In modern parlance, it is what techies would call a “disruptor,” to say the least.
It will take a lot more, however, for sporting fans of earlier generations to get their heads around the concept of the Enhanced Games, which were officially announced on Wednesday and will take place next year in Las Vegas.
Saudi Arabia’s Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al-Saud, founder and CEO of KBW Ventures and chairman of the Kingdom’s Sports For All Federation, is the region’s first, and to date only, investor in the tournament that allows athletes to use performance-enhancing substances without being subjected to testing.
Prince Khaled — nicknamed the “Tech Prince” for his investments in startups, among many other fields — is bullish about the potential of the Enhanced Games when asked if the sports world is ready for such a controversial step.
“Look, I like to think of myself as a progressive investor, venture capital typically backs very nascent ideas,” he told Arab News.
Aron D’Souza, left, and Christian Angermayer, co-founders of the Enhanced Games. (Supplied)
“You are always looking for the big idea, the society-changing concept. Then, you attempt to predict and really visualize how and where and when that big idea will prove relevant to the wider world.
“As someone who is pretty involved in sports on both personal and business levels, I think there is a segment of the world who would like to push the limits of human potential,” Prince Khaled said.
“How fast? How far? How long? All questions in sport that someone like me is curious about, and very eager to see. I want to see real-world application, and a competitive approach.”
He accepts that this idea, with all the ethical points and counterpoints it evokes, might take a long time to be accepted in mainstream sports.
“Is the world ready? The world wasn’t ready for most fresh concepts. At the most basic level people weren’t even ready for ride-hailing, now it is considered a must for many all over the world, he said.
“So, whether it is transportation or AI or art or biotechnology or in this case, sport and biohacking, the world is usually not ready for things that have not been done before. That doesn’t mean they should never be done.
“Elite athletes who have never been granted the opportunity to experiment with body autonomy and enhancement exploration can now sign up if they so choose,” said Prince Khaled.
“If you want to talk sports in specific, I also think the world wasn’t ready for MMA, but it’s now one of the biggest crowd draws out there.”
The reaction from the sports community at large has, unsurprisingly, been a negative one.
Four-time Olympic Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev. (Supplied)
In February of last year, a joint statement issued by the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency condemning the games was supported by The International Fair Play Committee.
“Well, it is voluntary, and it’s like for like. The Games is for those who choose to enroll and compete with enhancements. It is ethical; the ethics rests in equality, safety and transparency.
“There is a disclosure protocol, and everyone knows that everyone else is applying the same types of enhancements and experimenting with biohacking.
“I don’t think I have to justify investing in what I see as a form of competitive sport,” he added. “As long as everyone involved is aware, then it is fair and transparent.”
Prince Khaled is known to be the Middle East North Africa face of venture capital, with investments across artificial intelligence, biotechnology, agricultural and food technology, as well as in the sports-adjacent sector, robotics and broadcast technologies.
One of his biotechnology bets, Colossal Biosciences, recently made headlines with its reported $10.2 billion valuation.
“I met the co-founder of Enhanced Games (Aron D’Souza) at a private conclave staged by FII (Future Investment Initiative) last year in Riyadh. This was my first exposure to the idea of the Enhanced Games.
“It was a closed-door working group held to discuss democratizing access to healthy aging solutions. Some of the foremost figures were present; from stakeholders from the Saudi Health in All Policies committee, to scientists, to entrepreneurs and investors.”
“I do think the Enhanced Games can play an important role here; how better to analyze the effects of enhancement than on elite athletes? People who are in the best possible shape physically that they can be naturally, and then build on that,” he said.
“When your baseline is elite athlete level, then we can really see what biohacking and these enhancements can do.
“I do think it is ethical, because there is no subjectivity and no varying board rules, and because it is upfront and clear about the idea that everyone is competing with their own approach to enhancement.”
Certainly the games seem to appeal to athletes either coming to the end of their careers or ones for whom Olympic and international success remain out of reach. Established figures, including Australian swimming coach Brett Hawke, have backed the idea.
