{"id":739,"date":"2026-05-22T13:42:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T13:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=739"},"modified":"2026-05-22T13:42:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T13:42:19","slug":"sports-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=739","title":{"rendered":"Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Competing while using banned substances is one of elite sports\u2019 most fiercely protected red lines. But this weekend, in the shadow of a Las Vegas casino, comes a one-day competition that has sparked controversy for unapologetically crossing it. <\/p>\n

Read more Advisory issued for bacteria in water at Crandon Park North in Key Biscayne, FDOH says<\/a><\/p>\n

Denounced by anti-doping agencies and global sports federations but championed by a small cadre of swimmers, sprinters, weightlifters and financial backers, the Enhanced Games will open Sunday following months of headlines. Rather than ban the use of performance-enhancing drugs, organizers of the Enhanced Games have built an entire event, and company, around their use and appeal. <\/p>\n

Forty-two athletes will compete. The competitors \u2014 who include past Olympic medalists, including swimmers Cody Miller of the U.S., Shane Ryan and Ben Proud and sprinter Fred Kerley \u2014 were not required to use drugs to join the Enhanced Games, but they could elect to do so as part of a 12-week trial supervised by the games in Abu Dhabi, where many athletes also trained. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe old rulebook is gone,\u201d Miller posted last month on social media.<\/p>\n

Athletes who elected to compete on PEDs received a custom drug regimen crafted by the games\u2019 medical staff and could pick from drugs across five approved categories, \u201cincluding testosterone esters, anabolic agents, peptides and growth factors, metabolic modulators, and stimulants,\u201d according to the company. The most popular category of drug taken? Testosterone or testosterone esters, which 91% of the doping athletes used, according to a clinical trial released by the games this week. Human growth hormone was used by 79% of athletes. Of the 42 athletes competing, 36 took part in the trial, of whom 34 used PEDs and two others trained \u201cnaturally.\u201d<\/p>\n

The games support \u201csafe, responsible and clinically supervised use of performance enhancements,\u201d not the \u201cindiscriminate use of restricted substances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, athlete-led commissions representing both the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Olympic Committee jointly condemned the Enhanced Games, saying encouraging use of PEDs was \u201ca betrayal of everything that we stand for\u201d and \u201cutterly irresponsible and immoral.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Enhanced Games have drawn attention for more than drugs. They\u2019re offering something else that is rarely seen in elite Olympic sports, too \u2014 a whole bunch of money. Winners of each event will earn $250,000 as part of a promised prize-money pool of $25 million. Any athlete who breaks a world record Sunday can earn a $1 million prize, the same payout the Enhanced Games paid last year to the Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev when he broke the 50-meter freestyle world record after having taken PEDs as part of a private event sponsored by the Enhanced Games.<\/p>\n

Miller, who did not respond to a request for comment, has said he signed on in part because he believed athletes in the Olympics for years have not been offered the level of financial incentives they deserve. <\/p>\n

Read more Sports<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day Olympic athletes don\u2019t get paid a lot of money,\u201d Ryan, one of the most decorated swimmers in Irish history, told Ireland\u2019s RT\u00c9 Sport last fall after he signed up for the games. \u201cI was on 18,000 euro, and that\u2019s below minimum wage for a whole year\u2019s worth and hours and hours and hours. … We don\u2019t make a lot of money, and I did it for over a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Founded by Aron D\u2019Souza, an entrepreneur on a self-described \u201cmission to build superhumanity,\u201d the Enhanced Games have drawn funding from investments by tech billionaire Peter Thiel and a venture fund backed by Donald Trump Jr. In May, it went public as the Enhanced Group, with officials saying it will host live events and sell telehealth and \u201cperformance medicine products.\u201d Its business model appears to hope that the shine from the athletes\u2019 performances in the one-day spectacle will draw in customers interested in trying the same enhancements. Its website already sells products such as \u201cpersonalized testosterone,\u201d peptides and GLP-1s.<\/p>\n

The Enhanced Games began signing athletes not long after a 2024 scandal in which Chinese swimmers were reported to have tested positive for PEDs before the 2021 Tokyo Olympics but were allowed to compete anyway. The Australian swimmer James Magnussen has said he joined in part believing it was \u201cthe first time that there has been a level playing field and I can compete against other \u2018drug cheats.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The World Anti-Doping Agency has called the Enhanced Games \u201ca dangerous and irresponsible concept\u201d that \u201csends a dangerous message to young people around the world who may wish to follow in their footsteps,\u201d WADA President Witold Ba\u0144ka said in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo the few people who are choosing to participate in the Enhanced Games, athletes, coaches and the medical personnel, I question why they would risk forever tarnishing their reputations by being associated with doping in sport,\u201d Ba\u0144ka said. \u201cThe beauty and popularity of sport is based on the ideal of clean and fair competition. Athletes are meant to represent these values, which must be protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Athletes competing in the Enhanced Games have weighed the potential for huge payouts alongside public pushback. Some have been dropped by their agents. Tristan Evelyn had represented Barbados at the Olympics and holds the country\u2019s records in the 60 and 100 meters, but after she joined, the chairman of the Barbados National Anti-Doping Commission quickly denounced the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be careful how we deal with these cases,\u201d Dr. Adrian Lorde, the chairman of the Barbados National Anti-Doping Commission, told the Caribbean Broadcasting Corp. \u201cBut from the national anti-doping point of view, I would say we are disappointed and we advise persons not to take part in the Enhanced Games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Knicks defeat Cavs in Game 2 to take 2-0 lead in Eastern Conference Finals<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Enhanced Games, taking place this weekend in Las Vegas, support “safe, responsible and clinically supervised use of performance enhancements.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nSports - Jacksonville Moving News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=739\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sports - Jacksonville Moving News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Enhanced Games, taking place this weekend in Las Vegas, support "safe, responsible and clinically supervised use of performance enhancements."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=739\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jacksonville Moving News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-22T13:42:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\\\/?p=739#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\\\/?p=739\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bd97a0052a7a1d8119a1fd0b85af888b\"},\"headline\":\"Sports\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-22T13:42:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\\\/?p=739\"},\"wordCount\":956,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\\\/?p=739#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/bb57469cdfea6d16c27dea8b40b845f1.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\\\/?p=739#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\\\/?p=739\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\\\/?p=739\",\"name\":\"Sports - 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