Getting the world’s best athletes to abandon elite competition for the fringe ecosystem of the Enhanced Games is no easy feat. In part, that’s because athletes would potentially have to give up their Olympic dreams in order to participate, as the International Olympic Committee has threatened to bar any athlete who even attends the Enhanced Games, whether or not they use PEDs (not all of them did), from competition. The result was a roster made up largely of retired athletes or competitors who had never quite reached the level required to break world records in the first place.
“A good athlete probably couldn’t do what Barry Bonds did, or pitch as fast as Roger Clemens,” says Darren Rovell, the former ESPN journalist turned venture capitalist. “So the question becomes—and I think this is where the concern lies—what is the delta between a great athlete and a good athlete? They didn’t sign up legends, that’s for sure.”
While records weren’t necessarily shattered, 22 athletes achieved personal bests at the games. But whether the public cares about incremental improvement is another question entirely.
Rovell is skeptical. He’s blunt about the strategic bind the Games created for itself: The public only cares if records are not merely broken, but obliterated. “Can they beat Michael Phelps? That’s the real question,” he says, “and it’s not clear the answer is yes.”
He says he’s spent the last few days talking to three of the greatest athletes of all time (he told me who they were, but only if I agreed not to mention them by name in the article), all of whom, he says, dismissed the Games as a “joke.”
But not everyone sees it that way.
“I really don’t think it was a flop,” says swimmer Hunter Armstrong, who notably raced clean at the Enhanced Games in the hope of remaining eligible for the Olympics in 2028. He ended up beating every drug-using athlete in the 50-meter backstroke.
“And maybe that’s on us, because everybody pushed this narrative—world records are going to be shattered,” he continued. “I believed that. I still do. But these aren’t miracle drugs.”
For many of the athletes who participated in the Games, they provided maybe the only chance they’ll have to compete on the world’s stage.
“Walking out on that stage, seeing yourself on a massive screen, hearing the crowd cheer—it’s the first time swimmers have experienced anything like that at this level,” says Irish swimmer Max McCusker. “That’s where you want sport to be. As a kid, that’s what you dream of. It was almost a dream come true.”
“People want us to stop, but we’re not going to,” says Martin. “With what we’re doing, we’re literally having a positive impact on people’s lives. And if you’re not a fan of it, that’s fine.”
Fashion editor, Daniel Negron; hair products by L’Oréal Professionnel; makeup products by Dior; grooming products by Huda Beauty; hair, makeup, and grooming, Kalina Kocemba. Produced on location by MMG Art Production. For details, visit VF.com/credits.