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Over the past few weeks, a 55-second clip of a man running has gone viral on Twitter. There is some debate about the authenticity of the clip, which was deliberately shot from angles that disguise the identity of the runner. But the clip does the job it was designed to do – draw eyeballs and stir up intrigue around an event called Enhanced Games.
“I’m the fastest man in the world. But you’ve never heard of me. I broke Usain Bolt’s 100m record. But I can’t show you my face. I’m proud and a refined athlete. The Olympics hate me,” the voiceover says. “I need your help to get out.” . I need your help to stop the hate. I need your help for the world to embrace science.”
Aaron D’Souza, the Indian-born man whose brainchild was the Enhanced Games, is marketing the event, slated for December 2024, as a disruptor to what he calls the “old, ossified bureaucracy that is the Olympic Games.”
He is the fastest man in the world. He broke Usain Bolt’s 100-meter record.
But the world is not ready for it. The Olympics hate him.
He has been vilified. He will be acquitted.
Come and watch him compete in the 2024 Enhanced Games. pic.twitter.com/iop3IUptGz
– Enhanced games (enhanced_games) June 19, 2023
“The Enhanced Games will be a competitor to the corrupt, dysfunctional Olympics and the first international sporting event without drug testing. The Olympics are about the past. They are all about the Greek gods from Mount Olympus and history. The Enhanced Games are about the future. They are about building superheroes” Indian Express.
D’Souza claims that 356 individuals “expressed interest” in participating in the Games, but only provides four names. It ignores the question about any Indian sportsmen being part of these 356 individuals.
Four of the names have been revealed: South African Olympic gold medalist Roland Schoemann, Canada’s Christina Smith and David Karasik, who represented Switzerland at London 2012, and swimmer Brett Fraser, who competed at the Cayman Islands Olympic Games.
Among these, Schumann, a swimmer, tested positive for GW501516 (a black market doping product) in 2019. He denied taking doping and claimed that contamination of the nutritional supplements he was taking had led to his positive test. While he couldn’t compete in Tokyo 2020, he’s already competed in four Olympics, winning three medals at Athens 2004. Smith, Karasik, and Fraser haven’t faced doping bans, at least publicly.
“A lot of the attention we’ve received from athletes comes from those who are at the end of their careers, who see that science can extend the life of an athlete…these are athletes of all sports, from triathletes to weekend warriors,” he says, before elaborating. that by weekend warriors, he meant “casual athletes”.
question marks
But aren’t enhanced games essentially encouraging athletes to take steroids?
“I don’t think that’s a valid assumption. The use of performance enhancement in sports is pervasive. We just take what’s been done now in secret and underground and make it public so it can be done,” says D’Souza, who says he used to be a cyclist in his younger days in Australia. It’s very safe.”
Despite these claims, the fear remains that if a competition announces that it will not dope testing its athletes, competitors are likely to overdo the substances they take to get faster, move higher, and be stronger, putting their lives at risk.
“The biggest risk right now medically is especially for young athletes and from poor countries, who don’t have access to quality products and good medical supervision. What’s happening right now is that young athletes, in particular, are reading things on the internet and ordering generics and injecting themselves.” Without medical supervision.But by highlighting everything, we can supervise the whole process by very good doctors and top scientists in the world.One of the problems with current doping regimes is that there is no data sharing.It is very difficult to assess health effects because very few athletes Willing to admit doping,” he says, before adding that Optimized Games already has a scientific and ethical advisory committee, which includes people like Dr. George Church, a geneticist who works at Harvard and is known for his contributions to genomics, chemistry, and biomedicine.
Indian Express They sent emails to both the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency to request their responses. While the International Olympic Committee said that “the idea deserves no comment”, a response from the World Anti-Doping Agency is awaiting a response.
Although there are some members of the medical fraternity in their corner, there are still obvious questions about optimization games. If a player competing in the Games suffers health complications from performance-enhancing drugs, will the organizers of the Enhanced Games be held responsible?
I will not give an answer to that. This is a question for lawyers and will depend on the jurisdiction in which we will ultimately host the Games. “The reality is that there is still some work to be done in terms of designing rigorous clinical and supervisory protocols. This is a discussion we continue to have with our insurers: risk thresholds. But I can assure you we are being advised by the best scientists in the world.”
India connection
D’Souza, whose father was from Mumbai, quotes a Pew Research Center report from 2020 on gene editing in children to suggest that the concept of enhanced gaming might actually be acceptable to Indians. The number he is quoting here is that 64 percent of Indians, when asked during a Pew Research survey whether it would be appropriate or wrong to use technology to alter a child’s genetic characteristics to make them smarter, answered that it would be appropriate. The average of the poll, where people from 20 countries were asked, is just 14 percent.
India’s number is the highest in the world. This is a really interesting insight. Indians support the use of technology and science to improve children’s intelligence. This is just on the same string as using science to improve other forms of human performance, he says.
He notes that events such as the X Games and bodybuilding competitions are not subject to drug testing, but that the athletes there do not die in competition from a drug overdose. He ignores a question about the possible death of athletes due to the use of PED as “hysteria from journalists”.
In a question about attracting sponsors due to apparent negative perceptions about ingesting performance-enhancing substances, he claimed that they had signed a terms paper with a high-profile investor and that several venture capital funds, particularly in Silicon Valley, had shown “strong interest”. Details do not support the claims.
“In many ways, the Olympics are great video or taxis. We are like an OTT platform or an app for delivery. We are introducing a new business model and we are going to disrupt entire collaborations.”
D’Souza doesn’t stop at those comparisons. The wording of the social media promotion – which says, “I am a proud and improved athlete… I need your help to get out” – recalls one of the catchphrases one can often find in LQBTQIA+ campaigns. D’Souza says this is by design.
“I always say the journey to coming out at your best takes time. It’s very difficult for any athlete to relate to performance improvement,” he says before adding, “As a gay man, I see very strong parallels between the struggle of coming out and the struggle of acceptance in the LGBT community and among LGBT people. The athlete community. Being an enhanced athlete today is like being gay 50 years ago. It’s illegal, stigmatized, and secretive but a lot of people do.”
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