ON YOUR marks, get set, DOPE! The inaugural Enhanced Games – a shameful, amoral, almost dystopian sporting experiment – takes place today in Las Vegas.
This one-night spectacle is being described as “a new global sports competition where elite athletes push the limits of human performance”.
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Game of Thrones star Hafthor Bjornsson will feature in the Strongman competition Credit: Getty
Reece Prescod has also signed up for the event that has $250,000 on the table for winners Credit: Getty
At least 34 of the 42 athletes involved will be juiced up – having taken either testosterone, human growth hormone or EPO – but no names of the guilty parties have been announced, and four are going clean.
But in a world where sports stars can be banned for mistakenly using the wrong type of medication, this concept allows its participants to take DRUGS.
Sportsmen and women in three sports – athletics, swimming and weightlifting – have been encouraged to juice-up on all sorts of prohibited substances in the build-up.
All in the name of ENHANCEMENT of the human body.
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Something that will appeal to a generation who see nothing wrong with injecting botox in their faces, collagen in their lips or fat-slimming jabs in their buttocks.
Rich investors are essentially using athletes as pawns in their pursuit of selling these drugs to a mass market beyond the Games.
And how better to showcase the benefits of what the dodgy pills can do by getting gullible people to try and break “world records”.
Now it is unlikely anyone this weekend is going to run faster than Usain Bolt’s 2009 world record for the 100 metres (9.58 seconds).
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Former World 100m champion Fred Kerley has signed up for the tournament Credit: Getty
Yet the field is competitive, notably the inclusion of former world 100 metres champion Fred Kerley, the American who won bronze two years ago at the Paris Olympics, and Britain’s Reece Prescod, a sub 10-second runner, is also taking part.
In the pool, Londoner Ben Proud goes in the men’s 50m metres freestyle.
In a recent interview it is claimed he had three different injections during his enhancement protocol and he thought: “S***, this is happening. This is the turning point that I’ve been talking about.”
Icelandic giant Thor Bjornsson – aka The Mountain from HBO’s Game of Thrones – will feature in the Strongman competition.
Of course, it is all about money. There is $250,000 on the table for each event winner and a $1million bonus if someone sets a world record.
Some won’t blame them for taking the dosh, especially when you consider how much they earned when they competed at the Olympics.
Enhanced Games organisers say everybody is being medically observed by doctors and the performance-enhancing substances – anabolic steroids, hormone regulators, peptides and stimulants – are all US government approved.
But the very fact drug-taking is being normalised in sport is a very worrying trend.
Sam Quek was part of the Team GB side that won Gold in Rio Credit: Getty
She’s since retired but will be there for reporting duties Credit: Getty
Those involved in the event, as ripped as they might look for the cameras, should hang their heads in shame.
And that also goes for Sam Quek, an Olympic gold medallist for Team GB’s hockey team 10 years ago, who is there for reporting duties.
The Enhanced Games represent a rubicon that sport should not cross. It should not be about who has the best chemist or pharmacist.
Naturally it has attracted its fair share of critics. World Athletics chief Seb Coe called it “b*****ks”.
Katherine Grainger, chair of the British Olympic Association, said: “Unsurprisingly, I’m not a fan. I don’t think it’s a good addition to the sporting family.”
Both Prescod, 30, and Proud, 31, have been stripped of public funding for being part of this reprehensible ‘game show’ and their paths back to Team GB will be blocked.
Last month, UK Sport wrote to 1,100 funded athletes on the World Class Programme to make clear their hardline opposition.
The funding agency’s Eligibility Policy has been strengthened, which states that any athlete who promotes, supports or participates in the Enhanced Games could be in big trouble.
Dr Kate Baker, Director of Performance and People at UK Sport, said: “There is a significant risk to athlete health in engaging with any kind of performance-enhancing activity.
“And really serious questions need to be asked when choices are being made between performance and wellbeing.”
Canadian Ben Johnson’s whole life was ruined when he was stripped of the Olympic 100 metres title from the Seoul 1988 Olympics – the dirtiest race in history – due to a positive drugs test.
Had he been born 40 years later and was running now, thing could have been different.
He could have become a millionaire on the Enhanced Games track.
WHAT EXACTLY IS THE ENHANCED GAMES?
IT is “a new global sports competition where elite athletes push the limits of human performance”
It takes place live from Las Vegas today. Forty-two athletes will compete in athletics, swimming and weightlifting.There is also a strongman competition.
There is also a strongman competition.AND CAN ATHLETES REALLY DOPE? Yes. There are few limitations to what they can take.
Athletes are allowed to inject themselves with steroids and various banned substances, provided they are US FDA-approved, and only under strict medical supervision. All in the name of enhancement.
WHAT’S THE PRIZE? There is a $1million on the table if anyone runs faster than 9.58 seconds, which is the world record that Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt set in Berlin 17 years ago.
It is the same in the pool and in the gymnasium if they break existing world bests.
WHAT’S BEEN THE REACTION? Generally negative across the entire sporting landscape. Seb Coe, a two-time Olympic 1500 metres champion, called it “b*******”.
The concern for all sports is if this becomes so popular and lucrative that athletes will gravitate towards the Enhanced Games rather than represent their country at the Olympics.
ANY BRITISH LADS TAKING PART? Reece Prescod, who ran at Olympic and world level for Team GB, has cut ties with the British athletics programme and will be running.
The other pariah is Ben Proud, one of the fastest freestyle swimmers in the world. Both have been part of Middle East enhancement training camps.
CAN WE WATCH IN THE UK? It is not on TV but will be streamed on YouTube. If you like your music then Las Vegas rock band The Killers will give a “stadium-shaking performance” at the end of the Games.
