Just 1 World Record at the Enhanced Games Shows the Integrity of the Competition

“Hello and welcome to another edition of Free Agent ! A short week is a great time for a scoop and score , so let's get to it. I watched hours and hours of the Enhanced Games so you didn't have to— but maybe you should ? We'll dive into the sporting aspects, the business and entertainment aspects of the games, and much more. Locker Room Links Are NBA stars flopping? Someone crunched numbers on how often Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, James Harden, Jalen Brunson, Donovan Mitchell, and Victor Wembanyama fall after their shots Minnesota banned prediction markets—and if the law survives court challenges, it would be a felony just to advertise prediction markets . Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart introduced President Donald Trump at a rally in New York. He didn't say much beyond "I'm grateful, I'm honored, I'm pleasured to introduce [Trump]." Trump had kind words about NASCAR driver Kyle Busch , who shockingly died on Thursday. Just a reminder: If gambling ads get banned , they'll get replaced by other annoying ads. Fernando Tatis Jr. lost his lawsuit against Big League Advance, which gave him $2 million as a minor leaguer in exchange for 10 percent of his big league contracts . Elsewhere in Reason : " Trump Is the High-Prices President " What are you up to in 2042? New York's Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to bring the Winter Olympics to New York City and Lake Placid (just eight years after they're in Salt Lake City). Meanwhile, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani continues to be the king of getting good publicity for stuff that doesn't actually make a difference. Wow. That will work out great if only like 999 New Yorkers want to go. Otherwise, problems. https://t.co/XhxB9xrwMR — Frank J. Fleming (@IMAO_) May 21, 2026 The Integrity of the Enhanced Games The long-awaited Enhanced Games finally happened on Sunday, with 42 athletes trying to set world records, or at least personal bests, in swimming, sprinting, and weightlifting. Part of the idea was that some of the athletes, having trained in recent months with various performance-enhancing substances approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), would set world records and show what the human body is capable of with the latest scientific advancements. That would be better marketing for the products that Enhanced, the company behind the games, is selling to the public. In the end, across 20 different events, only one world record was set: Kristian Gkolomeev of Greece finished the men's 50-meter freestyle swim in 20.81 seconds, just barely beating the World Aquatics-recognized world record by .07 seconds. Just one world record being set was cause for some ridicule online. Others said the results show how common, yet hidden, doping is at the Olympics—though I've never seen an Olympic swimmer who looks like this. Enhanced Games athlete in photo is James "The Missile" Magnussen. Australian swimmer with an Olympic silver medal. Said he'd "juice to the gills" if offered $1m to break 50m freestyle record of 20.88. Enhanced Games agreed. This vid of him is most viewed on its YouTube channel… https://t.co/PsiP32qtGs pic.twitter.com/nDPtptrxGu — Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) May 22, 2026 The lack of world records, to me, actually showed the integrity behind the sporting event. Enhanced had every reason to want the best possible results. More world records would probably mean better marketing (though it also would have meant more financial bonuses paid out by Enhanced). As far as I know, there was no independent monitoring of the event. Enhanced could have just cheated to get the results they wanted: a shorter pool, a shorter track, clock manipulation, or weights that weren't quite as heavy as the label claims. (Though at one point a bodybuilder was given an extra attempt than initially allotted, and there was some confusion over why.) Several world record attempts came up just short—a little bit of cheating by Enhanced could have pushed those attempts over the line. (Sure, it's possible Enhanced did cheat a bit and came up short anyway.) I'm at the Enhanced Games and a PR official brought a measuring tape to the facility yesterday while giving media a tour saying he wanted to dispel doubt about the distance. Didn't actually see him measure it, however. https://t.co/mepDALgNYH — Andrew Greif (@AndrewGreif) May 24, 2026 Instead, Enhanced had to watch nonenhanced athletes take victory in three different events. That reminded me of a point Enhanced CEO Max Martin made when I interviewed him back in January : You can take all the performance enhancements you want, and they might make you a better athlete than your nonenhanced self, but you still need athletic skill and genetic luck to be the best in the world. "You still have to have dedicated your entire lifetime to it," Martin told me. "You still have to be one of the most talented people ever to do it. What we're chasing is world records. You can give me all the drugs in the world, it's not going to happen….Just think about a bodybuilder, put