Geraint Hughes
Sports News Correspondent
Enhanced Games: What are they, who is behind them, and who will be competing?
Created by Australian businessman Aron D'Souza, the Enhanced Games will allow athletes to use performance-enhancing substances without being subjected to drug tests; Three British athletes in swimmers Ben Proud and Emily Barclay and sprinter Reece Prescod are taking part
Last Updated: 21/05/26 7:28am
Las Vegas is not unfamiliar to hosting sporting events, both weird, wonderful and often controversial. This weekend the Enhanced Games take place in the city on Sunday.
They have never happened before nor has an event quite like it taken place.
For many the Games sit ill at ease due to the fact that athletes competing are allowed to take substances, performance enhancing medication or drugs, that would under International anti-doping rules see an athlete banned from competing at any World Cup, Olympics or World Championship.
- GB Olympic medallist leaves 'traditional swimming' to join Enhanced Games
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While the Games in terms of anti-doping bear no comparison with how World Cups, Olympics and World Championships are policed by WADA (World Anti-doping Agency) and National Anti-doping Agencies, at the 2026 Enhanced Games only substances approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can be taken.
It is however very different and far more lenient to the list WADA allows for elite athletes leading to the moniker giving to the Enhanced Games by some as the "Steroid Olympics."
The Games are scheduled to take place on Sunday May 24 at a specially built indoor arena at Resorts World in Las Vegas. According to Enhanced Games and their list of athletes competing across four disciplines of track, swimming, weightlifting and strongman, there are 42 athletes due to compete including three British athletes; swimmers Ben Proud and Emily Barclay and sprinter Reece Prescod.
Who came up with the idea?
An Australian businessman called Aron D'Souza had the idea for The Enhanced Games reportedly after noticing many people at a gym in the US were using steroids.
Co-founders include Maximilian Martin who has since replaced D'Souza as Chief Executive, Martin is an investment banker and bitcoin entrepreneur. German biotech billionaire Christian Angermayer is also a co-founder.
The Games has also secured investment from several crypto-currency investors and venture capital firms including '1789 Capital' a firm owned by Donald Trump Jnr, son of the US President.
According to their information The Enhanced Games is a "new global sports competition designed to push the boundaries of human performance. The Games challenge traditional models of sport by embracing science, innovation, and measurable performance enhancement under regulated conditions."
Organisers say their goal is "simple" - to "allow elite athletes to dedicate themselves fully to pushing the limits of human capability."
On offer for athletes is the opportunity to explore what their bodies can achieve performance-wise IF they choose to take performance enhancing drugs (PED's).
Not all athletes who have signed up for the Enhanced Games actually intend to take any PED's. There is significant financial reward on offer- a $25 million prize pot (£17.1m) with some athletes set to take home $1m for their efforts in Las Vegas if they break existing legal world records.
Since it's inception, The Enhanced Games has made other arguments to it's relevance citing financial rewards for elite athletes, for example that many athletes who compete at Olympic Games which are administered by the IOC feel underpaid.
It is well known that the IOC redistribute the vast majority of what finances it makes, but not towards renumeration for athletes.
While there are debates around existing anti-doping measures as to their effectiveness leading to a view from Enhanced Games supporters that the current anti-doping landscape is failing so why not try another way? One where PED's are allowed under controlled conditions.
Clearly the issue of safety, clean sport and fair play are issues which organisers of the Enhanced Games versus many other agencies, administrators, Governments and many athletes all clash and disagree.
Where Enhanced Games organisers believe the pursuit of scientific and athletics excellence with medical safety protocols are the future, the opposite view is where no doping of any kind can be safe and athletes future health is being risked while the notion of a 'level-playing field' and a drug-free sporting world is at risk.
Who are the British athletes?
Perhaps the most well known British athlete who has joined the Enhanced Games is Team GB Olympic swimmer Ben Proud. He won a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics swimming the 50m freestyle while he is a three-time World Champion across long course and short course in freestyle and butterfly.
In September 2025, Proud announced he was to retire from International swimming to pursue an opportunity with the Enhanced Games. In doing so he knew he would be banned from competing internationally if he ever chose to try to return.
Speaking with Sky Sports after his decision he said: "I understand that by going down this route it casts a lot of questions as to what I've done, but ultimately that's just public perception.
"Public opinion is something I can't change, but all I can do is understand the level that I've held myself to these past 15 years and what I've done in order to achieve what I have done.
