Enhanced Games wants to 'push the limits of humanity'

Record ID: 1766245

  • Title: Enhanced Games wants to 'push the limits of humanity'
  • Date: 14th February 2024
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (FEBRUARY 13, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT OF ENHANCED GAMES, ARON D'SOUZA, SAYING: “Yeah, I don't think that athletes want to be the fastest natural man in the world. They just want to be the fastest. And I think cities, sponsors and fans in particular, just want to watch the fastest. And so the reality is who's going to pay billions
  • Embargoed: 28th February 2024 02:51
  • Keywords: Aron D'Souza Enhanced Games James Magnussen Olympics doping drugs sport
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: Australia
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Sport
  • Reuters ID: LVA00C005213022024RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The Enhanced Games will aim to disrupt the "old, slow" Olympics by using substances banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency “to push the limits of humanity”, it’s President Aron D’Souza said.
    Last week, D'Souza landed a major coup when retired world champion Australian swimmer James Magnussen agreed to take banned performance-enhancing drugs to make an attempt at breaking Cesar Cielo's 15-year-old 50 metres sprint world record for a million dollars.
    The London-based Australian announced last month that he had attracted big name investors in Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel, tech investor Christian Angermayer and former Coinbase Chief Technology Officer Balaji Srinivasan.
    D'Souza's vision is of a Games where athletes, competing for themselves and not their countries, are allowed to use pharmacological or technological assistance to achieve the best results they can and be richly rewarded for it.
    Despite a raft of International Olympic Committee (IOC) reforms in recent years, D'Souza told Reuters the Olympics still featured too many sports that "don't really matter" and too much money was spent on constructing venues that went unused after the Games.
    The Enhanced Games would start with only individual events in core sports, while team sports -- football, basketball -- would be added in later editions as the format is honed and improved.
    The Enhanced Games would not be a complete doping free-for-all, however, with D'Souza stressing there would be "clinical control" of the athletes as they prepared for events to ensure safety.
    (Production: Oliver Regan, James Redmayne)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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