Enhanced but not superior: Performance outcomes from the inaugural enhanced games

Abstract

The Enhanced Games (TEG) emerged as an athletic event engineered to profit from biotechnological enhancement, such as performance‐enhancing drugs (PEDs) utilization, relying on three premises: shattering world records (WR), enabling athletes to surpass their personal bests (PB), and utilizing PEDs to offset age‐related physical decline. The effectiveness of TEG's PED protocols in achieving these three premises was evaluated. This is a retrospective analysis from 42 TEG athletes across Track, Swimming, and Weightlifting. TEG's performances were compared to current WR and athletes' PB previous to TEG. The anti‐aging PED effects were evaluated by the relationship between the age and performance gaps from PB to TEG competition. Athletes' previous PBs were −5.92% ± 4.68% worse than current WR, which further deteriorated to −8.91% ± 7.52% after TEG, and a single WR was broken. Whereas 19 new PBs were recorded, TEG performances were on average −2.86% ± 7.39% worse than previous PB. Some competitive results were achieved by non‐enhanced athletes. Performance decline continued linearly as the time elapsed since the athletes' physical prime (i.e., age at PB). TEG failed to deliver on core promises of widespread WR and broad athletic enhancement, and PED protocol did not attenuate expected age‐related performance declines.