“Now I’m being taught how to do it right,” says Ryan. “And I’m getting paid to do it.”
Ryan hopes Enhanced can pave the way for truly separating “clean” events and transparently juiced competitions. He even called for increased testing stringency in events like the Olympics.
“What we’re doing is completely different,” Ryan said during Friday’s media availability. “It’s marketing, it’s show business. And it should be different.”
The financial argument and the idea of helping aging athletes prolong their careers is the most compelling case I’ve heard for Enhanced – at least in terms of athletes’ motivation. But it is the business side of the organization where some conflicts of interest become difficult to ignore.
Photograph: Etienne Laurent/Getty Images
go towards Go to the product page of the Enhanced website and you’ll find what appears to be a spinoff of the telehealth company Himes’ organization, but for PEDs. Products such as copper peptides, sermorelin, and testosterone injections are available with GLP-1s, semaglutide, and tadalafil.
Martin is open-minded about the mission: to bring these products to the masses. He talks about the necessary medical intake forms and regular checkups with certified company doctors to avoid the risks of incorrect or overuse.
But if the advanced mission is successful, and PEDs become a larger and economically more attractive part of sports, then believing that these products will simply be sought after and used in responsible ways is as naive as pretending that doping has not occurred in supposedly “clean” events in the past. If anything, athletes, especially in disadvantaged financial situations, may prioritize doping even more.
This is where the dystopian feel bubbling beneath the surface becomes more pronounced. From investors like Thiel and Donald Trump Jr. to Enhanced Games founder Aaron D’Souza, there’s a specific MAHA undertaking, which RFK Jr. describes as “pro-human enhancement.”
While the organizers haven’t given me any specifics about how much the future of Enhanced will depend on prize pools and product sales to fund operations, it’s probably safe to assume that investors like these will expect returns for staying involved.
It’s fair to wonder if this is really an effort to remove the stigma and change the game. The overconfidence displayed before the actual competitions only drove home the feeling that this was more an elaborate money-making scheme than anything else.
So will advanced sports usher in a new era of athletic ability and skill? Maybe—at least if you can afford it.
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