enhanced games world record swim gkolomeev

The Enhanced Games came to Vegas and hit the jackpot

Plenty of people have closed their eyes and had one a final throw of the dice in Vegas. Most of them walk away with nothing. Tonight, Kristian Gkolomeev of Greece is going home with $1.25m after breaking the Men’s 50m Freestyle record, clocking 20.81 in the final event of the night at the inaugural Enhanced…

ByJon LipseyMay 25, 20260Comments

HEALTH Investigation

What it feels like to be an Enhanced Games athlete

"If I wanted a doctor's opinion on whether or not people's health is at risk, I would go to a doctor. Not Kieren Perkins." It takes a lot to push James Magnussen, the three-time Olympic medallist and two-time world champion in the 100m freestyle, out of his naturally relaxed and jovial demeanour. But that’s what…

ByJon LipseyMay 24, 20260Comments

SPOTLIGHT Investigation

Inside the Enhanced Games: The untold story of the world’s most controversial sporting event

During a Zoom call on the 26th January 2024, Aron D'Souza, founder of the Enhanced Games, revealed something to me that he asked me to keep to myself. The Enhanced Games, which takes place in Las Vegas on Sunday, is the world's first sporting competition in which athletes are permitted to use performance-enhancing substances banned…

ByJon LipseyMay 20, 20260Comments

BUSINESS

Throw your kid higher than the other dads. The Enhanced Games marketing chief on what the wellness category is getting wrong

Bret Kovacs commutes several hours a day into New York. Most mornings he stands on the same train platform looking at the same set of ads. Hims, Ro and the rotating cast of consumer health brands competing for the same eye-line. The visual grammar is consistent: vials, syringes and pills. Sometimes a model. Sometimes a…

ByJon LipseyMay 13, 20260Comments

TRAINING

The Athletes walking into the Enhanced Games, and the ones who almost did

Most of the athletes who said yes to the Enhanced Games were referred by other athletes who had already said yes. This is one of the things Rick Adams tells you that almost no one in the wider coverage of the games has bothered to mention. More than half of the 40-plus athletes preparing to…

ByJon LipseyMay 6, 20260Comments

Enhanced Games Athletes Maximilian Martin

HEALTH Vanguard

Inside the Enhanced Games training camp: what happens when you optimise everything at once

Several weeks out from the inaugural Enhanced Games, in a five-star longevity resort on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, fifty elite athletes are doing something almost no professional in their disciplines has ever done. They are training without worrying about money. They are eating without worrying about cost. They are recovering with access to medical…

ByJon LipseyMay 5, 20260Comments

BUSINESS Vanguard

Rick Adams: the Olympic insider leading the Enhanced Games

If you had to design the person you'd want on your side if you were an athlete about to walk into the most scrutinised sporting arenas of the modern era, you'd probably end up with someone who looked a lot like Rick Adams. Six Olympic Games. Fourteen years inside the American Olympic machine. Former Chief…

ByJon LipseyApril 21, 20260Comments

BUSINESS Vanguard

The Enhanced Games Are Here. Sport Will Never Be the Same.

Five and a half weeks out from the inaugural Enhanced Games, world records are already being broken. Earlier this month Chilean weightlifter Arley Méndez Pérez snatched 182kg in training at 88kg bodyweight, 5kg heavier than the current official world record. That follows Greek Olympic swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev, who last year eclipsed the standing 50m freestyle…

ByJon LipseyApril 15, 20260Comments

BUSINESS

Enhanced launches peptide platform to turn performance medicine into a consumer product business

Enhanced, the company behind the Enhanced Games, has launched an online personalised performance medicine and supplement platform and said it plans to expand further into peptides. The initial rollout includes proprietary supplement blends, hormone replacement therapy for men and women, and other longevity-focused protocols. That matters because this is not just a product extension. It…

ByJon LipseyMarch 24, 20260Comments

BUSINESS Explainer

Revealed: First ever Enhanced Games will take place in Las Vegas

Enhanced Games co-founder Christian Angermayer believes the future of sport lies in radical transparency - and pharmaceutical enhancement. Aron D’Souza, the Oxford-educated lawyer and entrepreneur turned mastermind behind the Games, sees openness as something closer to a moral obligation. Together, they’ve become the architects of a sporting revolution: a new global competition where performance-enhancing drugs…

ByJon LipseyMay 21, 20250Comments

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