Zürcher Nachrichten - Enhanced Games boss predicts multiple feats beyond world records

Max Martin, chief executive officer and co-founder of the divisive multi-sport event where athletes are free to dope, said weightlifters Beatriz Piron and Arley Mendez had already surpassed world records in training.

"Hopefully they'll be able to do it tomorrow as well, and then we'll see a few more," he told a press conference on the eve of the Games.

"My guess is we'll see quite a few."

Sprinters, swimmers and weightlifters competing at the first ever Enhanced Games have spent the past four months in Abu Dhabi being administered combinations of testosterone, human growth hormone, peptides and anabolic steroids -- all banned by events like the Olympics.

The event has been denounced by multiple athletics governing bodies and anti-doping agencies as dangerous and against the spirit of sport.

But participants, lured by prize money up to $1 million for beating world records, will include Olympic medallist swimmers James Magnussen, Cody Miller and Ben Proud, who have all taken drugs.

Former 100m sprint champion Fred Kerley will compete without drugs at the event.

In addition to taking usually banned substances, the swimmers will be allowed to wear the types of "supersuits" that led to many world records falling around the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but were subsequently prohibited.

Rick Adams -- the Enhanced Games' chief sporting officer who previously spent over a decade with the US Olympic team leadership -- said he respects that "specific international organizations" will not accept any records set Sunday, even if they are broken by clean athletes like Kerley.

"But it is uncontroverted that if one of our 50m freestyle... moves through that water in less than 20.88 seconds, they have moved through that water faster than any other human being in history," he said.

"Whether you or others want to chronicle that in a certain fashion, we'll leave that up to others, but there will be no doubt that 20.87 is quicker than 20.88," he said, referring to Cam McEvoy's record set in March.

- 'Reasonably confident' -

The Enhanced Games will take place in a single day on Sunday, at a purpose-built $50 million arena in a Las Vegas casino parking lot, a structure to be dismantled hours after the final race.

In a marriage of sports, biohacking and entertainment, investors including billionaire Peter Thiel are rumored to be attending, while rock band The Killers will play a closing set.

A press conference the day before the event was beset by technical difficulties, including failing microphones and teleprompters.

But officials insisted no expense had been spared on the doctors and independent medical boards administering the drugs -- nor the emergency officials standing by in case something goes wrong on Sunday.

"For me, as a sports cardiologist, if I go in there tomorrow, I'm reasonably confident nothing will happen," said chief medical officer Guido Pieles.

"But if something happens, we've got a fantastic medical team here."

Pieles added: "The drugs we have in our trial, I would take, because I think the inherent risk of these medications -- which are clearly there -- however, they are really manageable."

- 'Transparency' -

Pieles's team has published clinical trial data, including the percentage of athletes taking each substance.

Martin said "transparency is core to our DNA."

Yet individual athletes have not disclosed the specific combinations each of them has taken, with several telling AFP that they are not permitted to share that information.

"The reason for that is because actually doesn't matter," Martin told AFP, noting that the specific combinations have been tailored to each athlete.

Also, parent company Enhanced -- which sells many of the substances being taken by its athletes to the public -- does not want to "advertise for certain protocols to create imitation potential," said Martin.

Ch.Siegenthaler--NZN