Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m very confident in that. People will look back and go, \u2018oh, it was ahead of the curve\u2019.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019ve pushed in all my chips.\u201d<\/p>\n
London Olympics 2012. Swimming. Day 5. Men’s 100m Freestyle Final. James Magnussen with his silver medal.Source: News Limited<\/p>\n
– \u2018Game-changing\u2019 –<\/p>\n
Some 42 athletes will participate in the Enhanced Games. Events include a 100-meter sprint, freestyle and butterfly swim races, snatch and clean-and-jerk weightlifting, and strongman dead lifts.<\/p>\n
Most competitors are current or recently retired athletes who achieved remarkable success in \u201cclean\u201d sport but could have never dreamt of the payouts on offer in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
Former Irish Olympic swimmer Max McCusker\u2019s interest was piqued when he was approached by a former teammate, and learnt he could win prize money totalling 25 times more than the $10,000 he estimates that he grossed \u201cin my whole swimming career.\u201d He has spent the past four months in Abu Dhabi, where doctors administered substances including anabolic steroids, testosterone and human growth hormone to athletes, all while meticulously tracking their bodies\u2019 response via biomarkers.<\/p>\n
The results in training have been \u201cnuts,\u201d he told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just game-changing,\u201d said McCusker, who said his body fat has nearly halved to 6.4 per cent, and reported that he is \u201cswimming faster times than I was pre-Olympics\u201d despite having retired from swimming for a year after Paris 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s definitely going to be some records that drop,\u201d he predicted.<\/p>\n
James Magnussen with Enhanced Games CEO Max Martin.Source: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
– \u2018Wild West\u2019 –<\/p>\n
The exact combination of drugs taken by each athlete has not been revealed. A handful are competing clean.<\/p>\n
Organisers say only substances approved by the US Food and Drug Administration have been administered, and the process is overseen by an independent medical board.<\/p>\n
But University of Birmingham sport science professor Ian Boardley says that, while biomarker measurements can help mitigate short-term acute harm, the long-term risks of the substances being used are almost totally unknown.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are putting themselves at risk of life-shortening and fatal consequences,\u201d including danger of heart issues, liver and kidney damage and cognitive decline, from anabolic steroids alone, he told AFP.<\/p>\n
Testosterone use can trigger dependency and depression, while many peptides are a \u201cWild West\u201d about which even less is known, said Boardley.<\/p>\n
Athletes have been told they will be tested and monitored long-term, though, and McCusker sounded sanguine about the chance of negative effects down the line.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs there a chance? Yeah, there could be a chance. But we\u2019re doing everything to mitigate these chances,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a chance if you drink too much caffeine there could be something wrong with you.\u201d And, in any case, \u201cDo I think the Olympics is clean? Hell no. Sport is not clean,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
– \u2018Different age\u2019 –<\/p>\n
The competitions will be viewable online, including on Roku and YouTube. No traditional broadcaster has been announced — but organisers are not relying on a lucrative TV deal to make a return on their investment.<\/p>\n
The Games\u2019 website is already selling a range of supplements including peptides and testosterone, offering customers a chance to get \u201cEnhanced\u201d themselves.<\/p>\n
It is part of the broader \u201cbiohacking\u201d trend that seeks strength and longevity gains from experimental treatments, beloved by Silicon Valley tech bros and now becoming mainstream.<\/p>\n
US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr is pushing to deregulate a wide range of peptides.<\/p>\n
Boardley warns that the public is \u201creceiving very strong messages that this is something that can be done safely, which is what we really push back against.\u201d But for McCusker, \u201cwe\u2019re living in a different age.\u201d \u201cPeople want to see more excitement. People want to see faster times,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd people want to see people break the world record and have sick bodies and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first-ever Enhanced Games — widely dubbed the \u201cSteroid Olympics\u201d — take place Sunday in Las Vegas, where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[944,2095,22734,1724,64,63,330945,330948,38617,330939,330949,330943,330944,330928,330938,277386,330951,2057,330934,34025,330930,330931,177528,207263,248095,330927,312866,2623,330932,2022,330933,59052,330950,330940,2627,2041,2067,3583,50089,19372,330937,21396,330936,74681,330941,75001,330929,330942,85,330947,84575,30460,3586,2614,312443,12000,330935,208359,330946,33670],"class_list":["post-687012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-america","tag-anabolic-steroids","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-swimmer","tag-biomarker-measurements","tag-body-fat","tag-break-world-records","tag-british-swimmer","tag-ceo-max-martin","tag-controversial-event","tag-countless-column-inches","tag-elite-sprinters","tag-enhanced-games","tag-enhanced-games-ceo","tag-europe","tag-fred-kerley","tag-freestyle-final","tag-freestyle-world-champion","tag-games-ceo-max","tag-health-secretary","tag-heart-issues","tag-human-growth-hormone","tag-ian-boardley","tag-james-magnussen","tag-las-vegas","tag-life-changing-prize-money","tag-london","tag-longevity-gains","tag-max-martin","tag-max-mccusker","tag-michael-martin","tag-nevada","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-northern-europe","tag-performance-enhancing-drugs","tag-peter-thiel","tag-poster-athletes","tag-prize-money","tag-resorts-world-berhad","tag-robert-f-kennedy","tag-science-professor","tag-sebastian-coe","tag-short-term-acute-harm","tag-shorter-distance-record","tag-sports","tag-swimming-career","tag-sydney-morning-herald","tag-tech-bros","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-university-of-birmingham","tag-western-asia","tag-witold-banka","tag-world-anti-doping-agency","tag-world-record-marks","tag-world-records"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}