The idea was simple: What if performance-enhancing drugs were allowed at the Olympics?
From 2023 to 2025, a group of CEOs, entrepreneurs, and investors secured equity capital to fund this concept— what would become the “Enhanced Games.” The idea was to test the limits of human athletic performances and give free bodily autonomy to the athletes. While athletes would not be required to use any PEDs to compete, the competition would not follow the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency, which regulates drug use across hundreds of different international sporting leagues.
Though medical professionals criticized the event and warned of dangerous side effects from PEDs, it’s easy to see the appeal of the idea: what if the strong and fastest athletes in the world were even better?
The first Enhanced Games took place in May 2026, to mostly lackluster results
The organizers of the event predicted that multiple world records would be shattered across events in swimming, weightlifting, sprinting, and more during the Games’ inaugural competition in Las Vegas. The events took place on May 24, 2026 at various Vegas resorts.
Of course, any new records would not be official—but there was much excitement over the possibility of seeing a new height of performance.
Overall, the results were more than a bit of a dud.
One world record was technically broken in the men’s 50 meter freestyle swim. Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev beat the record by .07 seconds, but in addition to using performance enhancing drugs, he also wore a super-buoyant swimsuit that is banned in regular competition.
While many “enhanced” athletes set personal bests at the event, only the one record was broken…and it won’t count in any official record books.
Two weightlifters, meanwhile, failed at World Record deadlift attempts.
Drug-free sprinter makes headlines with victory
Athletes had the option of competing in the games drug-free, which made for some extremely interesting results in some events.
Sprinter Fred Kerley, who has won multiple Olympic medals for team USA, chose to compete drug-free in the men’s 100 meter sprint. It’s worth noting that Kerley had been recently suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit for missing mandatory drug tests, but spoke openly about his desire to compete in the Enhanced Games, well, un-enhanced.
Kerley lined up against several drug-enhanced athletes and, for lack of a better word, smoked the field. He won the event relatively handily, though he also failed to set a World Record—which he had teased at breaking.
The winner of the women’s competition?
None other than Tristan Evelyn, a sprinter from Barbados and another drug-free runner. The 24-year-old, like Kerley, chose to compete without using PEDs.
That made for a “clean” sweep in the 100 meters.
Kerley had strong words for the enhanced athletes after his victory
“I don’t need [drugs],” he said before the competition, per ESPN. “God gave me fast feet for a reason. I’m here to showcase my talent. You still have to work. Drugs aren’t going to give you an advantage if you’re not putting the work in.”
Kerley more than backed up his talk with a resounding win, although even his winning time would have secured last-place in the most recent Olympics final. Afterwards, he sounded off on the enhanced athletes:
“They gotta do better than that,” Kerley said in a post-race interview per Newsweek. “They need to train a little harder, get on that s*** a little bit more, and go a little harder some more.”
Kerley hit on a piece of resonant advice. Viewers of the Enhanced Games were promised world-class athletes set free from the shackles of drug testing; the very limits of human achievement were going to be tested.
That’s not what they got. In the 100 meter, viewers were presented with suspended athletes, retired sprinters, and mid-tier professionals. Kerley, a top talent and a relentless worker, beat them all without the use of drugs.
It’s a resonant message in the new world where AI can create nearly anything with a single click, and where friction and effort are constantly being eliminated from every facet of life. Kerley proved that, without a doubt, there are no shortcuts to greatness.
