Pro
Enter the Enhanced Games. Essentially the Olympics on steroids (literally), this event is funded by three big time venture capitalists and has a huge team of doctors, professors, and lawyers involved. They will do state-of-the-art medical profiling, blood, urine, brain imaging, and genomic sequencing (what ever the fuck that means) to ensure that none of the athletes will be putting themselves in harm’s way just to swim a little faster.
Creating a whole new stage for the highly doped athlete is not only beneficial to the ones on performance enhancing drugs but also the clean athletes. It gives the world a chance to see the true capabilities and capacities of the human body, while providing the athletes opportunities for brand sponsorships and to make good money.
Right now, clean athletes are stuck in the no man's land of training their asses off, eating strictly chicken and broccoli, and still losing to some guy who claims he “accidentally” mixed horse testosterone into his morning smoothie. It’s like studying for weeks for an exam and still getting beaten by the guy who has the answers written on the inside of his arm.
Let's call it what it is: sports on steroids, turned into entertainment for the world. But hey, clean athletes get to keep their medals and their souls while the rest of us risk paying to watch some hopped-up-on-Tren powerlifter deadlift a Hilux. I must admit, it is something I would pay to watch.
Neg
Sport exists on the principles of fairness, inclusivity, and integrity. Doping will undermine all of these, setting a concerning precedent for the future of one of humanity’s greatest pastimes. The Enhanced Games is just an event that will be a hobby for the rich – no inspirational stories of watching years of discipline pay off. It sets a dangerous precedent for athletes around the world, who may feel they need to dope to ever achieve their dreams of a world record.
Then there are the ethical questions raised. While supplements and hormones may provide short-term gains, the long-term effects of injecting obscene amounts of things into you are likely not studied. Is it really ethical to potentially cut short a talented athlete’s career for a spectacle?
On the legal side of things, it’s a massive grey area as well. Despite ‘medical supervision’ being present, without sporting bodies who takes responsibility if an athlete dies at an event? Athletes who participate are likely to be blacklisted from their governing bodies for the rest of their lives. If you’re not willing to cut your sporting career short for five minutes of fame, it’s just an excuse for washed-up ex-athletes to get their five minutes of fame.