The controversial Enhanced Games begin later this week. Irish athletes are set to compete at the event, which permits the use of performance-enhancing drugs. 

With millions of dollars of prize money on the line, and the company behind the event selling their own supplements and drugs to the public, the Science Media Centre asked experts for their thoughts on the event’s safety and implications.

Dr Catherine Norton, Associate Professor Sport & Exercise Nutrition, University of Limerick, comments:

  • What are your thoughts on performance enhancing drugs being used in professional sport?

“Performance enhancing drugs are not a new issue in elite sport, but the conversation around them is changing. My concern is less about isolated cases of doping, and more about the creation of systems that incentivise athletes to compromise their long-term health in pursuit of performance, financial reward, or selection. Elite sport already places extraordinary physical and psychological demands on athletes, and we need to be careful not to further blur the lines between high performance and high risk.”

  • What performance enhancing drugs would you be most concerned about at the Enhanced Games?

“I would be particularly concerned about substances linked with cardiovascular, hormonal, neurological, and psychological risk. This includes anabolic agents, growth hormone, stimulants, and emerging compounds where the long-term evidence base is limited. The concern is magnified when combinations of substances are used, often at doses far beyond therapeutic recommendations, and in environments where the pressure to continually push boundaries is built into the model itself.”

  • What are the risks of the organisers selling their own supplements and hormones to the general public?

“There are significant ethical and public health concerns when commercial interests become intertwined with performance enhancement messaging. It risks legitimising the idea that success, aesthetics, or athletic achievement are dependent on pharmaceutical support. For younger athletes and recreational exercisers in particular, this can distort perceptions of what is achievable through training, nutrition, recovery, and evidence-based support alone. There is also concern around product quality, regulation, misinformation, and the downstream consequences of unsupervised hormone use.”

  • Do you have any concerns about the normalisation of drug-assisted fitness?

“Yes. Social media and fitness culture already place enormous pressure on appearance and performance. If drug-assisted physiques and performances become increasingly normalised or commercialised, it may create unrealistic expectations for young people and recreational athletes. We should be cautious about creating environments where health is secondary to aesthetics, virality, or short-term outcomes. There is a real risk that the pursuit of “optimisation” begins to overshadow wellbeing.”

  • Any other thoughts about the Enhanced Games in general? 

“The Enhanced Games raises important questions about ethics, governance, athlete welfare, and the future identity of sport. While it positions itself as innovation or freedom of choice, choice in elite sport is rarely made in a vacuum. Financial incentives, sponsorship, contracts, and public attention can heavily influence decision-making. For me, the central issue is whether sport continues to value fairness, health, and sustainable human performance, or whether it moves toward a model where biological risk-taking becomes entertainment.”

Declaration of interest: No conflicts to declare.

Dr Laura Donnellan, Associate Professor, School of Law, University of Limerick, comments: :

“The use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) can compromise the health of athletes and undermines competitive fairness, tarnishing the image of the sport. The taking of PEDs is a form of cheating and thus constitutes an unfair advantage. Of course, some athletes have natural advantages; physical advantage such as height, or technological advantage in the form of superior training facilities or diet.  Equally, a competitor in bobsleigh from Canada has an advantage over a competitor from Ireland. There are merits in these arguments, however, the fact remains that PEDs are not natural, and athletes could be forced into taking them by a coach or a trainer. Drugs undermine the sport and are contrary to the principles of fair play.

“The establishment of the Enhanced Games demonstrates a change in societal attitudes. My students were quite aghast at the concept of a two-tier Olympics, and I think most people would still be in favour of clean sport. However, it will be interesting to see what media exposure, both traditional and social, the Enhanced Games will receive and consequently, if that will normalise it and erode existing ethical boundaries around PEDs in sport.

“I have major concerns about the normalisation of drug-assisted fitness among the general public. Apart from the health and safety issues, there is also the pressure that might be placed on younger people to take PEDs, which can give a false sense of one’s abilities and may result in people pushing themselves further than they should.

“The organisers selling their own supplements and hormones to the general public is a public safety issue. Have the supplements and hormones been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the European Medicines Agency (EMA)? Are those taking them under the supervision of a health care practitioner?”

Declaration of interest: No conflicts of interest.