Athletics have always been about more than winning. Elite competition celebrates human skill, determination and perseverance. The first enhanced games, set to debut this May, disregard all these key values. With athletes’ health put in jeopardy and the fairness of sports threatened, these games raise the question of what it truly means to achieve.
The enhanced games are a newly proposed competition of athletes from three different sports; these sports include swimming, track and field, and weightlifting. Within these competitions, athletes are encouraged to take performance enhancing drugs in order to crush pre-existing records in exchange for a large cash reward. I believe these competitions are unethical because they create serious threats to athletes’ health as well as break all values that sports are truly grounded on.
A primary concern of why the games are risky is athlete wellbeing. Taking performance enhancing drugs can create life long impacts on a person’s health. According to The Guardian, research fellow Martin Chandler, who specializes in performance enhancing drugs, explained that some of the substances used make the heart work overtime which can eventually lead to heart attacks. He also added that side effects can come 10-20 years after use and with little to no testing athletes do not know what they are getting themselves into. Additionally, many of these drugs are not FDA-approved.
Another area where the games are questionable is their ethics. Sports are built on the foundation of effort, improvement, persistence, and integrity. The enhanced games cast these values aside. The U.S. Anti Doping Agency’s Chief Science Officer, Dr. Matt Fedoruk, told TrueSport that Olympic and Paralympic athletes go above and beyond for sport. They serve as role models, showing the values athletics should be upholding.
Beyond health and ethics, the games also create a false sense of achievement for fans. When new records with artificial enhancements are celebrated it sends the message that shortcuts and performance enhancers are just as valuable as hard work and dedication. Young fans and aspiring athletes may internalize these ideas and believe that natural achievement will never be enough to succeed.
Supporters of the games argue that this competition is pushing the limits of athletics and seeing what is truly possible. Is it really though? The enhanced games are hardly a measure of skill and athleticism. They can only show us the power of dangerous drugs and technology. What value can we put in records that are boosted by performance enhancers? Sure the enhanced games create some entertainment, but at what cost?
As an athlete myself, it is disappointing to see people I used to look up to turn to drugs in order to “excel”. The enhanced games are forcing us to re-evaluate what is valued in athletics. Records achieved through artificial means should not be celebrated as true achievements. These “triumphs” will only undermine the determination and dedication of true elite athletes. I hope that fans, media, and aspiring athletes will think before applauding the broken records made by artificial enhancers, not true athletes.
