The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced Wednesday, June 11, that it will try to persuade authorities to cancel the Enhanced Games.
The Enhanced Games is a planned event for next year in Las Vegas that aims to show what athletes can do on medical-supervised performance-enhancing drugs, luring them with promises of $1 million bonuses to beat world record times.
“We will urge the U.S. authorities to find legal ways to block this initiative,” World Anti-Doping Agency President Witold Banka said, according to reports. “This initiative seeks to normalize the use of potentially dangerous drugs.”
“For the sake of athlete health and the purity of sport of course it must be stopped.”
That could come from legal action, lead by WADA and others.
“This is something that has to be explored from the legal perspective,” Banka told The Associated Press. “I cannot imagine, for instance, doctors giving the drugs to the athletes. It is completely against the values of their work.”
“The main thing is this event is going to be located in the U.S., so I think there is a strong role to be played by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.”
Travis Tygart, head of USADA, called the Enhanced Games a “dangerous clown show that puts profit over principle.”
World Aquatics said last week it will ban athletes, coaches and officials who take part in the Enhanced Games.