GoKawiilIn Las Vegas, the blazing sun beats down on a makeshift Olympic-length pool. Cody Miller stands on the starting block of lane one. His arms are raised in victory. MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” thumps over the loudspeakers as he rips off his swimming cap, throwing it to the ground. Miller lets out a guttural scream, muscles and veins bulging. He’s just won the men’s 50m breaststroke at the inaugural Enhanced Games. Miller’s wallet is $250,000 fatter than it was 26.55 seconds ago — a new personal best time for the two-time Olympic medalist.
Is Miller’s win thanks to his polyurethane swimsuit, which was banned after the 2008 Olympics as a form of technological doping? Or was it his personalized protocol of performance-enhancing drugs, which are verboten in almost every other competition? One thing is certain: Miller isn’t ashamed of his decision to dope. He’s been talking about it for months and has the enthusiastic endorsement of his doctors, coaches, and family.
“I just shaved seven-tenths off my best at 34,” he says, when asked how “enhancing” has affected his performance.
A Vegas hometown hero, Miller left professional swimming in December 2024 after setting a personal record at his final clean meet. “The last lap, my body shut down, stopped working,” he said in a vlog explaining his retirement. The video ends with Miller plugging his availability for Cameo, local swim meets, speaking engagements, and his YouTube channel.
The Enhanced Games are Miller’s chance to show he’s still able to set records and still able to compete. With the support of performance-enhancing drugs, Miller will end the day by winning another $250,000. When he does, he’ll leap out of the pool like it was nothing. He’ll spend the rest of the Games pumping his arms, cheering on his fellow “enhanced” athletes.
At no point will he ever look tired.
The Enhanced Games at Resorts World Las Vegas.
“Steroid Olympics” is a blunt moniker, but it’s one that’s stuck since the Enhanced Games were first announced by tech entrepreneur Aaron D’Souza in 2023. The venture, which biotech entrepreneur Christian Angermayer also cofounded, counts Peter Thiel and Donald Trump Jr. among its backers. The elevator pitch: a live sporting event where performance-enhancing drugs are not only allowed, but encouraged. These are athletes willing to push their bodies to the absolute limits — at least, the limits approved by the Food and Drug Administration and administered under close medical supervision.
For this inaugural Enhanced Games, 42 athletes in swimming, weightlifting, and track and field were incentivized to break world records with the chance to earn up to $1 million in prize money. For several weeks leading up to the Games, the athletes were sequestered at a facility in Abu Dhabi, undergoing a barrage of medical tests, metabolic panels, MRIs, and CT scans. Athletes who wanted enhancements had to be medically cleared to use them and were then required to work with doctors to develop a personalized protocol based on their sport and individual goals.
Enhanced’s CEO, the 29-year old Maximilian Martin, is the type of figure you’d imagine looksmaxxers studying thanks to his chiseled jaw and earnest passion for personal optimization. “Traditional medicine is all about [fixing] what’s wrong with you. It’s about getting you back to your baseline,” Martin says. But with the help of performance enhancers, “you can get into that space beyond. I think it’s really scientific evolution.”
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