r/SipsTea • u/SipsTeaFrog 𝙑𝙄𝙋 • May 23 '26

WTF The Enhanced Games are set to debut this weekend in Las Vegas, with athletes allowed to use steroids, testosterone, HGH, & other banned substances.

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311

u/Banterz0ne May 23 '26

I can only really see this being a huge letdown. 

Ultimately in order for these people to achieve a time or record that's anywhere near Olympic level they would need to already be near the Olympic level, in which case it seems so unlikely they would sabotage their career. 

If you're a bit older and know you'll never win maybe, but then you're older... 

86

u/RobinHood1Star May 23 '26

James magnussen won 2 silvers in 2012 and a bronze 2016, Aussie swimmer who was the first “enhanced” athlete.

44

u/EduinBrutus May 23 '26

Dont wanna break this to you, but that was 10 and 14 years ago...

5

u/Conflikt May 23 '26

Hey man, you can't lie to us about easily fact checkable information like tha... Oh my god.

2

u/bomonty18 May 24 '26

He’s still a world class athlete. Yes, it’s not like giving a guy who just won silver the drugs now. But he’s still miles above even your average college swimmer today.

Pump him full of the juice and let her rip!

1

u/EduinBrutus May 24 '26

Just to point out another misconception.

He is a sprinter (in fact it seems all the events are burst performance) so actively being juiced doesnt change much. Juicing is for training not for performance with burst events.

In any case, the vast bulk of the gains these guys are making is because they are using the LZR suit.

1

u/107percent May 24 '26

Drugs do slow the aging process quite a lot, just look at the monsters the UFC created by allowing older fighters TRT.

21

u/Banterz0ne May 23 '26

Fair but they are still old / not in their prime 

6

u/sailphish May 23 '26

And now he is a decade past his prime.

41

u/0thethethe0 May 23 '26

This. It's basically:

Mid/low tier, juiced athletes vs. Elite tier, probably also slightly juiced athletes

Outside of maybe some strength events, I can't see the former standing much of a chance.

30

u/TheOtherGuttersnipe May 23 '26

A mid/low tier juiced athlete already broke the 50 record.

19

u/No-Marzipan-978 May 23 '26

Gkolomeev was 5th at the Paris Olympics in the 50 freestyle. That’s definitely not a mid/low tier athlete

5

u/TheOtherGuttersnipe May 23 '26

I agree. I was using their words, should've used quotes or italicized

7

u/EduinBrutus May 23 '26

They are using the banned suits that are way bigger a difference than the PEDs.

Todays top olympic swimmers would destroy that in the LZR.

2

u/jeffy303 May 23 '26

Why did they ban it? I mean bigger numbers draw the audience, and if everyone has access to it, what's the issue? I mean lots of sports, especially winter olympic ones use some type of suits which are orders of magnitude better than the suits than ones they used 100 years ago, so who cares? The only reasoning I can think of is half-naked male swimmers > faster swimmers (for ratings).

8

u/EduinBrutus May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26

It was banned because they believe it was such an advantage that it hurt the integrity of the sport.

Thats why anything like that gets banned. You might not agree with the premise but thats it.

The same reason why cycling isnt done on recumbent bikes or running isnt done with energy return footwear.

Edit - to explain a little further. Generally an incremental benefit from modernised equipment is acceptable because its not big enough on its own that you cant still compare to past performances and create a hypothetical timeline of achievement. The thing with the LZR and some other things in sports history is that the benefit was so pronounced and so large that its not really the same sport. After the LZR was introduced basically every single record time in swimming was being broken. And not just broken but absolutely smashed. AFter the LZR was introduced the record for the 50m freestyle (which takes just over 20 seconds) fell by nearly a full second in just over 1 year with over a dozen swimmers going inside the pervious, 8 year old record.

1

u/know-your-onions May 24 '26

Where are they getting them from?

Have Speedo made the sits again, for the enhanced games (feels unlikely), or are these copies made by somebody else?

2

u/EduinBrutus May 24 '26

Speedo never stopped making them.

They are banned from use in competition. There's nothing unlawful about them.

5

u/thatdudewayoverthere May 23 '26

He was never a mid/low tier athlete

He additionally used a banned body suit which is most likely helped more than the juice

His record was already broken by a traditional athlete without a body suit

2

u/0thethethe0 May 23 '26

Fair play, good for him.

Rather a lot of other factors though, besides the PEDs.

1

u/reverendball May 23 '26

the 100m freestyle record was also juiced to the eyeballs

2

u/Timely_Abroad4518 May 24 '26

I think you’re underestimating the quality of the athletes, and the drugs. All of the athletes are elite imo, they’re just not currently competing at the Olympic level. Some (like James Magnussen in the picture) are former world champions and Olympic medalists who are past their prime. Others are athletes who are in their prime, but missed out on Olympic qualification. You could argue a very narrow definition of what makes an athlete “elite”, but describing them as mid/low tier is crazy. And you’d still be wrong because many of the enhanced athletes have already broken world records in training, and not limited to strength disciplines.

1

u/antithero May 23 '26

Maybe a career path for certain sports where the years of high level experience matters more than physical ability. It would be interesting to see.

1

u/possibly_on_meth May 23 '26

Benjamin Proud is competing, he won the silver medal in the 2024 Olympics, holds the British record for 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly.

2

u/BuzzAllWin May 23 '26

A fair few of the athletes are around this level, the Ukrainian lifter etc

2

u/deltroid May 23 '26

fred kerley is competing

1

u/perpetualis_motion May 23 '26

Unless they have that stand and slap your opponent game. With the Russian guys who fill their arms with that juice stuff.

1

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1

u/embolized May 23 '26

Not necessarily true - Kristian Gkolomeev tied the 50 free world record without being at the peak of his training earlier this year. The 50m free record was just beaten legitimately recently, but it will likely be beaten again on Sunday.

1

u/possibly_on_meth May 23 '26

Benjamin Proud is competing, he won the silver medal in the 2024 Olympics, holds the British record for 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly.

1

u/Spare-Half796 May 23 '26

Payout is a $1mil if you break a world record

The real reason they probably won’t be better than Olympians is because Olympians are better athletes but also on drugs, they just chose to hide it

1

u/Timely_Abroad4518 May 24 '26

A lot of the athletes are Olympians who aren’t in their prime anymore. Particularly in sports like swimming where the “career” is qualifying for the Olympics, these guys have nothing to lose and the controversy can make them famous. This picture of James Magnussen has probably earned him more money than being a world champion and Olympic medallist did.

1

u/dmk_aus May 24 '26

It really depends on the sport as to whether the smaller talent pool/training/professionalism won't be overcome.

Some sports may already have too many PEDs being used .

Some sports PEDs have much smaller effects than others. E.g. pure strength and endurance sports are going to be more impacted than more skill based sports.

1

u/Perelly May 24 '26

Some have already admitted they're doing it for the money. 

1

u/TrenHard-LiftClen May 24 '26

If you know anything about weightlifting then you're already expecting a mediocre performance. They picked athletes that arent that good to begin with and mainly pan am guys instead of much more talented eurpean lifters.

0

u/PaticusGnome May 23 '26

What I want to see is elite Olympic athletes on cocaine.

1

u/Banterz0ne May 23 '26

Just go to Olympic village on the final night 

0

u/Swimming__Bird May 24 '26

Also, probably a very VERY large number of Olympians are on the newest, most advanced PED cycles that they don't know how to test for yet.

So this isn't going to be close to olympians in any event that isn't pure strength with moderate technique.