The Australian entrepreneur Aron D’Souza has launched an ambitious and sensational concept: “Enhanced Games” – an Olympics where doping is allowed. The team behind the new championship believes that one should not limit knowledge, but embrace it. Doping tests will therefore not be carried out during the Games, which are planned to be held in December 2024. BASIC FOUNDATIONS: Aron D’Souza recently launched the “Enhanced Games” – a championship without doping tests. – The athletes are adults, and have the right to do what they want with their own bodies. My body, my choice. Your body, your choice, says D’Souza to the news agency AAP, according to The Guardian. He promises that all use of performance-enhancing agents must be done in a controlled, medically sound manner. Meeting opposition: – It’s a joke that the “Doping Olympics” will contain five different sports: Athletics, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics and martial arts. D’Souza believes that the traditional Olympic Games are corrupt and ruined. The pampas are getting rich, while the athletes are struggling to finance their own investment, he claims. Therefore, they expect opposition from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to the new concept. – They will threaten us, but we know that morally we are on the right side. TEKE: Ben Johnson won Olympic gold in the 100 meters in 1988, but was later banned for using anabolic steroids. Photo: AP An Olympics where dopers are warmly welcomed has already met with great opposition. Australia’s Olympic chief Anna Meares says she is horrified by the concept. – It’s a joke, to be completely honest. It is unfair and unsafe, this is not the way to practice sport, she believes. The sob against Obelix against Green Goblin The idea of a “doping Olympics” is also being spread diligently on social media. A video published on their Twitter account, in which they claim that Usain Bolt’s world record for 100 meters will be broken, has been viewed over seven million times. CRITICAL: Athletics legend Michael Johnson. Photo: AFP – This is quite ridiculous, wrote athletics legend Michael Johnson, with four Olympic gold medals to his credit, on Twitter. He later deleted the message because he did not want to give the new project any attention. news sports commentator Jan Petter Saltvedt believes that the launch of the “doping Olympics” is most of all a provocation. – It is an attempt to challenge all established truths in the IOC-governed sports world by creating sports games where the Hulk meets Obelix meets the Green Goblin in the 100-metre dash, in the swimming pool or on the free-standing floor. WHO WILL WIN: The Hulk, Obelix or the Green Goblin? Photo: NTB “Point of no return” Sports professor Jan Ove Tangen at the University of Southeast Norway believes that the arguments for “Enhanced Games” can seem convincing if one does not have a professional background to assess it. According to him, the concept is inspired by transhumanism, but without going into the ethically dubious nature of the idea that man can transcend himself with the help of technology. PROFESSOR: Jan Ove Tangen. Photo: Private – If one opens up to this type of thinking, without taking the critical part with him, we can end up with a situation where there is no way back. A “point of no return” where cloning, genetic modification, implants, hormones, other preparations etc. are used, says Tangen and continues: – What I think is very problematic about this is that they argue under the guise of the knowledge is only good and that this is in the best interests of the athletes. There is very little critical reflection to be traced, says Tangen. – People are going to die Saltvedt describes “Enhanced Games” as a scientific experiment, where the players are rats and guinea pigs. He also believes that it is a philosophical project, where one is forced to think about why sport is structured and regulated as it is today. – From this point of view, it is actually theoretically interesting, but in practice it is both unnecessary and to the highest degree unjustifiable, he says. SPORTS COMMENTATOR: Jan Petter Saltvedt. Photo: Lars Thomas Nordby / news Saltvedt believes that the IOC benefits from being challenged, but that this is not the way to do it. The current rules around doping cause concern. – The restrictions on drug use in sport have their obvious ethical and physiological reasons. Pushing all the limits of what science can produce from artificially created performance is bound to end in one form of tragedy or another. – “Enhanced Games” sounds most of all like sport’s version of the Hunger Games, where whoever is left alive in the end wins. The new Games claim that all use of doping must be done in controlled ways. – Should you decide for yourself what kind of risk you are willing to take, or should the governing authorities or the sports federations do it? asks D’Souza to The Guardian, without hiding what he means. But something is bothering Professor Tangen. He is aware that it will pose a health risk, and wonders how they will actually check that things are going properly. – There will be a double standard and a logical contradiction. The athletes become “guinea pigs” in an uncertain and potentially very harmful biological experiment, he believes. The former long-distance runner Rob Watson is also afraid of what the consequences might be. – Pure sport is safe sport. People are going to die trying this. So irresponsible and dangerous, he wrote on Twitter. Support from athletes A few athletes have nevertheless expressed support for “Enhanced Games”. They have their own sports team, led by former Olympic swimmer Brett Fraser. He believes that he has competed against several who have had the benefit of medical exemptions (TUE) throughout his career. SYMJAR: Roland Schoeman is still an active seamstress. Here from the 2004 Olympics, where he won silver. Photo: Ap – I know athletes who have been exempted from using medicines or treatments that not all athletes have access to or are allowed to use, says Fraser, according to the swimming website SwimSwam. Another seamstress, the former doping-banned athlete Roland Schoeman, acts as an adviser to the new Games. He has always claimed that his doping test was contaminated, and still claims that he will never use performance-enhancing drugs. – I believe that everyone should have the freedom to make their own choice regarding performance-enhancing means, as long as they are well informed about the potential risks, consequences and requirements from their national and international association, he says according to the South African Times. Professor Tangen strongly doubts whether “Enhanced Games” will be able to be carried out. He does not understand how it will be financed, who will sponsor a sports event without doping testing, which cities will host it, which media houses will broadcast it and which athletes will participate. – What I ask myself is what is behind it and what do they want? Realism is completely absent, they will not be able to get this in place. To me, it seems like a plan by the initiators to save themselves in the short term. This is how Enhanced Games presents itself on its own websites. Photo: Screenshot Enhanced Games Sensational doping list On the website, “Enhanced Games” has an overview of doping records, which they believe should be approved, and a tribute to banned athletes such as Lance Armstrong and Ben Johnson. ON THE LIST: “Enhanced Games” claims that Florence Griffith Joyner, who died in 1998, drugged herself. Photo: Ap But among athletes who should get their records back, pole vaulters Jelena Isinbajeva, the Danish runner Wilson Kipketer and the American sprinter Florence Griffith-Joyner also appear. There is only one problem. – None of these have ever been accused of using prohibited substances. But science openly knows things that we in the public haven’t caught on to, here too, says Saltvedt.
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Organizing the Olympics for dopers – fears people may die – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcasting schedule
