Peter Thiel is backing a new “enhanced” Olympics — doping allowed

In January 2024, Forbes reported that Peter Thiel had invested in the seed round of the Enhanced Games, a doping-friendly, Olympics-style athletic competition. Now, with the Olympics two weeks away, the Enhanced Games are looking to raise more funding. From Bloomberg:

The Enhanced Games, a planned Olympics-style event that welcomes doping and is backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, is in talks to raise around $300 million. The London-based company held initial talks with several potential investors, including sovereign wealth funds, for a mixture of debt and equity financing ahead of its first competition next year, co-founder Christian Angermayer said in an interview. He declined to share further details on the terms…

The concept has been slammed by the International Olympic Committee and anti-doping authorities as a violation of fair play and dangerous for athletes’ health. Most sports leagues and federations globally ban performance-enhancing drugs.

“I believe science is on my side,” Angermayer said, adding that many anonymous surveys have shown that doping is widespread among athletes in competitive sports. All competitors will be required to undergo medical screenings and can only take substances approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, such as anabolic steroids and growth hormones, according to Angermayer. “They have very, very little risk if done properly,” he said.

Since the 1968 Olympics, when Swedish pentathlete Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall lost his bronze medal for drinking “two beers” to steady his nerves in the 1968 Olympics, the use of performance enhancing drugs has been outlawed by the International Olympic Committee, and since then, hundreds of athletes have been disqualified for violating anti-doping rules.

The reason for the anti-doping rules is simple: they enforce fair competition. If some athletes doped and others didn’t, the integrity of the sport would be compromised. If the rules were changed, however, and athletes were told, “Hey, we’re going to have the exact same competitions, but this time, we want you to dope, take steroids, and push your body to the absolute limit,” then the fairness conflict disappears.

Enter: the Enhanced Games. Founder Aron D’Souza previously said that he hopes 50-100 Paris Olympic alumni will compete in the first Enhanced Games, and he’s willing to pay top dollar to entice athletes to compete. D’Souza has also noted that his company will provide “multiple million-dollar prizes” at the first Enhanced Games, including at least $1 million for an athlete to break Usain Bolt’s 100 meter world record. Retired Australian swimmer James Magnussen, who won gold, silver, and bronze medals in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, has already said that he will “juice to the gills” to break the 50 meter freestyle world record.

At first, I was skeptical that many athletes would even consider competing in a doping-friendly competition simply due to reputational risk, but if D’Souza is serious about the million-dollar prizes for record breaking performances, I could see him pulling this off. Most Olympians make little-to-no money from competing. The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee only pays its gold medalists $37,500, while countries like the UK and New Zealand don’t pay their medalists anything.

When the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour began offering PGA players 8 and 9 figure contracts to join the tour, many of them had no issue jumping ship, regardless of the reputational damage. I would imagine that a few swimmers earning $37,500 for their gold medals this summer will consider the prize money at stake in the Enhanced Games.