Latest news with #AronD'Souza
The Star
14-06-2025
- Sport
- The Star
The founders breaking all barriers, and rules
THE founders of The Enhanced Games, Dr Aron D'Souza and Christian Angermayer, have a vision that goes beyond sport. For them, it's about stretching human achievement to the greatest heights, with whatever means available. In fact, they are encouraging participants of the Games to take performance-enhancement drugs.
Toronto Sun
12-06-2025
- Sport
- Toronto Sun
Plan for doping-forward Enhanced Games lacks real juice
Family says Canadian dentist was aboard Air India flight that crashed after takeoff Plan for doping-forward Enhanced Games lacks real juice AP Photo Article content It looks like the Enhanced Games could use a shot in the arm. Advertisement 2 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account or Sign in without password View more offers Article content Aron D'Souza, the Oxford-educated founder of the Games, had two years to get his act together and could do no better than what looks like a four-day trade show for performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) next May inside the Resorts World hotel/casino complex in Las Vegas, the American city built on artifice, avarice and hype. Article content tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Plan for doping-forward Enhanced Games lacks real juice Back to video Article content The Games program contains three sports — athletics, swimming and weightlifting — and just nine events. They could hold this thing during intermission of a Cirque show. But, hey, be sure not to miss out on the line of Enhanced Performance Products — including advanced supplements and medically supervised therapies — that will be on offer through a 'tele-health experience.' One year out, the roster of confirmed Games athletes consists of exactly four male swimmers — one each from Australia, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Greece. That's just a wee bit shy on star power, not to mention diversity. Advertisement 3 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Little wonder why there has been no announcement of a deal with network TV or a major streaming service. tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Play Video In 2023, when D'Souza began talking up the Games, his packaged passion for PEDs as the key to human achievement was the lowest-hanging fruit around and major international media outlets wanted a taste. Today, there isn't much of anything left on that tree. While D'Souza convinced some of those platforms to publish his predictions of a 'sporting mega-event aspiring to rival the Olympic Games,' it appears likely his little show will be more akin to Battle of the Network Stars or American Gladiators. While gathering seed funding, D'Souza railed against the excess and wastefulness of the Olympic movement — and goodness knows there are many expensive and abandoned venues to prove the case — and he told Australian Associated Press the Enhanced Games would be economically sustainable. Your Midday Sun Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. There was an error, please provide a valid email address. Sign Up By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Thanks for signing up! A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Your Midday Sun will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Article content Advertisement 4 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content 'By reducing it from 13,000 (Olympic) athletes to maybe a couple of thousand — no specialist infrastructure — instead of costing $100 billion to deliver this, it will cost double-digit millions.' D'Souza now says there will be 200 athletes. So, just a wee bit less than 'a couple of thousand.' And to get from four to 200, one assumes they will recruit the rest through the website's sign-up page, so imagine how thrilling it will be to watch juiced-up weekend warriors from Iowa and Illinois competing in the testosterone triathlon. If that's what citius, altius, fortius looks like now, then by all means pity us. To justify their vision, the Games team put Greek-Bulgarian swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev on an enhancement protocol in hopes of breaking the world record in the 50-metre freestyle. They claim he did exactly that while on PEDs and wearing a body suit that has been banned by World Aquatics. Wow. What an accomplishment. Advertisement 5 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Disgraced Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson's gold-medal winning 100-metre time of 9.79 seconds at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 was just as amazing. Turns out he was pumped full of Stanozolol. The Enhanced Games are going where Johnson and so many others have gone before. This is not ground-breaking work on human performance, it is the expected and proven result of chemical intervention. The Enhanced Games are not the future, they are an echo of dirty races past. D'Souza said Gkolomeev was rewarded with a US$1-million prize for breaking the record, which will not be recognized by World Aquatics. In fact, it was announced on Tuesday that Enhanced Games participants will be barred from all future competitions sanctioned by World Aquatics. Advertisement 6 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content With that in mind, it is hard to imagine even one relevant and ostensibly clean Olympian crossing to the dark side now — and let's agree that 34-year-old Australian swimmer James Magnussen, an Olympic medalist who came out of retirement to join this PED parade, is no longer relevant. How are the Games being financed? There is no public money involved. The Games have been backed in part by PayPal founder Peter Thiel and by a company that was co-founded by Donald Trump Jr. Which events will be held? Competitors in the 100-metre sprint and both sprint hurdle races (100m for women and 110m for men) will run on a purpose-built six-lane track; swimmers will contest the 50-metre and 100-metre freestyle and butterfly in a 50-metre pool, and weightlifters will compete in the