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With the Olympics over, it is not out of the realm of possibility that some dirty work went on behind the scenes — there were rumors about male ski jumpers potentially inflating their private parts for better hang time. In the Enhanced Games, though, as counterintuitive as it may sound, there is no such thing.
The Enhanced Games have long been labeled the “Steroid Olympics” by critics. The event doesn’t have its name by accident, as performance-enhancements will be allowed.
However, CEO Max Martin believes that such an event actually champions fairness, honesty and, most importantly, safety.
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Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev will compete in the Enhanced Games after already swimming the fastest 50 meters ever. (Enhanced Games)
“I would say the biggest [misconception] is that athletes are putting their health at risk with what they’re doing, and they’re just doing it for the money. It’s actually quite the opposite,” Martin said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital.
“Saying that enhancements are dangerous, in some circumstances, is true, yes. It can be completely abusive — too high of dosing, bad drug-on-drug interaction, because it’s unsupervised and unmonitored, that can be very dangerous, yes. But that is exactly what we stand against and exactly what we’ll be able to circumvent by being transparent and allowing it in a regulated environment.”
So, how do they do that?
Well, Enhanced doctors have gone, and will continue to go, through every athlete’s data and let the athlete know what they should and can, and what they should not and cannot, take. That means, yes, it’s not as easy as someone getting more enhancements simply if they want it. Some athletes, Martin said, even had to stop taking specific substances because they were not approved by Enhanced’s doctors.
“And why is it unapproved? Because we haven’t found out yet in research, whether it is safe or not,” Martin said.
That’s part of why Martin believes his event may actually be safer than the Olympics.
“[They] take substances that are not well-researched, that we don’t know well, that are newly developed. We have no data on how these substances actually do in your system. And then, secondly, by taking additional drugs like a masking agent to hide what you’re taking in the first place, that’s super dangerous,” Martin said. “If you take it out into the open and you allow athletes to utilize regulated and improved substances, where you know very, very well the safety profiles, the benefit profiles, and you monitor them constantly and over time, then you know if something went sideways. Because we monitor the athletes so well, we notice immediately.”
“What current testing systems are focused on is punitive drug testing. They are only focused on whether an athlete is cheating or not. What they’re not focused on is whether an athlete is healthy and safe to compete,” he continued. “Some of our guys didn’t even have health coverage, and they’re competing on the highest international level, winning medals for their countries. They’re not even health-insured. And so that’s really the problem.”
In this photo illustration, the Enhanced Games logo is seen displayed on a smartphone screen. (Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“Athletes are willing to do whatever it is to win. What we need to do, and are obsessed with, is making sure that every athlete that goes into competition is healthy and safe to compete.”
Part of the protocol is also making sure athletes are taking what makes sense for them and their sport. Australian swimmer James Magnussen won’t be taking the same enhancements as, say, a powerlifter.
“The enhancements, what they’re doing is they’re not pumping (Magnussen) up to be a bodybuilder. What they’re doing is they’re very, very targeted to who he is as an individual and to what he specifically is training for. And that allows him to just become better,” Martin said, adding that the enhancements are more so “icing on the cake and fine-tuning,” rather than the main product.
Enhanced is also paying its athletes quite the prize money — $250,000 for winners, $250,000 for the rest of the pack, and $1 million to anyone who breaks a world record. Perhaps not coincidentally, World Aquatics said it would begin to give Olympic winners $50,000 in 2024.
“I think they did that because they know that we’re going to start paying athletes well, and athletes will evaluate that. They’re scared. It’s a beautiful thing. That’s the positive impact we’re already having, and I think there will be more in terms of positive impact that we can inspire other sporting institutions to do that in the future,” Martin said.
One athlete who will be competing at Enhanced is Hafþor Juius Bjornsson, better known as “The Mountain” from “Game of Thrones,” or more simply, “Thor.” With 32 international Strongman titles, the 6-foot-9, 400-plus-pound behemoth will attempt to break his own deadlift world record of 1,124 pounds for a grand prize himself.
Thor is in lockstep with Martin on the safety of the event.
“What I like about what the enhancement is doing is they check athletes first. They have us do a massive heart check, they take results, we get blood drawn, and we do all these tests, and we check our body to see if we are healthy enough to participate. Once that is done, we get the green light. Throughout the course of our training, we see doctors, and it’s really like, I feel in a lot better position now than I was doing it on my own,” Björnsson told Fox News Digital. “Like, I feel like I’m in good hands with Enhanced. They’re really caring, and they really want to make sure that I’m healthy first and foremost, you know? So it’s good. I’m really stoked and excited for the opportunity to be with Enhanced and to have the opportunity to break the record with Enhanced.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger presents Hafthor Bjornsson of Iceland the trophy as Bjornsson won the Arnold Strongman Classic title for the third straight year as part of the Arnold Sports Festival on March 7, 2020, at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. (Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Throughout the event, there will be nothing to hide. As Martin said, “It’s a fair game,” even for the small number of athletes choosing not to be enhanced, because it is fully “transparent.”
“These athletes, they know what they’re up against, you know? They have the same opportunities to utilize the same access to the medical program…” Martin said. “So many athletes have explained to me that they came in second, and they thought, ‘You know what, the first guy was cheating, but they didn’t catch him.’ And that’s the worst feeling you can have, because you stay within the rules, you do everything that you can to become the best, someone else is taking a cheating approach to it, wins, doesn’t get caught, it’s the worst feeling in the world.
“If you come in second at the Enhanced Games and you’re not enhanced, you’re very proud of your performance, because you’re like, ‘OK, this guy chose to do something I didn’t want to do myself, but I know that within what I chose to do, I’m the freaking best.’ And that’s what gives so many athletes like this excitement about being in the games, because it’s an open competition, a transparent competition.”
And yes, Martin “absolutely” believes any world records set would be legitimate, even if they are not officially recognized.
“There are studies that show that 43% of Olympians take banned substances, but 1% gets caught. That questions, for me, every record that there is, every performance that there is, because on average, every other athlete cheats,” Martin said.
Last year, Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev swam a 50-meter freestyle in 20.89 seconds, the fastest ever, with the benefit of performance-enhancing drugs (an enhanced Magnussen failed). While most may deem it illegitimate, Martin takes pride in knowing that Gkolomeev does not have to hide how he got there — unlike athletes such as Marion Jones, Ben Johnson, Tim Montgomery and numerous others.
“Kristian Gkolomeev is the only human being, that was ever able to travel the distance of 50 meters in water in 20.89 seconds. That’s just the fact, whether you treat this as an official word record under World Aquatics regulations or whether you treat it as an official word record under Enhanced Games regulations, the fact is, no other human being was ever able to do that. Full stop.”
Kristian Gkolomeev of Greece competes during the Men’s 50m Freestyle Semifinals of the Swimming at the Paris La Defense Arena during the Paris 2024 Olympics Games on Aug. 1, 2024 in Nanterre, France. (Oscar J. Barroso/Europa Press via Getty Images)
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Is he OK if people think Gkolomeev’s accomplishment is not legit?
“Of course.”
Unorthodox? Certainly. Eventually the norm? Possibly.
“People can make their opinion on whether they like it or not, but the notion that this is a steroid Olympics where everyone’s just going to be shot up with some random drugs, it’s just completely wrong,” Martin said.
“After May 24, I think the world is going to have a much different perspective.”
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