The Enhanced Games Flopped—But It Could Have an Effect on Sports Culture for Years to Come

Aja Campbell is a NSCA-certified strength and conditioning specialist, certified nutrition coach, and youth sports coach. She’s been working in the fitness space for almost 15 years, teaching group fitness classes and working with UFC and Team USA Olympic athletes. Additionally, she coaches high school and college athletes, and oversees the sports medicine department, coaching, and diploma designation course at The Mary Louis Academy in Queens, New York. Here, she shares her reflections and predictions after the Enhanced Games.

The Enhanced Games Flopped—But It Could Have an Effect on Sports Culture for Years to Come. For several months, the Enhanced Games has made serious waves in sports news—for good reason. It billed itself as a kind of superhuman Olympics, inviting athletes to dope in the name of optimization and longevity, in hopes of breaking world records, extending athletes’ careers, and pushing the limits of human possibility. But despite the hype around the inaugural games, the results were underwhelming. Across events in swimming, track and field, and weightlifting, only one world record was broken: In the men’s 50-meter freestyle, Kristian Gkolomeev shaved 0.07 seconds off the previous record. But even that came with an asterisk. He was wearing a polyurethane suit, which increases speed and is banned in official competitions. The idea behind the game...