Topline
Billionaire PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel is an investor in a drug-friendly sports contest styled as a “modern reinvention of the Olympic Games,” part of a movement embracing ways science and technology can enhance human performance that an increasing number of critics including the White House and decorated Olympians argue makes a mockery of sport and endangers the health of athletes.
Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, has invested in the Enhanced Games.
Key Facts
Thiel was revealed as an investor in a “multi-million dollar” seed round in January for the Enhanced Games, a privately funded sporting contest that describes itself as the “Olympics of the future.”
Thiel is joined by the likes of Balaji Srinivasan, a cryptocurrency investor and former CTO of Coinbase, and Christian Angermayer, a biotech investor who said the games “will undoubtedly inspire the public’s imagination.”
The Enhanced Games said it will not test athletes for drugs or other performance enhancers at its events—it is not clear when the first competition will take place—explaining it “embrace[s] the inclusion of science in sports” and is “unencumbered by anachronistic legacy systems” that are “anti-science” and stigmatize “enhanced athletes.”
The contest said it is aiming to be the “safest international sporting event in history” and will require full medical screens on athletes competing to monitor any risks.
While the “Enhanced Movement” stresses enhancements as a “personal” choice for competitors, the contest’s website says it “embraces enhanced athletes” and wants to push the “perceived limit” of what is possible, with the ultimate goal of setting new world records.
Team sports have been culled from the contest to better focus on individual prowess, and events will be held across five core sporting categories: athletics, aquatics, combat, gymnastics and strength.
News Peg
Kieren Perkins, a four-time Olympic medallist and chief executive of the Australian Sports Commission, on Tuesday said “the idea of an Enhanced Games is laughable” and “borderline criminal.” Perkins, one of Australia’s most celebrated athletes who won gold medals in the 1,500-meter freestyle at the 1992 and ’96 Games in Barcelona and Atlanta and has broken 11 world records, warned that “someone will die if we allow that sort of environment to continue to foster and flourish.” Perkins’ sentiment was echoed by Sport New Zealand chief executive Raelene Castle, who likened the Enhanced Games to lethal dystopian contests like “Squid Games or Hunger Games,” and follows reports of another Australian swimmer publicly endorsing the event. The swimmer, James Magnussen, won silver for the 100 meter freestyle at London 2012, said he will come out of retirement if the Games put up $1 million for breaking the 50m freestyle world record. “I’ll juice to the gills and I’ll break it in six months,” he said. The Enhanced Games has promised to cut Magnussen a check if he breaks the record. The White House also joined leading sporting figures in criticizing the drug-friendly venture last week and expressed “deep concerns” over the idea of an event “without anti-doping requirements.”
How Can I Compete?
The Enhanced Games says it is going to be the “most inclusive sports league in history.” All adults will be welcome to apply to compete in the games, organizers said, regardless of whether they are “natural, adaptive, or enhanced, an amateur or a former Olympian.” Registration will open in late 2024. Precise dates for the contest are not yet known.
Chief Critic
Critics argue efforts like the Enhanced Games put athletes’ health at risk, undermines the integrity and fairness of sporting competition and is potentially illegal in some cases. In a statement to Forbes, Travis Tygart, CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), described the entire project as a “dangerous clown show that puts profit over principle.” Tygart added that “while those behind the Enhanced Games might be looking to make a quick buck, that profit would come at the expense of kids across the world thinking they need to dope to chase their dreams.”
Crucial Quote
“Contemporary drug testing practised in sports today is not necessarily about athlete safety; it often skews the public perception of fairness and health in competitive sports,” said Michael Sagner, a member of the games’ scientific and medical advisory board and a clinician and researcher in aging and sports medicine at King’s College London. Sagner said Enhanced will adopt a “sophisticated safety protocol” that will put athletes’ health first.
Tangent
The Enhanced Games’ organizers say they hope to avoid the excessive waste and costs associated with the modern Olympic Games. The Enhanced Games have been designed so they can be hosted at a Division One university campus, its website said, avoiding the need to build new stadiums and push cities into debt. It will also mean athletes can be paid fairly, boasts Aron D’Souza, president of the Enhanced Games. While the Olympic Games can generate billions in revenue, successful athletes see only a fraction of the bounty. “By focusing on world records in popular sports such as track and field, swimming, gymnastics, weight lifting and combat sports, we can eliminate wasteful infrastructure spending and reinvest to fairly pay all athletes.”
What We Don’t Know
It’s not clear how much athletes competing in the Enhanced Games stand to win. The games’ organizers say an exact prize pool and compensation structure will be announced in the middle of 2024. All athletes will be paid a base salary and will compete for additional prize winnings, organizers said.
Key Background
By nature, competitive athletes strive to be the very best at what they do and train hard to achieve this. Inevitably, athletes look beyond themselves for ways of getting an edge, which can range from an improved diet, training at high altitudes and exploiting advances in sports medicine and psychology to high-tech gear like bikes, shoes and swimming costumes, blood doping and drugs. A number of these methods, notably using drugs, have potentially negative health consequences for athletes and are viewed as giving an unfair advantage over other competitors. While there is no clear consensus on where the dividing line is between permissible and impermissible enhancement—the boundary often changes with new scientific advances as well—high level contests frequently test athletes to eliminate the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Athletes in many professional leagues can be sanctioned or barred from competition for doping, and some fans reject any records set by athletes who used performance-enhancing drugs.
Forbes Valuation
We estimate Thiel has a net worth of $7.2 billion. The sum positions him as the 366th richest person in the world on Forbes’ list of real-time billionaires. Thiel cofounded PayPal and big data firm Palantir and was the first big investor in Facebook.Further Reading
Some suggested events for Peter Thiel’s all-drug Olympics / Let’s get creative! (The Verge)
