The Enhanced Games announced on Wednesday the drug usage rates of its participants ahead of its inaugural competition this weekend in Las Vegas.
Enhanced also announced that its clinical study examining the supervised use of performance-enhancing substances has been listed on Clinicaltrials.gov.
Enhanced said that 36 of the 42 athletes scheduled to compete in the Games participated in the study, and of those 36 athletes, two are competing “naturally”. Additionally, two of the six athletes not included in the study are competing “naturally”, meaning a total of four out of 42 athletes (9.5%) will be competing without having taken performance-enhancing drugs.
Athletes participating in the study were permitted to consider substances across five approved categories, including testosterone esters, anabolic agents, peptides and growth factors, metabolic modulators, and stimulants. Enhanced said all substances used in the study complied with U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations.
The usage data comes from a 12-week trial period, according to Enhanced, while the study description states that the treatment period could last up to 25 weeks with a five-year follow-up period for health monitoring.
The data released shows that 91% of athletes used testosterone, while 79% of athletes used human growth hormone and 62% used stimulants.
Full Data Released by Enhanced:
- 91% of athletes used testosterone or testosterone esters
- 79% of athletes used human growth hormone (hGH)
- 62% of athletes used stimulants (eg. Adderall)
- 50% of athletes used metabolic modulators, primarily ancillary compounds (eg. Anastrozole) which was used alongside anabolic agents to support protocols
- 41% of athletes used erythropoietin (EPO)
- 29% of athletes used an anabolic steroid agent (eg. Deca durabolin)
- 5% of athletes used hormonal support therapies (eg. hCG)
Enhanced said that individual athlete protocols would not be made public.
“We are encouraged to share that our clinical trial is now open for review with some of the preliminary aggregate totals from the study ahead of the Games,” said Dr. Guido Pieles, Chair of Enhanced’s Independent Medical Commission and Independent Scientific Commission.
“We have been regularly assessing the athletes throughout the study period and we’re very pleased with the results and the overall health picture each participating athlete has demonstrated during the study.”
Enhanced said all study participants are receiving ongoing medical monitoring during the treatment period and will continue to receive follow-up monitoring for up to five years.
“We are very encouraged by the early findings, which indicate excellent progress toward achieving the study’s objectives,” said Enhanced CEO Maximilian Martin. “We are particularly encouraged by the initial impacts the protocols appear to have had on athlete recovery and injury prevention.”
Of the four athletes reported to be competing naturally at the Games, two of them are expected to be swimmers Hunter Armstrong and Sohib Khaled.
Armstrong announced his decision to compete in the Enhanced Games in early March with the intention of not taking any performance-enhancing drugs, while Khaled was only recently announced to be joining the field, coming off his final collegiate season at Auburn.
In addition to Armstrong, a three-time Olympic medalist and former world record holder in the men’s 50 backstroke, the swimming field at the Enhanced Games also includes fellow Olympic medalists Ben Proud, James Magnussen and Cody Miller, along with current 50 fly world record holder Andrii Govorov.
The Enhanced Games announced its swimming event schedule, field, and prize money breakdown last week. The competition will take place this Sunday, May 24, at 5:30 pm local time (8:30 pm ET) in Las Vegas.
These are consenting adults undergoing these PED regimens under the supervision of a doctor and probably signed a waiver in order to compete
The only ppl mad at this are those that try to shame the ones that participate
Makes you wonder if the “clean” athletes are actually not and attempting to conceal and be proven effective
Hunter Armstrong has been tested 4 times by USADA this quarter already.
Tell us about the grassy knoll too plz
I saw a clip from the venue, and it looks like the swimming pool only has 4 lanes??? I dont think this will be a fast pool at all, hope I was looking at the practice pool or something
While I am obviously concerned / unsupportive of Enhanced for a myriad of reasons (mostly safety), one positive thing that may come from it will be a lot more bass singers available for the choirs in the hometowns of the participants. Including the ladies.
Go look at Magnussen’s instagram. He is juiced up.
Ben Proud looks so juiced in that photo
Does anyone know how the fans that follow weightlifting and track sprinting feel about the enhanced games? Of the three sports, I would assume that weightlifting is most avidly following the news, both because PED’s most directly benefit weightlifting results, and also because the enhanced athlete with the most instagram followers is an Icelandic weightlifter named Thor who looks vaguely familiar to me. He has 4.4 million followers.
The next athlete with the most followers is Fred Kerley, a sprinter with 1.1 million followers. He also has several arrests for domestic violence and altercations and was given a whereabouts ban when he joined enhanced games.
The swimmer with the most followers is Cody Miller, whose 270k followers seems… Read more »
The enhanced games in weightlifting is definitely discussed but mostly in a negative fashion for kinda being an embarrassing circus. But it’s not discussed much overall. We’ve had numerous international championships and world records in recent weeks, so of course the real sport gets more attention than a handful of mostly retired weightlifters most of whom already doped in the prime of their careers competing outside of it.
We’re not expecting bigger results from the old medallists but some who competed clean in the past like Wes Kitts are doing weights in training beyond what they managed in legit competition. The most significant thing that could come out of it for us will be to confirm what we already… Read more »
In weightlifting it is understood by fans that 99.99 percent of the top lifters at least are taking PEDs. I think the interest there is how much a lifter can improve if they don’t have to try to hide it at all.
Thor is a former world strongest man and has openly admitted to using PEDs. If you ever watched the show Game of Thrones you probably recognize him as Gregor Clegane, the Mountain that Rides.
To be fair, apart from like 4-5 of the guys, I didnt know who most of the swimmers were either and I`m a fan of the sport.
Good point. I think most of the viewers will pay more attention to how ridonculous everyone’s muscles are and not to any records broken. The customers are less deluded than the athletes. They do not expect to breaking any records themselves by taking testosterone. But they want the big muscles for the beach.
In fact, I would not be surprised if the athlete protocols that were supposedly developed to maximize their performance were also developed to maximize their musculature for the tv screen. It must be a real bummer that they have to clad their swimmers in full body suits for the actual race. Be prepared for a montage showing swimmers in their speedos.
WHAT is this user name lolol love it
>Of the four athletes reported to be competing naturally at the Games, two of them are expected to be swimmers Hunter Armstrong and Sohib Khaled.
I’m skeptical
I think skepticism is warranted for all things Enhanced Games.
But USADA appears to be target testing Hunter. He has been tested 4 times in Q2 alone just by USADA.
mess with the bull …
I hope they test him right after this meet. I’d really like to know if he’s really swimming it clean.