The Enhanced Games; Why the Enhanced Games Threaten Sport Integrity and promote the use of PED’s/Steroids

Photo by aus.gyminfluencers.com

By: Michael Alaimo

 November 19, 2025

A new sporting event is turning heading and breaking international headlines, the Enhanced Games. The Enhanced games in based in Australia and founded by businessman Aron D'Souza.

It allows athletes to use performance-enhancing substances without being subject to drug tests. According to D'Souza, he created the Games because he believes that athletes are entitled to do what they wish with their own bodies.

Witold Banka Head of WADA, (World Anti-Doping Agency) said this on response to the formation of the “Enhanced games”. 

“Sometimes we don’t know what to say about this ridiculous idea … from the ethical point of view, from the moral point of view … It’s completely against everything that we are doing. It’s very dangerous … I hope it will not happen … this irresponsible event.” Said Banka.

Banka’s warning tells us about the danger behind the Enhanced Games. The games are built based on the unnatural steroids being used on humans to push the body past its natural limit.

These substances have already been proven to cause long-term harm to people who take them. They cause problems like the risk of heart failure, hormone damage, and organ stress. Also taking a shortcut like PEDs defeats the whole purpose of competitive sports. For sports, you need discipline, training, natural talent, and, in some sports, teamwork. In the enhanced games, PED use becomes an accepted part of the sport and defeats the purpose of competitive sports to see who's more skilled.

According to the National Library of Medicine (PMC):

“AAS (Anobolic Anogentic Steroid) produces toxic effects on the cardiovascular system, and it is necessary to ensure that more people know this about AAS, including medical personnel.”

Theres been serval studies done, including these sources that prove that sertoids have a horrible effect on your health. Another highly scholarly source, sciencedirect.com.com, talks about the harm for the new sport from various studies.

“Building on this, another important fact that TEG appears to be acknowledging is that competitive sport isn't healthy to begin with. Certainly at the purely recreational level it is beneficial to undertake moderate exercise, yet we know that at elite and even moderately competitive levels, there are a raft of harms that come with all manner of sports. This ranges from participation in combat sports, where concussions and CTE are increasingly understood risks (Schlegel et al., 2021), to less obvious examples where similarly severe harms occur, and are even normalized (e.g. Hardwicke et al., 2024a, 2024b; KalmanLamb & Silva, 2024). While much focus is placed on doping as inherently harmful to athlete’s health, the extent to which sports themselves harm athletes often feels comparatively under-acknowledged. Yet TEG's upfront promise of facilities like brain scans appears to be addressing this, again reflecting their ‘health first’ approach.”

These medical risks are well documented, and scientists have done several tests proving that PEDs are very bad for your health and long-term health, but people still choose to do it. The games also turn into an ethical issue as well. This erodes the value that the competition has to make it meaningful.

There was a male swimmer who broke a world record held by an athlete who didn’t use PEDs, and this swimmer who broke the record, claimed that they hold the record now, even though e’s on enhancing drugs. He received backlash for it from the world and fans.

Professional sports athletes like Barry Bonds have been caught using PEDs and it’s now becoming more popular, making professional sports leagues have to do drug tests on players  often.

While the enhanced games may not seem harmful to some, there are concerns for the future generation and how this could influence the popularity of PED usage among the younger generation in the future and comprise their health later in life.