A new controversial sporting event in style Olympic games where athletes will be authorized – and even encouraged – to use drugs improving performance should make their debut in Las Vegas next May, the organizers announced on Wednesday.
The inaugural improved games will take place on May 21 and 24, 2026 at Resorts World on the Strip of Las Vegas. For four days, competitors will run, get up and swim with full access to the drugs and therapies prohibited in almost all other elite sports environments.
Presented as a revolution in sport and science, the event aims to adopt what the organizers call “superhumanity” – a future where pharmaceutical and technological improvement is standardized in elite competition. But while the promoters have thrown it as a bold break from the past, criticism already have alarms on the security, equity and the fundamental integrity of sport.
“We are creating a new category of human excellence,” said promotional documents for improved games. “A world where drugs improving performance is used safely, openly and under medical supervision.”
The height is simple but radical: rather than penalizing athletes to use prohibited substances, normalize and study their use in a medically supervised environment. As part of the improved model, athletes can either compete naturally, follow independent improvement protocols or participate in a clinical trial using FDA -approved drugs designated as “survey drugs”.
The founder of the event, the Australian entrepreneur based in London, Aron of Souza, maintains that current anti -doping policies are exceeded and hypocritical. “Improved matches renovate the Olympic model for the 21st century,” he said. “In the era of accelerating technological and scientific changes, the world needs a sporting event that embraces the future – in particular the progress of medical science.”
The organizers promise in -depth medical screening, individualized health profiling and surveillance by independent scientific and ethical advice. But athletes will not be subject to traditional doping tests. Instead, they must disclose the substances they use – a model that certain criticisms provide “do not ask, do not say” for doping in sport.
The first games will take place at Resorts World in Las Vegas and have sprint, swimming and weightlifting. The money price is substantial: up to $ 500,000 per event, including a bonus of $ 1 million for beating the 100m sprint or 50m from Freestyle World Records.
It may not be a theoretical reward. In February, the Greek -Bulgarian swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev recorded a time of 20.89 seconds at the 50m free swim – 0.02 seconds faster than the official world record, which has been located since 2009 – apparently while following an improvement protocol for the first time. The swimming, held in a swimming pool certified under surveillance at the Olympic level, was filmed for a next promotional documentary.
However, even this demonstration comes with warnings. Gkolomeev wore a full -body polyurethane costume not approved by Fin, the international director of swimming. The organizers claim that the prosecution was available in trade and not decisive in performance – but its inclusion highlights the ethical gray areas that improved games are about to explore.
More fundamentally, many observers are uncomfortable with the concept itself.
“As we have seen through history, drugs improving performance had a terrible physical and mental toll on many athletes. Some people died,” the world anti -doping agency said in a statement. “Obviously, this event would endanger (health and well-being of athletes) by promoting the abuse of powerful substances and methods which should not be prescribed, if all, for specific therapeutic needs.”
Travis Tygart, CEO of the US Anti-Doping Agency, was even more frank. “It’s a dangerous clown show, not a real sport,” he said.
Improved games also attract attention and controversy due to supporters of the event. The last financing round, apparently in millions, includes investments of 1789 capital, a company led by Donald Trump JR, Omeed Malik and Chris Buskirk. Other co-chefs include Apeiron Investment Group and Karatage, a cover fund with cryptocurrency and AI Ventures issues. A video announcing funding suggests that Donald Trump’s approval.
Souza described the involvement of investors aligned by Trump as a natural adjustment. “I had the great chance of working alongside many members of the administration and other eminent personalities of the Trump movement over the years,” he said in February. “To know that some of the most important personalities in American social and political life, improved games are more important for us than any investment.”
Peter Thiel, the technological billionaire known for his libertarian policy and his support for controversial biotechnology companies, is also listed as a major investor and a “close advisor”, according to Souza.
The participation of such figures has led to a more in-depth examination of criticisms which consider improved games not only as a break in the Olympic model, but a calculated provocation-a challenge for elite sports institutions, anti-doping agencies and what Souza called the “anti-scope” penchant.
The organizers argue that they do not try to crush the Olympic files or to discredit traditional sport. Instead, they supervise improved games as a parallel category, similar to the professionalization of sport in the 20th century. The goal, they support, is to explore the limits of human potential while provoking a broader cultural conversation.
It is an ambitious vision – and a bet with high issues.
Athletes from around the world are recruited, some of which felt far away by anti -doping regimes. The former world swimming champion James Magnussen is among them, although the recent improved attempts by the Australian did not have record times.
The organizers, now whose head office, have a head office in New York, say they will not tolerate the abuse of illicit substances. Medicines must be legally prescribed and athletes must be medically adapted to competition. However, the application seems to be based more on partnership than surveillance – a functionality, not a bug, according to the improved team.
“There is always risks in Elite Sport”, reads one of the internal games of games. “We believe that the greatest risk claims that these risks do not exist.”
It remains to be seen if the public buys in this logic. The organizers say that they are in talks with major sponsors and streaming platforms, but have confirmed any distribution partner or marquee athletes beyond a handful of early adopters. If the backlash is built – from federations, governments or regulators – it is not clear if the model will survive its first test.
For the moment, however, improved games are advancing, armed with a provocative slogan: live improved.
That the world embraces this vision or decrease can determine not only the future of an event, but the ethical limits of sport itself.
