Amid the cynicism, the Enhanced Games will finally happen. But is this sport?

May 24, 2026 — 7:33pm

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Las Vegas: The Enhanced Games’ main media officer is clutching an orange tape measure as he ushers roughly 200 journalists from 25 countries around a futuristic $70 million venue built in just four weeks at the base of Resorts World Las Vegas, complete with a swimming pool, running track and weightlifting arena, unlike anything previously seen in sport.

“I can assure you all the track is 100 metres long,” he says.

The track might be of correct specifications, but is this really sport?

The Games have been bombarded with cynicism and scepticism – some warranted, some misguided – ever since former Australian swimmer James Magnussen signed on as the first athlete willing to take performance-enhancing drugs, under strict medical supervision from doctors on different continents, in a bid to discover what the human body is capable of.

The inaugural Enhanced Games, whose organisers insist they are not in direct competition with the Olympics, will be streamed for free on YouTube on Sunday (Monday morning, AEST) from a city synonymous with risk-taking, so much so that poker machines have found their way into grocery stores.

The perception is that these athletes – many of them Olympians – are recklessly pumping their bodies full of illegal substances in pursuit of eye-watering prizemoney of up to $1.4 million for world records.

But are they being exploited in an audacious stunt for profit? And what happens when copycats, without the same medical supervision, inevitably........

© Brisbane Times