Only one competitor set a ‘world record’ and even that performance has been questioned.
The inaugural Enhanced Games was a complete failure in every imaginable way.
The first edition of the controversial Games was held in Las Vegas last weekend with 16 events being contested in three sports (athletics, swimming and weightlifting).
It was billed as an opportunity for athletes to chase unofficial world records (none of them would have been ratified by global bodies), which was perhaps the only enticing aspect of the unique concept.
I was really curious how quickly the sprinters and swimmers could go without being restricted to anti-doping rules, but the results were horribly disappointing.
Despite most of the competitors taking performance enhancing drugs, only one world record was ‘broken’, by Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev who touched the wall in 20.81 seconds in the men’s 50m freestyle wearing a high-tech suit which has been banned by World Aquatics.
And though he received a $1 million (R16.4 million) bonus for the unofficial record, on top of the $250 000 (R4.1 million) he received for first place, even that result has been questioned, with video replays of the race suggesting the clock might have been stopped before he reached the finish.
Most of the events were so poor the competitors produced nothing more memorable than what you would see at domestic competitions held around the world.
The only South African taking part, sprinter Clarence Munyai, finished last in his 100m heat in 10.85 seconds, well outside his personal best of 10.04 set in 2022.
Failed marketing stunt
So even those of us who didn’t completely write the Games off as an opportunity to give cheaters a chance to shine were ultimately disappointed.
And with the organisers making it clear that they were hoping to use the Games as an opportunity to promote a company owned by the founders that sells performance enhancing substances and programmes to the average person, even that marketing stunt flopped completely.
If they were hoping to prove that their company could turn amateur athletes into super beasts, paying second-tier professional athletes millions of dollars to produce average performances simply didn’t do the trick.
At first, I thought the Enhanced Games might be a pathway for athletes who didn’t want to be restricted by anti-doping rules to get the best out of themselves without cheating.
Now that we’ve seen one edition of it, it’s clearly nothing more than the world’s least successful marketing stunt.
