Enhanced Games: Thrilling spectacle or the death of sporting integrity?
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Reading Time: 3min | Mon. 12.01.26. | 16:14
Unsurprisingly, the project has drawn fierce condemnation from sporting bodies and medical experts, who warn of severe health risks and the erosion of sporting integrity
Doping has long been viewed as one of the greatest threats to sport, and rightly so.
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For decades, athletes, fans and institutions have treated performance-enhancing drugs as the ultimate betrayal of fairness, health and integrity.
Growing up, many of us were encouraged to participate in sports not just for fitness, but for the values it instilled. Sport was meant to teach discipline, respect, teamwork, perseverance and fair play.
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Beyond medals and trophies, it promised character, resilience and a shared sense of humanity. These ideals helped shape not just better athletes, but better communities.
Yet, as sport has evolved into a global entertainment industry, those values are increasingly being tested.
In May, the controversial Enhanced Games will make their debut in Las Vegas. The competition openly allows athletes to use performance-enhancing substances banned in mainstream sport.
Its inaugural program will feature swimming, sprinting and weightlifting, and has already attracted high-profile names such as three-time world champion sprinter Fred Kerley and British Olympic silver medalist swimmer Ben Proud.
Organisers have confirmed 21 athletes so far, with expectations of nearly 50 participants by the time the Games begin.
Unsurprisingly, the project has drawn fierce condemnation from sporting bodies and medical experts, who warn of severe health risks and the erosion of sporting integrity.
But whether one agrees or not, the reality is unavoidable: the Enhanced Games are happening. Conviction stems from the confident leadership, aggressive funding, and clear ambitions.
At this point, outrage alone will not stop them.
What the Enhanced Games understand, perhaps uncomfortably well, is something traditional sporting organisers often overlook: modern audiences crave entertainment.
They want drama, unpredictability and spectacle. They want records smashed, rivalries intensified and moments that dominate timelines and headlines.
Athletics, if we are honest, struggles with this. Outside of generational stars like Faith Kipyegon redefining greatness, large parts of the sport fail to consistently hold casual fans.
The Enhanced Games promise a product tailored exactly for that audience: faster, louder, and unapologetically extreme.
This desperation to commercialise is not new.
Athletics has tried and often failed to reinvent itself. The Grand Slam Track (GST), launched in 2024 by four-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson, was meant to modernise the sport through star-driven events, fan engagement and lucrative prize money.
Instead, only three of the four planned meets were staged, the Los Angeles finale was cancelled, and by December 2025, the league had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Top athletes, including Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Gabby Thomas, remain owed huge sums.
GST has since become less a blueprint and more a cautionary tale.
The Enhanced Games offer a radically different model. Rather than relying solely on sponsorships, broadcast rights and merchandise, they lean into partnerships with pharmaceutical and technology companies to push human performance beyond natural limits.
The innovations developed, whether drugs, recovery methods or enhancements, can then be commercialised, marketed and potentially applied beyond sport.
That is both their greatest appeal and their greatest danger.
While audiences increasingly seek faster, flashier alternatives, the cost is profound. When enhancement becomes the selling point, athletes risk becoming experiments rather than competitors.
For countries like Kenya, where sport is not just entertainment but a pathway out of poverty, the message is especially troubling. It suggests that success is no longer rooted in talent, discipline or patience, but in access to science, capital and risk tolerance.
Perhaps this looming threat explains why World Athletics has introduced the Ultimate Championships. Set to debut in Budapest from 11–13 September 2026, the event promises a stripped-down, high-stakes format: no heats, no second chances, just the world’s best competing head-to-head for the title of Ultimate Champion.
It is a clear attempt to reclaim excitement without abandoning the sport’s moral foundations.
The question, then, is not whether the Enhanced Games will entertain as they almost certainly will. The real question is whether, in chasing spectacle at all costs, we are willing to redefine sport itself. Because once that line is crossed, it may be impossible to draw it back.
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