At the age of 31, four-time Olympic Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev will take part in the Enhanced Games, having received a $1 million prize for breaking the long-standing 50-meter freestyle world record with a time of 20.89 seconds.
“Being the first to break a world record at the Enhanced Games means a lot to me. I’m proud to lead the way,” said the athlete who specialized in sprint and butterfly events, and earned a silver in the 50-meter freestyle at the 2019 FINA World Aquatics Championship in South Korea.
However, having not consistently been at the top of the sport, he sees these Games as an opportunity to make up for missed opportunities.
“One year at the Enhanced Games could earn me more than six Olympic cycles combined,” Gkolomeev told Arab News. “I’ve never had this kind of support; doctors, nutritionists, therapists, all working to make me better.”
Prince Khaled accepts that participation will depend entirely on the choices of the individual athletes and their particular circumstances.
“There are athletes who are not going to want to join, and then there are those who will be the early adopters,” he said. “At launch, there is already a record-breaker, who just won a million dollars.
“Is this going to make everyone rush to sign up? No, but this will definitely spark some honest and much-needed discussions about the irregularities between sporting rules and different governing bodies, and the allegations of unfair treatment levied against some athletes over others.”
“Democratizing access to aging solutions is what first interested me in the Games, and then I began to think of the implications on sport.
“I’m sure you know about the politics involved when deciding which athletes were accused of using enhancements, in several instances countries felt their athletes were unfairly targeted.
“At the Enhanced Games, this political maneuvering is completely removed from the equation. I bet if you ask the athletes that felt they were wrongly maligned, they would be pretty quick to agree that politics played a role.”
In its statement last year, the International Fair Play Committee said the Games “represent a potentially catastrophic healthcare risk” to the athletes.
The Enhanced Games’ website meanwhile promises medical vigilance and safe participation for the athletes. Critics will rightly question just where the line is drawn in terms of the use of performance-enhancing substances.
“To my knowledge, there are two cohorts, one is enhanced with their own resources and medical guidance, and one cohort that is officially under the Enhanced Games,” said Prince Khaled.
“For the second cohort, there is a full treatment protocol lined up for athletes.
“They will definitely have better medical guidance and access to the latest in monitoring methodologies and technologies with the Enhanced Games than they have ever had in their professional sporting careers.”
“Everyone knows one of the biggest barriers to elite athletics is cost,” he added. “The Enhanced Games is bringing the best medical and scientific protocols and giving the athletes access to that.
“To bring this conversation full circle, this is something enabled by funding, and in venture capital, funding is, most of the time, allocated to groundbreaking entities and ideas.”
Prince Khaled said he is a “cautious believer in biohacking” which is, simply stated, the optimization of nutrition to enhance energy, cognitive function, and overall health and well-being.
“I think longevity medicine and healthspan and various other biotechnology sectors are burgeoning for a reason.
“KBW Ventures is invested in biotechnology, health tech, medtech, and with the Enhanced Games, I consider it kind of an ultimate biohacking opportunity for elite athletes,” he said.
“I expect that so much valuable scientific data on reversing biological age, and repair and so much more is going to come out of the Enhanced Games,” Prince Khaled added.
“On a separate note, the athletes that participate in the Games have to undergo what is termed health testing, ensuring that they are fit to compete. They also need to disclose everything that they are using to enhance their performance.”
At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, the world of athletics was shaken to its core when Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was stripped of the gold medal he had won with a world record time of 9.79 seconds.
Author Richard Moore’s “The Dirtiest Race in History” remains a seminal read on the events of Sept. 24, 1988. Since then, many other athletes have been banned from participating, or stripped of medals, for similar offences with increasingly less fanfare and shock.
But is the world ready now to consign such considerations to history?
The clock is now ticking toward the first Enhanced Game. It remains a tough, if not almost impossible sell, for a sporting community brought up on the concepts of fair play and the dangers of performance-enhancing drugs.
Whether the world is ready for these Games, and how the future will judge these developments, remain open questions.
