In May 2026, Las Vegas will play host to the Enhanced Games – a competition where doping is not just allowed, it’s required. Behind the project are libertarian investors – including Donal Trump Jr – and athletes motivated by million-dollar prizes.
In February 2025, in an empty aquatic centre in North Carolina, USA, Kristian Gkolomeev is about to break the 50 metre freestyle world record held for 16 years by César Cielo.
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But this Greek swimmer – the European champion over this distance in June 2024, who came fifth in the race at the Paris Olympic Games – will never see this record ratified. Because the 32-year-old took banned substances in order to achieve this feat, becoming in the process the figurehead of a new sporting movement: the Enhanced Games.
A video of his performance posted on Instagram on 26 May garnered almost 7 million views, and Gkolomeev declared himself on his own profile to be the “fastest swimmer in history”.
Five days earlier he had posted on his own account: “I’m excited to share that I’ll be representing myself and competing in the Enhanced Games – a new competition built on science and safety, aiming to reimagine the future of sport.”
This “future” is one in which doping takes centre stage – not just permitted but encouraged, in the pursuit of what the Enhanced Games organisers call “superhumanity”. Behind the project is 40-year-old Australian entrepreneur Aron D’Souza. For him, doping is not cheating but rather the “liberation” of human potential, made possible by science.