clean and jerk and the snatch on a 'bespoke' stage. Advertisement 7 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Is there prize money? The Games website promises 'an appearance fee and rank-based prize money.' In addition, anyone breaking the world record in the 50-metre freestyle swim and 100-metre sprint will be paid $1 million, while the first athletes to break world records in the other seven events will apparently be paid $250,000. Will all competitors be doped? Athletes will apparently have a choice to make: Compete clean, while on a personally chosen protocol of legally obtained and Games-approved PEDs, or as a participant in a medically supervised clinical trial, something the Games calls the Performance Enhancement Protocol. The trial substances have not been disclosed. There will be no anti-doping tests conducted. Advertisement 8 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content What are national and international sport leaders saying about the Games? The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport: 'The Enhanced Games run contrary to sport at its best by encouraging athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs and exploiting them for entertainment, rather than ensuring athletes' health and wellness, and upholding the principles of clean sport that are at the heart of sport with integrity. 'An event that not only permits but facilitates the use of drugs that are prohibited and experimental, and that may have long-term effects on both their mental and physical well-being, is dangerous and reckless, not cutting edge.' Read More Anti-doping watchdog urges U.S. authorities to shut down planned drug-fuelled event in Las Vegas Divorce battle between Ryan Lochte and Playboy model gets heated with demand Advertisement 9 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content The World Anti-Doping Agency: 'Over the years, there have been many examples of athletes suffering serious long-term side-effects from their use of prohibited substances and methods. Some have died. 'This is one area that should unite all anti-doping organizations and governments around the world, not least in the U.S. where the event is now scheduled to take place. We invite all our clean sport partners, including athletes, to join us in condemning this event regardless of its wealthy and influential supporters. 'It has become clear from the event's launch in Las Vegas that a focus of the organizers is to sell their products and to play down the associated risks. Inducing elite athletes to use their profiles to promote the use of prohibited and potentially dangerous substances is harmful, in particular for young athletes.' Swimming Canada High Performance Director John Atkinson: 'In no way do we endorse involvement in the Enhanced Games for any Canadian athlete, coach, support staff, science & medicine staff, or anyone else affiliated with Swimming Canada and/or our national teams. Any affiliation with the Enhanced Games could have long-term consequences to your health and to future sport involvement, including potential anti-doping violations.' dbarnes@ Check out our sports section for the latest news and analysis. 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The Age
09-06-2025
- Business
- The Age
‘I'm not going to slam swimmers': Chalmers' surprising response to Magnussen's Enhanced Games quest
World Aquatics has threatened to ban current athletes who associate with the Enhanced Games or try to compete at next year's event in Las Vegas, even if they don't take performance-enhancing drugs. Enhanced Games boss Aron D'Souza has offered to pay the legal fees of swimmers who want to challenge World Aquatics' ruling. World Aquatics will pay swimmers US $20,000 (AUD $30,000) for each gold medal at next month's world championships in Singapore. There is also a world record bonus of US $30,000 (AUD $46,200). The total swimming prize pool is $4.2 million. The Enhanced Games will pay US $250,000 for each gold medal, plus a US $1 million bonus for world records in either the 50m freestyle or 100m sprint. 'I think it'd be pretty enticing for quite a lot of athletes,' Chalmers said. 'I think that swimmers have been underpaid for a very long time at the big competitions. I've never thought about it a huge amount because you do it for the love of swimming … there's not a lot of money to be made in it. 'Look at the guy that did break the world record and his wife coming out and saying he's been to four Olympics, been in two Olympic finals, been in the world championship final consistently … [the fact] he goes from making $5000 a year to a million in one race is incredible. 'I really hope that there is a shift and that we are able to get a little bit more prize money for what we do. It's threatening World Aquatics a little bit. 'That's why they've come out and said that they're banning swimmers, which yeah, fair enough. But also, those swimmers have come out and announced their retirement.' Australian head coach Rohan Taylor added: 'I'm just focused on this team ... and providing the right environment for them; a safe, clean sport. That's what we're about. I'm not really paying attention [to it].' Chalmers has been in great form since taking 12 weeks off after the Olympics, clocking a 100m freestyle time of 47.27 seconds at the Bergen Swim Festival in Norway in April. It was faster than his silver medal-winning performance in Paris (47.48). The 26-year-old is eyeing off a fourth Olympics in LA in 2028 and preparing for the birth of his first child later this year. Loading 'It was a massive shock for me [the time of 47.27]. I'm pretty confident that I'm swimming fast,' said Chalmers, who won 100m freestyle gold at the 2023 world championships. 'This could be the year, which is really exciting. 'Our goal is to be at the Olympics in 2028 together and have our daughter in the stands watching us. 'I truly believe it's achievable. If I didn't believe it was possible, I would have retired. I'm at nine Olympic medals. It would be amazing to get to 10.' Taylor said of Chalmers' swim: 'It made my day when I saw that. I was very happy for him.'
