Lance Armstrong held back tears when he said he took performance-enhancing drugs when he won seven straight Tour de France titles from 1999 to 2005, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2013.
Track athlete Marion Jones couldn’t suppress tears in a press conference in 2007 where she said she used doping methods when she won five medals in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
The history of doping in sports is full of dramatic stories showcasing the double lives of athletes who smiled and succeeded while they knowingly stretched the truth.
Ultimately, interviews and press conferences like these end up being a public confessional where athletes who broke the rules beg for forgiveness.
However, none of that would happen with the Enhanced Games and its different norms and moral expectations for athletes.
The Enhanced Games intends to shake up the sports picture by hosting Olympic-style competitions that allow athletes to dope.
The project was created in June 2023 and an event is expected to be hosted at some point in 2025.
Christina Smith, a former Canadian Olympic bobsleigh athlete and two-time World Cup medalist, is part of the Athletes Advisory Commission of the Enhanced Games.
She said that she was not in favour of doping as an athlete but said she feels that this project’s concerns go beyond simply doping.
“The format of the Enhanced Games doesn’t have rules per se,” she said. “They are more concerned about transparency.”
“We are a science-based games, very open-minded and we are embracing science,” she said. “There are athletes eager to push the limits of science in their bodies.”
“I believe in the body autonomy, in your ability of whatever you want to do with your body. It’s your business, your own privacy,” said the former athlete, who prefers using the term “enhancing methods” instead of “doping”.
In terms of concerns about health risks, Smith said athletes are to resort to performance-enhancing methods clinically approved by the medical commission of the Enhanced Games.
She said the organization is not going to conduct drug tests.
“We are not looking for cheaters, we are not going to control adults. Everybody knows what happens if you don’t do certain things properly,” she said. “People take aspirin for headaches and when you open up the content packaging there is a list of side effects if you take too much.”
Smith said the games are already receiving support afromathletes.
The games already have their first committed athlete, former three-time gold medalist swimmer James Magnussen.
Another former successful swimmer, Roland Schoeman, is part of the Athletes Advisory Commission.
Smith said more star athletes have shown interest in being part of the competition, along with sponsors and broadcasters.
Christina Smith, in London after the First Conference on Human Enhancement organized by the Enhanced Games at the House of Lords. Smith is part of Athlete Advisory Commission of the project.
However, she said can’t reveal their identity yet but said their inbox is overflowing with interest.
The Enhanced Games have ruffled some feathers among main sports bodies like the International Olympic Committee (IOC), with its transgressor approach.
“The idea of the Enhanced Games does not merit any comment. If you want to destroy any concept of fair play and fair competition in sport, this would be a good way to do it,” the IOC said in a media statement on Feb. 14.
Despite the IOC’s criticism, Enhanced Games Founder Aron D’Souza said regular Olympics and the Enhanced Games can co-exist.
But Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, said any athlete who participates in the new-born event will be banned from being part of the Olympics.
Smith said the Enhanced Games also looks to open the door for amateur athletes, transgender athletes and even retired ones.
She said science will allow for the minimization of these differences.
“We also encourage people retired to come out because science is amazing and there is so much available there for aging,” she said. “We could see 70-year-old athletes competing against 20-year-old ones.”
Smith said the Enhanced Games want to get involved with athletes linked to famous doping cases such as Lance Armstrong as well as controversial doctors at the helm of doping scandals.
Smith said that for now, the event wants to focus on individual sports, such as track and field, swimming, diving, gymnastics, combat sports and wrestling, rather than team sports.
The organization convened its First Conference on Human Enhancement at the House of Lords in London on Feb. 29 and wants to hold more events like this in more countries.
“We want to open a discussion around the world,” Smith said.