Doping is allowed: Peter Thiel answers ‘improved games’

While the sports industry and the Olympics have worked hard to eliminate doping, a new organization backed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel wants to allow athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs.

Enhances Games is the creation of Dr. Aaron D'Souza, a lawyer best known for leading the Peter Thiel lawsuit against Gawker Media in 2013.

In a decrypted interview, he said, “We want to end the oppression of science and maximize human potential. “Science has been used throughout our society to improve our skills, productivity and capabilities, but it has been excluded from sports by the International Olympic Committee. So, look at how humane it is.

Others joining TL in backing the revamped games are Christian Angermayer, founder of Aperon Investment Group, and Balaji Srinivasan, former chief technology officer of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

“Our focus now is on pharmacological enhancements,” D'Souza said. “Whether it's steroids, testosterone or other supplemental or therapeutic regimens, we want to allow athletes to use any medical technology that can be safely and effectively achieved under clinical supervision to extend their potential.”

Apart from a report in the New York Post on Thursday, only limited information is available on the event. D'Souza said he plans to reveal more details about the updated games later this year.

” of [Enhanced Games] It will be the Olympics in Paris in July this year where we will support the improved athletes,” D'Souza said.

According to D'Souza, 44 percent of elite track and field athletes admit to using banned performance enhancements, and only 1% have been caught.

A December 2022 report by the online health clinic Invigor Medical found that the percentage of adult elite athletes is between 14 percent and 39 percent, and that there are three to four million stimulant drug users in the United States.

Sports that have improved since the opening include swimming, gymnastics, weightlifting, track and field, as well as boxing and MMA.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) first banned doping in 1968. Following the IOC, other sports organizations began investigating and banning banned substances, including steroids. The National Football League (NFL) began suspending players for steroid use in 1989.

But D'Souza doesn't want to be anti-IOC but a science-based future for sports development.

“The Olympics are all about the past, they're about ancient Greece,” D'Souza said. “So they're an inherent sporting ethos, and they're stuck in the past. We are about the future, science and progress. We are accelerating.

Critics say allowing athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs gives them an unfair advantage, but D'Souza says enhanced games are about testing safety, not fairness.

“[Athletes] As long as there is no clinical monitoring, they can take whatever they want,” said D'Souza. As long as they are within health parameters, for example, there is no heart enlargement or irregular arrhythmia, which can indicate a risk of heart failure.

D'Souza suggested the group's clinical advisory board; They are Professor George Church, Chair of Genetics at Harvard University, Dr Michael Stagner from King's College London, and Dr Julia Coney, an expert in biotechnology and bioscience.

“These are some of the best clinicians and scientists in the world, and they're supporting this project because they see it as a way to empower people.”

D'Souza said the Enhanced Games will give athletes the choice to compete naturally or through ‘Enhance', as well as giving consumers the option to watch something fun, bold, quirky and different. Like an ancient version of wrestling practice, like college wrestling.

D'Souza said the revised Games would be open to athletes from around the world, regardless of the political situation around their country.

“All athletes have the right to be political and also not to be political,” he said. “And we decided that athletes should compete for themselves, at least in the first modified games.”

D'Souza said he wants to make qualifying for the Enhanced Games as seamless as possible, saying athletes who want to participate can upload a video of themselves running on a treadmill or doing boxing and compete in games with upcoming regional qualifiers. Later in 2024 and the opening games in 2025.

D'Souza highlighted how technological advances such as generative AI are pushing the boundaries of what we perceive as possible, and how this could be applied to other fields in the future, including sports and longevity and games.

“Think of a 60-year-old breaking a track and field record or a 60-year-old swimming world record,” D'Souza said. “What's going to happen is that the moment those records are broken, the world will be watching, and everyone will be like, ‘What's up, and how do I get it?' They say. It creates a Sputnik moment.

D'Souza admits that this hypothesis may sound like science fiction or the fountain of youth; Artificial intelligence was also considered science fiction not so long ago, he added.

“AI was science fiction five years ago, and all you need is one moment, ChatGPT, and everything is real.

While longevity experiments may still sound like science fiction, improved games and continued experimentation and investment will make longevity a reality, he said.

His quest for immortality has led to many serious experiments, including chemical cocktails aimed at reversing aging, biohacking clubs and genital Botox injections.

Last summer, billionaire Brian Johnson took social media by storm when he tweeted that he was using shock wave therapy on his penis. Little did the world know, this was the first of many biohacking experiments the entrepreneur would announce.

Johnson has spent more than $4 million to pursue a long, healthy and hopefully young life. Other experiments include sequential plasma swaps with the father and son, as well as the aforementioned Botox injections.

While long-term trials may grab the headlines, D'Souza says he wants to dispel the misconception that performance-enhancing drugs are dangerous in and of themselves.

“Performance enhancements can be safely used, and have the potential to unlock a positive future for humanity,” he said. “The compounds used to make athletes run faster and higher are the same compounds that keep us young, fast and strong.”

The possibility, D'Souza continues, is that what he calls the disease of aging can be treated, cured, and ultimately resolved.

“The field of performance medicine is essential to that mission,” he said.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.