Conservative billionaire Peter Thiel is using a portion of his fortune to bankroll a venture inspired by the Olympics that would permit competitors to use performance enhancing drugs.
The new venture, dubbed “Enhanced Games,” is poised to not just allow, but “encourage” athletes involved in the games to dope up “out in the open and honestly,” the New York Post reported. The PayPal co-founder and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel apparently sees the less strict alternative to the Olympics as a total score and is opening his checkbook accordingly.
This is pretty wild…
Billionaire Peter Thiel has invested in a sports league where steroids are legal.
It’s called the Enhanced Games. pic.twitter.com/LzJX2fN8sM
— Andrew Petcash (@AndrewPetcash) January 30, 2024
Thiel won attention from the press for throwing millions at the Trump campaign back in 2016, but has since turned on the former President and political candidates at large in the 2024 election cycle, according to Reuters.
Now, some of his millions will likely go toward funding this new endeavor.
One of the motivations behind the birth of “Enhanced Games” is to let it serve as an outlet for more research into body supplement research and ways to reimagine perceived thresholds of human athletic performance.
Described as the “brainchild” of Dr. Aron D’Souza by the Post, the doctor who doubles as a lawyer plans to rollout more information by April 17.
Additionally, D’Souza is set to promote the new idea during the 2024 Summer Olympics which will take place in Paris, France. (RELATED: Seriously? USA Fencing At Risk Of Missing 2024 Paris Olympics After Curtis McDowald Has Outburst)
Other well known public figures that will back “Enhanced Games” include ex-Coinbase Chief Technology Officer Balaji Srinivasan and Apeiron Investment Group’s billionaire manager Christian Angermayer, according to the Post.
Proud to be co-founder of @enhanced_games – the world’s 1st sporting event where performance enhancements are not just not forbidden, but actively endorsed.
Let’s celebrate what the human body can do with the help of science. The future is enhanced.https://t.co/FiSDLQoepi— Christian Angermayer (@C_Angermayer) January 30, 2024
D’Souza told the outlet that he has garnered a lump sum somewhere in the neighborhood of the “high single-digit millions” which is an amount adequate “enough to produce the first games.”
It is unclear how much Thiel and the rest are investing toward the roll out of “Enhanced Games.”
The debut competitions will include competitive weightlifting, swimming, gymnastics, track and field, as well as combat.
Peter Thiel and a group of venture capitalists are funding the Enhanced Games — an Olympic-style competition that allows performance-enhancing drugs.
Events include:
• Track and field
• Swimming
• Gymnastics
• Weight lifting
• Combat SportsThe 1st event will be in 2025. pic.twitter.com/NN1lSjRVfu
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) February 1, 2024
From 1968 through 2020, there were 442 positive tests on athletes that were reported at Olympic events, according to statista.com.
Many Olympic athletes from around the globe have faced sanctions for doping in the past.
Teenage Russian figure-skater Kamila Valieva was found guilty of doping at the age of 15 in 2021 and was barred from participating in international competition through 2025, NPR reported.
This disqualified her from representing the Kremlin in the Winter 2022 Olympics even though she already skated there and won several medals, international Olympic officials in Switzerland decided, who had only recently issued a decision, according to NPR.
Valieva won a gold medal at the 2022 Winter Games. Now that her performance is nullified by the recent decision, 9 US figure skaters have won gold medals due to the nature of the unfair competition back in 2022, according to a report by WBAL. It is unclear of Valiva will keep her awards.
Thus far, 900 athletes have reportedly “expressed interest” in joining in on what “Enhanced Games” has to offer, per the Post.
