Billionaires and private investors are backing a rival form of the Olympic games which allows athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs while competing.
Paypal billionaire Peter Thiel has decided that he's going to put a portion of his fortune towards investing in 'The Enhanced Games', which is an Olympic-style event that allows contenders to use performance-enhancing drugs while they compete in a range of traditional events including swimming, gymnastics, weightlifting, track and field, and combat.
According to the event's official website, the Enhanced Games has been dubbed "the Olympics of the future."
"When 44% of athletes already use performance enhancements, it is time to safely celebrate science," the description added before emphasizing that "sports can be safer without drug testing."
The mastermind behind the invention is Dr. Aron D'Souza, who is also known for being a high-profile lawyer.
Speaking to The New York Post, D'Souza revealed that he has a whole host of investors behind the product including the likes of German investor Christian Angermayer of Apeiron Investment Group and Balaji Srinivasan, the former chief technology officer of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
While the businessman plans on revealing further details in April, before going on to promote the games during the Paris Olympics set to commence this summer, he did state that the Enhanced Games are negotiating with several host cities "that have requisite infrastructure" about who will take on the rival event.
However, he allegedly declined to specify which venues they were looking at specifically.
Speaking of the drug-enhancing element, he told The Post that the idea is to allow athletes to use whatever substances they wish "out in the open and honestly" as opposed to the Olympics, where allegedly "44% of Olympians admit to using banned substance while only 1% get caught."
"My body, my choice, your body, your choice," D'Souza hit back with when asked about the philosophy behind allowing athletes to put illegal substances into their bloodstreams.
Not only has the concept been accepted by a handful of wealthy people, it seems as though it has also been accepted by some social media users who took to X (formerly Twitter) to express their support for the games.
"Finally a billionaire using their fortune for something good," wrote one user while this one also agreed writing: "Maybe I'm alone in this, but why *not* see what humans can do when they decide to completely max out their own biology using what we know? Eager to see it, honestly."
A third even made their own proposal, writing: "They should do the enhanced games/steroid Olympics but for baseball, and also let them use metal bats."
However, not everyone was on board with the move with this user commenting: "Those 'Enhanced Games' are the logical conclusion of discourse that strips the athlete and their talent from the story entirely. So, any idiot with money will think they can just roll up to success entirely through roid consumption and it leads to embarrassing nonsense."
The Enhanced Games are set to commence mid-2025, according to reports.