them on a 100-meter track, have them run against a high school kid, who's going to run quicker? Obviously the high school kid, right?" Several participating athletes spoke about how the enhancements and training helped them get back to, and sometimes beat, the peaks of their careers. Thirteen personal bests were set during the event. That's the selling proposition of Enhanced: They might not help athletes set world records, but they can still improve performance and extend careers. Can Enhanced Make it as a Business? When I talked to Martin in January, I asked what he wanted the Enhanced Games to accomplish, and he said: "What I hope to accomplish is that we are one of the most watched sporting events of 2026 and establish ourselves as one of the events on an equal level to the Super Bowl, the Monaco Grand Prix." The event obviously did not get 125.6 million viewers like the Super Bowl, though I was still impressed by the viewing numbers. But the stock market was absolutely not at all impressed with the event: Enhanced's stock price plummeted 50 percent in the opening hours of Tuesday. Whether the company can survive and grow probably depends on how long a financial leash its leading investors give it (including Peter Thiel, Donald Trump Jr., and others ). In the short term, whether Enhanced and the Enhanced Games can grow, or last at all, probably depends on them. I occasionally checked the event's viewing numbers online. Around 9:45 p.m. Eastern, right after the men's 100-meter freestyle swimming race, the Enhanced Games had roughly 75,000 active viewers across YouTube , Rumble , Twitch, and Kick (while competing with the NBA and NHL playoffs and a NASCAR race). Once concluded, those platforms showed a combined 1,426,843 views during the 6.5-hour video. (Judging by all the dumb "6 7" jokes I saw in the comments, it was probably a younger crowd.) Those are great viewership numbers considering the event wasn't on regular cable or broadcast TV—especially with no true household names competing (unless your household is really into Game of Thrones or one of these sports, though some Olympic medalists participated). I found it entertaining. It was something I watched while doing other things, but I usually paused to focus during the action—every competition was less than a minute long. We'll see whether it's a one-off curiosity competition or something that can sustain interest. ( More betting on it would probably help.) As Martin told me, the plan is to have the Enhanced Games annually. But, at least at the time, he was also hoping to have separate meets for the different sports at another point in the year. All of the events took place in one temporary outdoor venue in Las Vegas. A small but energetic crowd was on hand (invite-only). There were minimal ads—even the option to purchase Enhanced products was hardly mentioned, if at all, so the focus was really on the competition. But the competition is really meant to market the products to potential customers. The Enhanced Games have been pretty clear about its business model: "Sports Isn't the Core Business." pic.twitter.com/t6BnHjtbTj — Jacob Feldman (@JacobFeldman4) May 25, 2026 Given the huge drop in the stock price, it doesn't seem like investors think the Enhanced Games are going to convince people to buy Enhanced's products. That's a major problem for the business in the long term. What About Freedom? As for the broader bodily autonomy movement, the Enhanced Games initially felt like a step forward. There's been some derisive, dismissive , and lazy press coverage, but surely some other professional athletes in their 30s will see how these aging athletes were able to set some career bests, thanks to various performance-enhancing substances. They'll wonder why they're not allowed by their league to take FDA-approved drugs that can improve their performance and health. It doesn't hurt the rest of us to have Olympic-level athletes testing out various peptides, injections, supplements, GLP-1s, and more on themselves to show what's possible and healthy—and to raise awareness of any side effects. The more information and data points we all have, the better. We know the FDA is way too risk-averse with drug approval —so even if Enhanced is only giving athletes FDA-approved drugs, hopefully they can push the envelope a bit on reform there too. But if the broader Enhanced business fails, that's probably going to be a big discouragement to anyone thinking about opening up performance-enhancing drug rules in mainstream sports. Replay of the Week A 500-mile race decided by a few feet. "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" absolutely lived up to its name. (The onboard camera and audio are great too. Contact into turn one!) FELIX ROSENQVIST WINS THE CLOSEST FINISH IN INDY 500 HISTORY! pic.twitter.com/BBGobsgX3I — INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) May 24, 2026 That's all for this week. Enjoy watching the real game of the week, Tennessee vs. Texas in the Women's College World Series . The post Just 1 World Record at the Enhanced Games Shows the Integrity of the Competition appeared first on Reason.com .

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