A new sporting event’s controversial pitch: Performance-enhancing drugs welcome

Track & FieldA new sporting event’s controversial pitch: Performance-enhancing drugs welcomeThe Enhanced Games, taking place this weekend in Las Vegas, support “safe, responsible, and clinically supervised use of performance enhancements.”Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Fred Kerley competes in the men's 100 meters during the IAAF Wanda Diamond League: Golden Gala Pietro Mennea in Rome in June. NurPhoto / NurPhoto via Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 22, 2026, 6:02 AM EDTBy Andrew GreifCompeting while using banned substances is one of elite sports’ most fiercely protected red lines. But this weekend, in the shadow of a Las Vegas casino, comes a one-day competition that has sparked controversy for unapologetically crossing it. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Denounced by anti-doping agencies and global sports federations but championed by a small cadre of swimmers, sprinters, weightlifters and financial backers, the Enhanced Games will open Sunday following months of headlines. Rather than ban the use of performance-enhancing drugs, organizers of the Enhanced Games have built an entire event, and company, around their use and appeal. Forty-two athletes will compete. The competitors — who include past Olympic medalists, including swimmers Cody Miller of the U.S., Shane Ryan and Ben Proud and sprinter Fred Kerley — were not required to use drugs to join the Enhanced Games, but they could elect to do so as part of a 12-week trial supervised by the games in Abu Dhabi, where many athletes also trained. “The old rulebook is gone,” Miller posted last month on social media.Athletes who elected to compete on PEDs received a custom drug regimen crafted by the games’ medical staff and could pick from drugs across five approved categories, “including testosterone esters, anabolic agents, peptides and growth factors, metabolic modulators, and stimulants,” according to the com...