lawyer who previously assisted Peter Thiel in his lawsuit against Gawker Media. D’Souza founded the Enhanced Games in 2024 and has received backing from Donald Trump Jr., Peter Thiel, and former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan. D’Souza has argued that current anti-doping regulations are outdated.
“The Olympics are all about the past, they’re about Ancient Greece,” D’Souza previously told Decrypt. “They’re about this natural sports ethos, and they’re stuck in the past. We’re about the future, science, and progress. We’re about acceleration.”
Organizers have positioned the Enhanced Games as part of a broader movement focused on biohacking, longevity research, and human enhancement, with biohacker Bryan Johnson serving as a host.
“I’m cohosting the Enhanced Games this Sunday, first time as a broadcaster,” Johnson wrote on X. “I spent the week with the athletes and doctors. So many moving stories of courage and triumph.”
Controversy and Skepticism
The competition highlights the growing intersection between Silicon Valley’s optimization culture and elite sports. While organizers frame the Games as a science-driven alternative to Olympic rules, critics argue that it normalizes dangerous drug use for the sake of spectacle and profit.
“Everything about the enhanced games seems so deeply unserious and stupid,” author Brad Stulberg wrote on X.
A post by Steve Magness on X highlighted the underperformance of enhanced athletes, noting that some were slower than their personal bests and, in some cases, slower than high school runners.
Official Rejection and Future Plans
The World Anti-Doping Agency and World Aquatics have both rejected the legitimacy of the competition, stating that performances from the Games will not be recognized as official records. Despite this, organizers maintain that the Enhanced Games represent the future of athletics.
“Now that we have broken the ice and proven the Games can be done at the highest level, I expect many more partnerships to be signed in the months ahead,” Angermayer wrote. “We are just getting started!”
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