Enhanced Games Exploit Olympics' Business Model

IOC makes billions but athletes paid little, creating opening for lucrative doping event

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NEW YORK - Performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) destroy the bodies, minds and reputations of athletes. Nonetheless, a group of investors, including Peter Thiel and Donald Trump Jr, see a business opportunity.

They recently announced the first edition of the Enhanced Games - a kind of doping Olympics in which athletes are allowed and even encouraged to take PEDs — which will be held in Las Vegas in May 2026.

It is a perverse concept, but that has not stopped four Olympians from already signing up. Other athletes will likely follow, lured by millions of dollars in prize money and appearance fees.

The actual Olympics have nothing to do with this, but the world's most popular sporting event is not blameless. Its business model, under which athletes are paid little if anything, creates the opportunity for something as warped as a sporting event that encourages doping to emerge.

Consider the dilemma faced by Kristian Gkolomeev, an accomplished 31-year-old swimmer who has competed in the last four Summer Olympics for Greece.

It has not exactly been a financially lucrative existence for him. In 2016, for example, the Greek government supported some of its top Olympians with less than US$1,000 (S$1,300) per month.

Then and now, medal winners receive lucrative bonuses, but Gkolomeev has never won one.

Enter the Enhanced Games.

In 2024, organisers offered a US$1 million bounty for breaking the men's 50m and 100m freestyle swim records.

Gkolomeev signed up, juiced himself and, sure enough, "broke" — a term that should be used loosely when it involves steroid usage — the 50m record in April.