"I personally know that has been done in a very high standard and I think the ones that I really care about, my closest family, the ones I love, they know that too."
Emily Barclay is also a swimmer although without the decorated CV that Proud possesses. Barclay won freestyle gold at the British Championships in 2019 before competing in the US for the University of Arkansas in the NCAA. She has also competed for Great Britain at the World University Games.
Reece Prescod like Proud has officially retired from International sport, he did that in August 2025 before confirming he'd join the Enhanced Games in January this year. Prescod, now 31, had a very good career in a GB vest winning an individual silver medal running the 100m at the 2018 European Athletics Championships and a bronze 4x100m relay medal at the World Championships in 2022.
What other athletes are competing?
Perhaps the most well known name is American sprinter Fred Kerley. Kerley won 100m Olympic silver at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and took the 100m bronze at the 2024 Paris Olympic. In addition he's a three-time world champion, including 100m individual gold medallist at the 2022 World Championships.
There are several other athletes who have won Olympic medals and have now decided to compete at the Enhanced Games. Australian swimmer James Magnusson, whose nickname in the pool is "The Missile", has won three Olympic medals, a silver and two bronze, but is a three-time gold medallist at the World Championships. Although he has recorded the fifth fastest 100m freestyle time in history he retired from international swimming in 2019, he is now 36.
Staying in the pool, Ukraine's Andriy Govorov still holds the 50m butterfly world record while Greek-Bulgarian Kristian Gkolomeev swam the fastest recorded time in the 50m freestyle last year at an event organised by the Enhanced Games in which Gklolmeev said he'd taken PED's. His time of 20.89 seconds has not been officially recognised. Two other Olympic medallists are set to compete at swimming events, both are American. Cody Miller won a gold and bronze at Rio 2016 while Hunter Armstrong won 4x100 medley gold at Tokyo and also a gold and silver at Paris 2024.
Controversial games comes with criticism and warning
Unsurprisingly the Enhanced Games for many who work for clean sport at elite international level are to put it mildly… furious.
The UK Anti-doping Agency (UKAD), speaking to Sky Sports, believes the Enhanced Games "fly in the face of fair play" and are adamant that there just is no way to safely dope.
Jane Rumble, Chief Executive of UKAD told Sky Sports: "We're incredibly disappointed. It flies very much in the face of fair play of sport integrity, but most importantly that there is no safe way to dope. That's what we stand for. Our core messages are about the health and well-being of athletes so that they compete clean, but also that they stay healthy as well. The Enhanced Games is absolutely flying in the face of all that we stand for."
Asked about her opinion of the three British athletes competing in Las Vegas on Sunday, Rumble wouldn't be drawn on making any individual criticism rather a wider concern.
"Really disappointing that any athlete across the world is taking part in the Enhanced Games because of the risks," she added.
"Our elite athletes are wonderful role models to the next generation to younger people and so the more that we can communicate about clean sport the benefits of hard work of dedication of being 100 per cent then we can pass those messages on to the next generation of elite athletes as they come through."
At UK Government level where just last week plans are being hatched for a bid to bring the Olympic and Paralympic Games to the north of England in the 2040's there are also concerns over the Enhanced Games at the highest Ministerial level.
Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport Lisa Nandy MP dismissed the notion.
"I think it's become a bit of a sideshow really, it's much smaller than we were led to believe," she said.
"If people want to take part in it or participate they can, but I've loved athletics since I was a kid. I watched Keeley Hodgkinson bring home the gold (Paris 2024 Olympics) and the whole town and the whole country come out to support it, that's the sort of sport that I believe in, that's the sort of sport that inspires me and our job as a government is to make sure that clean sport where people go as far as their talent and ability can take them is what we promote here and what we celebrate and give every kid in this country an opportunity to take part in."
Others have been short and sweet in their appraisal of the Enhanced Games, US Anti-doping Agency (USADA) Chief Executive Travis Tygart called them a "Clown Show" while WADA President Witold Banka has said it's "an irresponsible and dangerous event.
Lord Coe, President of World Athletics, said the Games were "moronic," while the IOC said it's a: "dangerous and irresponsible concept," calling the event "utterly irresponsible and immoral… a betrayal of everything that we stand for."
Whatever the view it appears the Enhanced Games are set to go ahead, albeit a slightly smaller event than first envisioned a few years ago where the prediction was that a few thousand athletes would compete.
That won't be the case, but depending on what happens in Vegas, it may gather in curiosity.
