The topic of doping in sport has once again appeared in the news this past week. This was not, however, driven by another athlete accused of doping their way to medals, but instead driven by discussion of the so-called ‘Enhanced Games’.
The Enhanced Games was founded by Oxford graduate Aron D’Souza and intends to be a rival to the Olympics. Its unique selling point though is that it will allow for athletes to use performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) or as they put it on their website “embrace the inclusion of science in sports”.
It’s not as though this is a particularly new idea but what has clearly given it some traction this time is the announcement of seed investment from billionaire Peter Thiel, along with other billionaire tech and biotech investors.
It is also claimed as many as 900 athletes have already shown interest in competing at such an event.
Why should rowers care?
Currently, there is no indication that these games would include rowing. Although, if it were to be a success and wanted to truly rival the Olympic spectacle, the organisers would seek to include sports such as rowing and cycling. It is important that we recognise how an event like this could both impact the future landscape of competitive sport in general, as well as how it might impact rowing more acutely.
The main argument behind an ‘Enhanced Games’ is that it would provide an allegedly ‘safe’ environment in which athletes could use PEDs under close supervision from both health professionals as well as scientists. The hope would therefore be that any drug use would be closely monitored to safeguard the health of the athletes.
The use of PEDs would also provide benefits in terms of injury prevention during training, as well as obvious pure performance benefit.
Another argument that has been made in the past is that by providing an outlet for doped athletes to compete, it will disincentives them to compete illegally within clean events. I would point out though that where any sport has embraced untested leagues or federations, this has had a negative impact on suspicion of wider doping across the whole sport.
The clearest example of this is in powerlifting, where there are multiple federations not endorsing doping per se, but not testing athletes either. The use of PEDs is widespread across competitors. Far from limiting doping to just these federations, powerlifting as a sport has become closely entwined with the world of steroid use and other PEDs.
The Enhanced Games misses the fundamental reasoning behind why athletes turn to PEDs. Athletes don’t generally take PEDs because they want to take them, but because they want to win and feel this is the only way for them to achieve that success.
Fortunately, as a sport, rowing has avoided some of the major doping scandals that other similar sports such as cycling have faced, although you would have to be very naïve to believe that doping has never been part of the sport or continues to be a challenge that rowing faces.
The issue of PEDs has been combated by and large by both the continued heavy campaigning from World Rowing and national federations such as British Rowing.
Additionally, there are very few incentives to dope in amateur rowing. One of the by effects of the lack of commercialisation and the fact that very few rowing events offer any form of winner’s purse is that there is no financial pressure to cheat. It is that pressure whether from internal competitiveness, external expectations or financial pressure to attract funding that is generally the root cause of why athletes cheat.
The inclusion of rowing in an event such as the Enhanced Games though could significantly put this at risk. Similar to in powerlifting, once that zero tolerance policy towards doping becomes undermined, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain that clean sport image.
As a rowing community, we are very lucky that there remain high levels of trust between competitors within a sport that sees very limited amounts of drug testing at competitions below the national level. Anything that threatens this community trust can only be detrimental to the sport.
Will these Games happen?
Certainly, if these billionaire backers remain determined to press ahead with the project, we could well see these Enhanced Games become a reality. I believe though there are some fundamental issues that will likely limit its ability to create the incredible spectacle its backers clearly hope it to be.
The biggest issue will be to get buy-in from enough top-level athletes to have the levels of competitiveness to match the likes of the Olympics.
I foresee only two types of athletes that are likely to be willing to enter such an event: those who have a history of doping, and those at the ends of their competitive careers who see this as an opportunity to extend their time as a professional athlete for a few more years.
The struggle to attract top athletes is clearly something that, although the organisers have not stated is an issue, is something they appear to be aware of. A clear sign of this is their plan to pay every athlete a salary. While they present this as a fair and more just way to ensure all athletes are paid a fair living wage, it also shows the reality that any athlete who was willing to compete would almost certainly lose any sponsorship or funding they receive as well as sacrificing their ability to compete at any other event.
If these games are unable to produce the boundary-redefining exhibition it sets out to, I can’t see people flocking to watch it beyond just that initial curiosity. And without long term viewership, the business model of directly paying its athletes will struggle to remain sustainable.
Should we still be worried?
While I am not worried that these Enhanced Games will be the radical shake-up that it hopes to be, I do see it as endemic of wider problems.
One of the unfortunate by-products of social media has been changes in body image expectations and growing exposure to PEDs by a larger and more casual audience. This is changing PEDs and steroid use from an obscure and shady practice to a far more widely accepted lifestyle. There is even suggestion from some experts that there could be as many as 1 million regular users of steroids in the UK.
While this is unlikely to change things much at the top level of sport where the testing is far more rigorous, it will continue to be a danger to the more amateur ends of all sports. Of immense importance, therefore, is that everyone at every level of our sport whether British Rowing, a club or individual athletes continue to push that clean sport message.
Finally, we also must accept that new investment into the sport of rowing brings new challenges. Where there are greater financial incentives and external expectations, the pressure for athletes to consider doping will be higher.
So, while for now these Enhanced Games are unlikely to have much, if any, long-term impact, PEDs will undoubtedly continue to be prevalent in sport. We have to ensure that doping scandals don’t bleed into rowing too.
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