The Enhanced Games promised to revolutionize sports. They said allowing performance-enhancing drugs would unlock superhuman performances. They claimed we'd see world records shattered left and right.
Well, the results are in. And they're... underwhelming.
Only one world record was broken by a doped athlete at the Las Vegas debut - Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev, who swam the 50-meter freestyle in 20.81 seconds and pocketed a cool $1 million bonus. Problem is, his record won't be officially recognized since the event sanctions PEDs.
Even more telling? Three clean athletes won their events. Let that sink in. At a competition designed to showcase what doping can do, clean athletes still came out on top.
Take Fred Kerley in the men's 100-meter final. He won with a time of 9.97 seconds - good for $250,000. Except that time is 0.39 seconds slower than Usain Bolt's 2009 world record. And it would have placed Kerley dead last at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where he won bronze.
So much for superhuman.
Hormone specialist Greg Novacheck explained what went wrong: "It is not humans at their prime." The Enhanced Games attracted retired Olympians past their competitive peaks. Gkolomeev, the only record-breaker, retired from competitive swimming in 2025 after four Olympics without winning medals.
Turns out you can't just pump PEDs into aging athletes and expect them to suddenly become superhuman. Talent, training, and being in your prime still matter more than chemistry.
Does this mean the conversation about transparency in doping goes away? Probably not. But it does prove that the Enhanced Games' central premise - that PEDs are the difference between good and great - is fundamentally flawed.
The best athletes in the world are the best because of genetics, work ethic, coaching, and timing. Drugs might help around the margins, but they're not magic.
The Enhanced Games wanted to challenge conventional sports. Instead, they proved why conventional sports got it right.
That's what sports is all about, folks.
