The grift and glory of the Enhanced Games

What It Covers

The Verge's Victoria Song reports from the inaugural Enhanced Games in Las Vegas, where 42 athletes — most using FDA-approved performance-enhancing drugs under medical supervision — competed for prize money up to $1,000,000, raising questions about sports ethics, athlete compensation, and whether the event is legitimate science or biohacking marketing.

Key Questions Answered

• •Enhanced Games drug policy: The event permits only FDA-approved substances — testosterone, select anabolic steroids, and EPO — not unregulated gray-market peptides. Athletes undergo MRI, CT scans, and metabolic panels before being cleared to dope, and dosages are actively dialed back if health markers deteriorate, making this a regulated framework rather than an unrestricted free-for-all.
• •Athlete compensation gap: Olympic silver medalist Ben Proud reported financial struggle despite his Paris 2024 medal, which carries a $37,500 prize. At the Enhanced Games, last-place finishers earn a minimum $20,000, while event winners can take home $250,000 or more — exposing a structural underpayment problem for elite amateur athletes that the Enhanced Games directly exploits as a recruitment tool.
• •Doping limits on performance: James Magnussen over-enhanced in a 2024 trial run, bulking up so heavily he became slower in the water and couldn't fit his competition suit. The Enhanced Games dialed back his protocol for the live event, demonstrating that more testosterone does not linearly improve athletic output and that sport-specific physiology constrains doping benefits significantly.
• •Clean athletes outperformed doped competitors: Three of four unenhanced athletes beat their doped counterparts in head-to-head races. Combined with only one world record broken across the entire event, this outcome suggests that eight weeks of supervised doping — the protocol used here — produces insufficient performance gains to overcome elite baseline fitness, particularly in technical sports like swimming.
• •Revenue model is telehealth, not ticket sales: The Enhanced Games operates a direct-to-consumer platform selling testosterone replacement, GLP-1 agonists, hormone therapies, and peptides. The sporting event functions as marketing for this biohacking brand. The company requires blood tests and monthly follow-ups before dispensing substances, adding friction that distinguishes it from platforms like Hims/Hers but also raises sustainability questions if compliance costs reduce margins.