Enhanced Games: Did controversial Las Vegas debut land or underwhelm, and what comes next? | Athletics News

The Enhanced Games allowed athletes to use performance-enhancing substances without drug testing; three British athletes – Ben Proud, Emily Barclay and Reece Prescod – took part; only one official world record was bettered, by swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev of Greece in the men’s 50m freestyle

Now the dust or perhaps glitz and glamour of the Enhanced Games – which took place in Las Vegas on Sunday night – has settled down a touch, did what actually took place fundamentally alter anything or will the Games be viewed a standalone event in which people dip into through curiosity?

Curiosity to most of the public being, can someone who has taken performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) beat legal world records, be super-human, be a new breed of athlete?

The Enhanced Games was a smaller affair than perhaps organisers had originally conceived. They’d spoken a year or two ago about the potential for thousands of athletes to compete at the Games.

As it transpired, 42 athletes were given biographies on the official website. However, is that missing the point? Enhanced Games co-founder Christian Angermayer told me last week before the Games that he didn’t shoot down any of the notoriety the Games generated as it saved him millions, if not billions of US Dollars in marketing for the event, he loved the hype and wasn’t going to interject.

It was always unlikely that thousands of athletes would jump off their ‘Olympic dream’ path to more than likely receive a ban from international sport to compete at the Enhanced Games.

Yes, money was on offer and potentially a lot of money, but the prospect of an Olympic Gold was out of the window so was and remains a sobering thought for many athletes who are either at their peak or aim to be at Los Angeles 2028 or Brisbane 2032.

As far as the British athletes on show, there were three: certainly for swimmer Ben Proud and sprinter Reece Prescod, their careers were past their peak. They’d officially retired. Many of the other athletes from other nations had also retired or – and this is arguable – were past their absolute best.

Some of the hype surrounding the Games suggested world records would be broken across the event. As it was, just one official world record was surpassed. Swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev of Greece clocked 20.81 seconds in the men’s 50m freestyle, but his time will not be recognised by any official authority or record book, as the results from Enhanced Games are null and void – illegal under international anti-doping rules.

Gkolomeev’s time was just 0.07s quicker than that set by Australian swimmer Cameron McEvoy just over two months ago. Gkolomeev was allowed to take PEDs and wore a swimsuit so advanced that it isn’t legal within international rules due to the advantage it brings in the pool. McEvoy – the legal world record holder – was underwhelmed when he took to social media after seeing Gkolomeev, posting: “Seriously?! That’s all you got!”

We understand three athletes competed ‘clean’ and won their events. US sprinter Fred Kerley, who’d taken 100m silver at Paris 2024, won the Enhanced Games men’s 100m, Tristan Evelyn won the women’s event, while US swimmer Hunter Armstrong won the 50m backstroke race in the pool. They all left Las Vegas $250,000 richer. A good weekend gamble perhaps?

Where do the Enhanced Games go now though? It wasn’t quite as big as perceived. Yes, there was a lot of traction about a controversial event, but will that role on to another edition? Will people be as curious a second time around?

For Angermayer, who is a very savvy businessman – well he is a billionaire and a great networker – I asked him just before the Games began what happens next, how do the Enhanced Games evolve? There was no definitive plan in his answer, but he’d expected the question.

“Everything goes better than I would have ever dreamed of. We have almost 500 influencers and streamers blasting out the games on social media,” he said.

“I want it to be everywhere on social media. We have more than 200 media outlets covering on site, we have a bunch of A-list celebrities, actors, singers, other athletes, the attention for by the way for a first-time event which is getting started.

“It’s unbelievably good and I’m going to build on that.”

How? We don’t yet know. For many in the battle for clean sport, such as the various national anti-doping agencies throughout the world and many high-profile administrators and athletes in sport, they’ll be glad the 2026 Enhanced Games have been and gone.

As the chief executive of UK Ant-Doping told Sky Sports: “I hope it just fizzles out…”