This photo taken on March 29, 2023 shows the White House in Washington DC. [Photo/Xinhua]

Global Times-A sports event called "Enhanced Games" is scheduled to take place in May 2026 in Las Vegas, the US. The event has sparked widespread criticism and condemnation for allowing athletes to use long-term banned substances in sports games, such as steroids and growth hormones, and luring athletes with large cash prizes. A spokesperson for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), James Fitzgerald, denounced the initiative as "dangerous and irresponsible," while World Aquatics condemned it as "a circus built on shortcuts." On Friday, China's Anti-Doping Agency issued a statement firmly opposing the glorification of doping as a form of "scientific advancements" and called on the global sports community to stand united in rejecting the event.

The "Enhanced Games" were founded by Australian entrepreneur Aron D'Souza and are set to take place in Las Vegas, the US with financial backing from several prominent figures in American political and business circles. The fact that this event is happening in the US rather than elsewhere is not a coincidence - it is a concentrated reflection of the systemic failure of anti-doping regulation in the country. For years, the US has been known for its fragmented and chaotic anti-doping oversight. Approximately 90 percent of American athletes, particularly those in professional leagues and college sports, compete outside the jurisdiction of the World Anti-Doping Code. 

In September 2024, the WADA called for "root and branch reforms" of US anti-doping system. While the US enforces its Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act with extraterritorial reach across the globe, it has ironically become a severely afflicted area for anti-doping violations, now even with the emergence of the "Enhanced Games."

No matter how the organizers try to rebrand it, it could not deny the fact that the "Enhanced Games" represent a blatant stain on the spirit of sport, a direct challenge to global athletic norms, as well as a threat to the ethical values of human society. Cloaked in rhetoric about "scientific advancements" and "pushing the boundaries of human performance," the event is in fact driven by a deeply troubling industrial model targeting the human body - one where pharmaceutical companies, tech capital, entertainment media, and political lobbying groups converge to create a testing ground for the "legalized" use of performance-enhancing drugs. This is not a sporting event in the traditional sense, but rather a radical experiment born from the collusion of capital, technology, and unrestrained liberalism. Rather than calling it "Enhanced Games," it would be more accurate to call it the "Doping Games.

As WADA spokesman James Fitzgerald has said, the "Enhanced Games" seeks to promote the use of powerful substances and methods by athletes for the purposes of entertainment and marketing. Numerous studies have shown that long-term use of anabolic steroids and growth hormones can lead to liver and kidney damage, cardiovascular disease, and even death. Yet the "Enhanced Games" blatantly ignore these potential consequences, placing athletes' health at risk - an alarming level of indifference.

For a long time, many organizations such as the International Olympic Committee have upheld a global ban on substances like steroids, driven by a shared commitment to protecting athletes' health, preserving the spirit of sport, and ensuring fair competition. The emergence of the "Enhanced Games" is now attempting to challenge this global consensus.

Sport has never been merely about speed or strength; it represents fairness, justice, and the resilience of the human spirit. The direction represented by the "Enhanced Games" runs counter to these values. It outsources "victory" to drugs and capital, turning competition into an arms race of an illicit technologies - whoever has the most aggressive "enhancement plan" ends up on the podium. If that's the case, what meaning does sport still hold?

Relevant authorities in the US have a responsibility to prevent this event from being held. This is not only a fundamental stance in defense of international norms, ethical principles, and justice, but also a duty to the health of American society, especially its youth, and the spirit of sport, and to avoid turning the US into a testing ground for controversial technologies that challenge ethical boundaries.

The underlying ideology of the "Enhanced Games" aligns closely with certain trend of technological extremism present in American society. Behind this so-called sports experiment, what we see is not the dawn of humanity's future, but a clear manifestation of ethical breakdown caused by blatant capitalist desire and techno-extremism. Therefore, this is not only a provocation to global sports ethics, but also a reflection of a deeper, systemic "loss of control" rooted in a kind of acceleration within American society. Its influence goes far beyond sports itself. The world is watching to see how the US responds to the "Enhanced Games."