Aron D’Souza, a Melbourne-born businessman who lives in London, is launching the Enhanced Games, described on the event’s website as “an alternative to the corrupt Olympic Games.” D’Souza plans to stage the inaugural Olympic-styled competition in December 2024.
A key specificity of the Enhanced Games is that, contrary to the Olympics, they do not require drug testing. To legitimize this proposal, the website says that athletes have been using performance-enhancing substances since the ancient Greek Olympics. Only in the past 50 years have performance enhancements been “vilified,” forcing athletes to play “a cat-and-mouse game with anti-science agencies like WADA.” The new event organizers recommend “embracing science” instead – for “Sports, without drug testing.”
The program of the Enhanced Games, to be held annually, is set to include five sports categories: athletics, aquatics, gymnastics, combat sports and weightlifting. A location for the inaugural event is yet to be determined. Former Olympic gold medalist Anna Meares, the retired track cyclist currently serving as Australia’s Olympic chef de mission for Paris 2024, has slammed the proposal as an unfair and unsafe “joke,” multiple press sources have reported.
