by Jill Jaracz
Alison and I don’t plan to talk about next year’s (supposedly) Enhanced Games, and the only reason I’m bringing them up now is because USA Weightlifting put out a fantastic statement about them.
What is the Enhanced Games?
If you haven’t heard of the Enhanced Games, (a) good for you because (b) it’s an event created by a bunch of bros who want to sell supplements and figured that the best way to do it was to have a multi-sport event that allowed doping (or “performance enhancements”). Because really, what everyone wants to see is which athlete has the best chemist in their corner.
Anyway, the Enhanced Games plans to have four swimming races, two track events, and the two types of lifts in Olympic weightlifting: Snatch and Clean & Jerk.
Weightlifting’s history of doping issues
Now, weightlifting historically has had issues with doping, and eventually the IOC got tired of the constant doping violations and issues with the International Weightlifting Federation, and it threatened to pull the sport from the LA 2028 program (you can hear about some of this from our interview with Phil Andrews, when he led USA Weightlifting)
When the IWF saw the writing on the wall, it started to shape up in terms of international goverhas worked to become a cleaner sport in hopes of getting a more prominent status on the Olympic program (the IOC had whittled down its events from 14 at Tokyo 2020 to 10 at Paris 2024), so it’s not a surprise that they’re not thrilled about the Enhanced Games’ plan to roll back years of their work by allowing in athletes who dope.
IWF speaks out against the Enhanced Games
The IWF’s statement starts off:
The IWF is firmly opposed to the organisation of the 2026 Enhanced Games (where the sport of Weightlifting was announced in the programme) and the danger it poses not just to athlete health but the integrity of sport.
It goes on to invite people to “witness true strength and integrity at the 2025 IWF World Championships this October in Forde (NOR), where fair competition will continue to inspire the next generation around the world.”
It’s your basic press release that opposes something in the nicest way possible.
USA Weightlifting one ups the protest
On the other hand, USA Weightlifting President & CEO Matt Sicchio, does not mince words, in part because the Enhanced Games has already tried to recruit USA Weightlifting-affiliated athletes for its chemical demonstration. Sicchio talks about the many years it’s taken to clean up the sport and notes, “The Enhanced Games fly in the face of those efforts and corrode the foundation of integrity of which true sport operates.”
It gets better.
We have worked too hard to rebuild trust around our sport to go backwards now. Performance enhancing drugs have no place in weightlifting. There are no shortcuts to the top.
It also calls the Enhanced Games “an unwelcome sideshow,” which might be the most apt description of it yet.
Does it matter? Will the Enhanced Games actually happen?
We’ll see if the Enhanced Games actually happen. Proposed in 2023, the initial plan was to pull off a big The Enhanced Games first announced itself in 2023, with plans of having the first edition in December 2024 with competitions in athletics, swimming, combat sports, gymnastics, and weightlifting.
The event quickly got pushed to mid-2025, and the most news we’ve heard since then is that they’re now definitely going to happen in May 2026 in Las Vegas. The competition has been stripped down from five sports to just eight events in three sports.
I’m sure the Enhanced Games will find some gym rats who don’t compete in USAW/IWF competitions to be willing guinea pigs for their show. We just won’t be watching because we’ve already seen doped-up athletes lift tons of weight. It’s not fun when you know the results aren’t really real.
The bros at the Enhanced Games don’t get that. They’ve just got some snake oil to sell you, and they hope their sideshow will encourage you to part with some cash.