On Sunday, the much-talked-about and criticised Enhanced Games, a sports competition where doping is allowed, will be decided. There will be competitions in swimming, sprinting and weightlifting in the entertainment city of Las Vegas.
Ever since the plans for the competitions became known, the criticism has been massive.
I don't think that competition deserves any media attention at all, swimming star Sarah Sjöström has told SVT.
Åke Andrén-Sandberg is a doctor and anti-doping specialist. He condemns Enhanced Games as “a business project, created by those who want to make money from it.”
Quite typical that some of the money comes from Trump's son (Donald Trump Jr), Andrén-Sandberg tells TT.
One of the poster names is American sprinter Fred Kerley. The 30-year-old has a World Cup gold medal in the 100 metres and two more World Cup relay titles. At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, he took silver in the 100 metres and followed that up with a bronze at the Paris Olympics last year.
He is currently suspended for failing to report his whereabouts under anti-doping rules.
Wants to break the 100‑metre record
He says he wants to challenge Usain Bolt's 100‑metre world record of 9.58 seconds, set in 2009.
"The world record has always been my ultimate career goal. This gives me the opportunity to focus all my energy and push my limits to become the fastest human ever," Kerley said in a press release when he was introduced to the competition.
However, Andrén-Sandberg says that the starting field in Las Vegas mostly contains "has-beens who are too old and untrained" and therefore does not believe in a world record.
"But if they doped properly, they should achieve very good results," he says.
“He is such a clown”
Even Sweden's best sprinter, Henrik Larsson, has difficulty taking the competition and Kerley's world record attempt seriously.
"He's such a clown," said Larsson during the World Cup last fall.
"But it's sad. After all, he's a person who has represented sports on a global level and has Olympic medals and World Championship medals."
Åke Andrén-Sandberg is not worried that the competition will affect traditional sports and cause more athletes to dope.
"It's questionable. It all depends on how big an impact it has. If no world records are broken, people will probably shrug their shoulders and say it's just old farts who want money. It's not real, a bit like a circus."
When: May 24.
Where: Las Vegas, USA.
Sports: Swimming; 50- and 100‑metre freestyle, 50- and 100‑metre butterfly. Athletics; 100 metres and 100/110‑metre hurdles. Weightlifting/powerlifting.
Participants: 42 athletes. Among them are swimmers James Magnussen, an Australian three-time Olympic medalist; Briton Ben Proud, who won Olympic silver in Paris 2024; and Greek Kristian Golomeev, who has participated in four Olympics. Fred Kerley, an American sprinter with both World Cup and Olympic medals on his list of achievements, is also participating. The participants have been gathered in Abu Dhabi for the past three months, writes the BBC, to train and to take doping agents under medical supervision.
Money: A total of 235 million kronor, paid both to participants for taking part and as prize money. The winners in each discipline receive 2.35 million kronor, but if a participant sets a world record in short-distance swimming or the 100‑metre run, a bonus of approximately 9.4 million kronor awaits.
TV: Streamed in North America on the Roku Sports Channel. It can also be viewed on YouTube, among others.