Sydney Morning Herald
09-06-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘I'm not going to slam swimmers': Chalmers' surprising response to Magnussen's Enhanced Games quest
World Aquatics has threatened to ban current athletes who associate with the Enhanced Games or try to compete at next year's event in Las Vegas, even if they don't take performance-enhancing drugs. Enhanced Games boss Aron D'Souza has offered to pay the legal fees of swimmers who want to challenge World Aquatics' ruling. World Aquatics will pay swimmers US $20,000 (AUD $30,000) for each gold medal at next month's world championships in Singapore. There is also a world record bonus of US $30,000 (AUD $46,200). The total swimming prize pool is $4.2 million. The Enhanced Games will pay US $250,000 for each gold medal, plus a US $1 million bonus for world records in either the 50m freestyle or 100m sprint. 'I think it'd be pretty enticing for quite a lot of athletes,' Chalmers said. 'I think that swimmers have been underpaid for a very long time at the big competitions. I've never thought about it a huge amount because you do it for the love of swimming … there's not a lot of money to be made in it. 'Look at the guy that did break the world record and his wife coming out and saying he's been to four Olympics, been in two Olympic finals, been in the world championship final consistently … [the fact] he goes from making $5000 a year to a million in one race is incredible. 'I really hope that there is a shift and that we are able to get a little bit more prize money for what we do. It's threatening World Aquatics a little bit. 'That's why they've come out and said that they're banning swimmers, which yeah, fair enough. But also, those swimmers have come out and announced their retirement.' Australian head coach Rohan Taylor added: 'I'm just focused on this team ... and providing the right environment for them; a safe, clean sport. That's what we're about. I'm not really paying attention [to it].' Chalmers has been in great form since taking 12 weeks off after the Olympics, clocking a 100m freestyle time of 47.27 seconds at the Bergen Swim Festival in Norway in April. It was faster than his silver medal-winning performance in Paris (47.48). The 26-year-old is eyeing off a fourth Olympics in LA in 2028 and preparing for the birth of his first child later this year. Loading 'It was a massive shock for me [the time of 47.27]. I'm pretty confident that I'm swimming fast,' said Chalmers, who won 100m freestyle gold at the 2023 world championships. 'This could be the year, which is really exciting. 'Our goal is to be at the Olympics in 2028 together and have our daughter in the stands watching us. 'I truly believe it's achievable. If I didn't believe it was possible, I would have retired. I'm at nine Olympic medals. It would be amazing to get to 10.' Taylor said of Chalmers' swim: 'It made my day when I saw that. I was very happy for him.'
Straits Times
05-06-2025
- Sport
- Straits Times
Anti-doping bodies condemn ‘dangerous' drug-fueled Enhanced Games
The Enhanced Games team attend a press conference to announce the event scheduled for May 2026. PHOTO: REUTERS LOS ANGELES – Anti-doping bodies on May 22 condemned plans for the first edition of the Enhanced Games in Las Vegas, an Olympics-style event where athletes will be free to use performance-enhancing drugs. The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) and bodies across the world have taken aim at the event after organisers revealed the date, venue and format for the competition. The Enhanced Games will be staged in Las Vegas in May 2026, with athletes participating in three sports – athletics, swimming and weightlifting. Athletes will be allowed to use drugs which are banned across international sport such as steroids and human-growth hormones, with winners of each event receiving US$250,000 (S$322,000), and a bonus of US$1 million for anyone who breaks a world record. Aron D'Souza, the Australian entrepreneur who is the founder of the event, says the Games are an exercise in testing the boundaries of human performance. 'The Enhanced Games is renovating the Olympic model for the 21st century,' he said on May 21 as details of the Games were revealed. 'We are here to move humanity forward. The old rules didn't just hold back athletes, they held back humanity. 'We are not just organising competition, we are in the business of unlocking human potential. We are the vanguard of super-humanity.' The Games will take place from May 21-24 at the Resorts World hotel in Las Vegas. Swimming will hold 100m and 50m freestyle events, along with 100m and 50m butterfly. Athletics events include the 100m and 100m and 110m hurdles. Weightlifters will compete in the snatch and clean & jerk disciplines. Wada, the global anti-doping watchdog, condemned plans for the event as 'dangerous', voicing concern it could lead athletes around the world to dabble in illicit substances with potentially deadly consequences. 'Wada condemns the Enhanced Games as a dangerous and irresponsible concept,' the agency said in a statement. 'The health and well-being of athletes is Wada's No. 1 priority. Clearly this event would jeopardise that as it seeks to promote the use of powerful substances and methods by athletes for the purposes of entertainment and marketing. 'There have been many examples of athletes suffering serious long-term side-effects from their use of prohibited substances and methods. Some have died.' Travis Tygart, the head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada), said the event was a 'dangerous clown show that puts profit over principle'. Australia's anti-doping body, Sport Integrity Australia (SIA), also condemned the risks posed to athletes participating in the Enhanced Games. 'We work to ensure that sport is safe and fair to all,' SIA chief executive Sarah Benson said in a statement. 'The Enhanced Games is promoting the complete opposite and poses a significant risk to athlete health and safety.' D'Souza, however, has pushed back on those criticisms, insisting that the competition would be conducted 'safely'. AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
