Enhanced Games to Debut in 2026 Allowing PED Use in Olympic-Style Event

Using performance-enhancing drugs may soon become a feature, and not an outlawed act, in a new league coming in May 2026 to Las Vegas.

According to ESPN's Dan Murphy, the Enhanced League—which will feature Olympic-style sports—"announced plans Wednesday to host in exactly one year its first annual competition in which athletes will be allowed, if not outright encouraged, to use PEDs like steroids, testosterone and growth hormone that are typically legal to possess but banned in sports."

Drugs that are illegal in the United States won't be permitted, however, and athletes must reveal which drugs they are taking and undergo a medical screening (though there aren't plans to enforce a drug-testing program).

The games will feature eight different events. Swimming will hold 50m and 100m races in freestyle and butterfly; track will hold the 100m sprint and 100/110m hurdles; and weightlifting will feature the snatch, clean and jerk.

The company's founder, Aron D'Souza, is hoping to create a form of "superhumanity."

"We are here to move humanity forward," he said. "... The old rules didn't just hold back athletes, they held back humanity."

Participating in the Enhanced Games would likely result in those players being banned from basically all international competitions, including the Olympics, but D'Souza is hoping to sweeten the pot enough to make that sacrifice worthwhile. According to Murphy's report, the Enhanced League plans to hold a $500,000 prize pot per event, with $250,000 going to the winner, alongside appearance fees and bonuses for setting new records.

The Enhanced Games has already paid swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev $1 million for beating the world record in the 50m freestyle during an Enhanced Games showcase.

"A successful year at the Enhanced Games for me is more than I could make in 10 careers," he noted.

Time will tell if other athletes are wooed by the Enhanced Games. It certainly won't be embraced by the existing power structures in international sports—USADA's chief executive officer, Travis Tygart, called the new venture "a dangerous clown show that puts profit over principle."