Doping is one of the greatest threats in sport and international institutions have been actively combating this scourge for years with exemplary punishments for those who resort to this type of practice. But not everyone thinks so and a project is underway to create a competition for doping athletes. “Athletes are adults and have the right to do what they want with their bodies,” defends the leader of this movement.
They plan to be called Enhanced Games and their main promoter is Aron D’Souza, a businessman born in Melbourne, Australia, but based in London. The idea is to host the first edition of these Games in December 2024. .
They would have an annual periodicity and would consist of five disciplines: athletics, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics and martial arts. The novelty: No anti-doping tests will be conducted and they would be open to athletes who are prevented from competing because they are suspended for using illegal substances. Something that of course goes against all the principles of a sport that wants to be clean.
Of course, the idea has already received its first criticism. “To be honest, it must be a joke. It’s unfair, it’s unsafe and it’s definitely not the right path for the sport,” said Anna Meares, former Olympian and Australia’s Chief of Mission for the Paris 2024 Games. We don’t know anything about this organization. It is something dangerous and irresponsible. The Olympic movement is a space for clean and excellent sport,” said Matt Carroll, also of the Australian Olympic Committee.
Aron D’Souza, the mentor of this project, has a different idea and explains his position to defend a competition that goes against all the rules of the sport that wants to be more and more clean.
“Athletes are adults and have the right to do what they want with their bodies: my body, my choice; your body, your choice. And no government, no paternalistic federation should make decisions for athletes, especially regarding substances that are regulated and approved by the FDA,” he shot.
In fact, D’Souza says there is an enormous curiosity to know what the limit of human effort is. Even if that means using prohibited substances. . I want to see an athlete of 40, 50 or 60 break world records, because performance medicine is the anchor of anti-aging, it is the way to the fountain of youth. Nothing will improve the productivity of our society quite like preventing ageing. It sounds like science fiction now, but we live in the future, look at the rise of artificial intelligence and other technologies for example,” he added.
The opposition party has arrived
On the Enahced Games website, the promoters claim that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is discrediting great athletes by revoking historic honors and medals from them, suspending their careers and dragging their names in the mud, and defend that “it’s time to end this oppressive cycle”.
Marks were made there by athletes such as Tim Montgomery, Ben Johnson and Florence Griffith-Joyner (100 meters), Javier Sotomayor (high jump) or Lance Armstrong (cycling), all athletes who were caught in the nets of doping and had their records erased .
Aron D’Souza seems really determined to push this idea forward, saying he is ready to go to war with the highest authorities that have been regulating world sport for the past 100 years. And now the opposition party has arrived. We are prepared for battle. I know they’re going to play dirty, that they’re going to threaten us, but in the end we know we’re right,” said the businessman, for whom “the Enhanced Games are an alternative to the corrupt Olympic Games”, and also defend that the IOC and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) “impede scientific progress because they created an unsafe system that enforced the clandestine use of performance-enhancing drugs.
There is not even a fixed location for this controversial event yet, but the maker guarantees that it is not necessary to invest a lot of money in a location. “By reducing the number of athletes and without the need for specialized infrastructure, it would not be an exorbitant number of 100 billion. Two figures would be enough,” he assured.
Source: DN
