Doping-Enhanced Games set for 2026

FREAK SHOW'

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THE Enhanced Games have set their inaugural competition for May 21-24, 2026 in Las Vegas, with swimming, athletics and weightlifting on the agenda for athletes using substances banned in official competition to the consternation of anti-doping bodies.

Basking in Las Vegas’ neon glow at the launch, founder Aron D’Souza urged athletes this week to take a gamble on the novel competition that he believes can transform sports science while critics deride it as a freak show.

The organisers touted what they believe to be their biggest success story so far: Kristian Gkolomeev, a Greek swimmer who never made the podium in four Olympics but surpassed one of his sport’s great achievements under the Enhanced Games programme.

Gkolomeev swam two-hundredths of a second faster than the 50m freestyle official world record that has stood for more than 15 years, clocking 20.89 in February with an inline full-body open water suit that falls outside World Aquatics standards.

“I'm kind of like the driver in the car, but I need the team behind me,” Gkolomeev, who finished fifth in the event at the Paris Games, said ahead of the Las Vegas event.

The Enhanced Games have held the 31-year-old up as an example of what can be possible under their regime while declining to disclose which “performance enhancements” he used, citing medical confidentiality.