Earlier this month, the Biden White House issued a statement joining both the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in expressing “its deep concerns over…the planned ‘Enhanced Games’ without anti-doping requirements.” Are such concerns really warranted? No.
“Why not solve the future problem of gene doping and the current problem of steroid use in professional sports by creating two kinds of sports leagues?” I asked way back in 2005. “One would be free of genetic and pharmacologic enhancements—call them the Natural Leagues. The other would allow players to use gene fixes and other enhancements—call them the Enhanced Leagues.”
That is the salutary goal of the Enhanced Games, in which competing athletes will be able to use enhancements to improve their performances. “We embrace the inclusion of science in sports, and we fundamentally believe that the choice to use enhancements is a personal one,” explain the organizers. “Sports can be safer without drug testing.”
In their response to the White House, the organizers of the Enhanced Games point to a WADA-backed 2017 study that reported that nearly 44 percent of elite athletes had used performance enhancements in the past year. Their goal is to frankly acknowledge that reality and enable elite athletes to choose the venues (enhanced or natural) in which they would like to compete.
The organizers of the Enhanced Games additionally suggest that the data that they gather on performance enhancements will ultimately help the IOC to more effectively maintain “natural” Olympic competition.
In the Enhanced Games response, Aron D’Souza, president of the Enhanced Games, said,
We urge President Biden to engage with the Enhanced Games on what is an inevitable evolution in sports. As a champion of science, President Biden has the opportunity to help the 44% of athletes who have used performance enhancements to come out and safely compete. Only with a formal partnership between the IOC and Enhanced Games, can Olympics drug testing finally be effective and ensure the integrity of their games.
During a Zoom press conference earlier this week, D’Souza made it clear that evaluating the effectiveness of performance enhancements used in the competition will also advance transhumanist aims such as increasing healthy longevity. “The Enhanced Games, with our medical oversight and screening apparatus, will create this unique data which will benefit not only the tested sports community but also Longevity Science in general as many compounds can be repurposed to combat illnesses such as frailty which are endemic in modern society,” said Michael Sagner, the scientific adviser for Enhanced Games.
Besides welcoming performance enhancements, salient differences between the Olympic Games and the Enhanced Games include the fact that the latter is a privately funded for-profit operation and that participating athletes are paid.
During the Zoom session, D’Souza said that many more details about the Enhanced Games, including a major broadcast deal, will be announced soon.
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