Sport or circus? Enhanced Games raises questions over safety, ethics and sport itself
Sport or circus? Enhanced Games raises questions over safety, ethics and sport itselfBy Rachel McDonald, the Australian Science Media Centre
Cash was splashed and a world record 'broken' at the Enhanced Games this week, with 42 athletes participating in the inaugural Las Vegas on Sunday. Boasting over six million in cash prizes and a website that lists its products before its athletes, the Enhanced Games was a single-day sportsfest featuring swimming, track and weightlifting events where performance-enhancing drug (PED) use was encouraged rather than banned. In the end, several of the titles were claimed by athletes who chose to enter clean, while Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev swam a faster 50-metre freestyle than the official world record using both PEDs and a swimsuit that has been banned for about 15 years.
Associate Professor Matthew Dunn from Deakin University told the AusSMC that the concept of the Enhanced Games was "intriguing."
"People love to watch events like the Olympic Games to see humans test the limits of their abilities, and this takes that idea one step further. People have been using substances to enhance their athletic abilities for millennia, and this is no different," he said.
Sport scientist Associate Professor Kagan Ducker from Curtin University said the games provided a "unique opportunity" to see how effective drugs typically banned from elite sport would actually be.
"In reality, we don’t truly know the effects of many of these illegal substances and methods on exercise performance because they typically have been banned from use in sport, and therefore, research interest and viability to study them are reduced."
Dr Phil Bellinger from Griffith University said removing barriers to drug use could provide an opportunity to see the true human performance ceiling in various sports.
"We possibly already see elite athletes privately pushing these boundaries, so there's an argument for complete transparency around this. Nonetheless, there are a few concerns surrounding the enhanced games," he said.
Safety was Dr Bellinger's first concern, a sentiment echoed by Professor Rob Aughey from Federation University.
"The Enhanced Games that allow athletes to compete with pharmacological freedom are a dangerous stunt with no place as a sporting event," he said.
"Many performance-enhancing drugs allowed in the enhanced games have serious adverse health effects that could ultimately lead to death. Competitors in the Enhanced Games are at serious risk of psychological (addiction, psychosis, aggression, mood swings) and physiological (high blood pressure, abnormal, dangerous heart growth, kidney and liver damage and failure, muscle strain and ruptures) harm."
From a scientific perspective, A/Prof Ducker said there were also ethical concerns related to the large monetary prize offerings at the event.
"Offering athletes [the prizes], many of whom have low incomes from sport, is akin to luring lower socio-economic groups to participate in research for money – it’s truly unethical by any standards," he said.
Dr Bellinger also raised concerns over the wider impact the games may have on the community.
"The exposure that the enhanced games will likely have may further normalise substance use, whereby the use of these substances in recreational fitness communities has rapidly spiked in recent years," Dr Bellinger said.
Dr Dunn also acknowledged the potential public impact, noting that there were other issues at play when it came to the rising popularity of PEDs.
"There is some concern – rightfully – that this may expose people to messages that taking substances for enhancement purposes is safe or legitimate, and again, I think most people will be able to discern that this is not necessarily the case. Social media is rife with messages about substance use for enhancement or replacement purposes, and we should be more concerned with that,” he said.
Beyond the lack of a level playing field, Professor Aughey said these games were also missing a crucial sporting element.
"Removal of barriers to PEDs also removes one of the fundamental tenets of sport – the demonstration of fair play. The Enhanced Games are pure circus and not sport," he said.
You can read the full AusSMC Expert Reaction here
This article originally appeared in Science Deadline, a weekly newsletter from the AusSMC. You are free to republish this story, in full, with appropriate credit.
Contact: Rachel McDonald
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Email: info@smc.org.au