Las Vegas is known for its over-the-top spectacle. The heavyweight fights, the mega-concerts, the Formula 1.
But Sunday night's Enhanced Games - featuring a purpose-built arena on the Strip, a cast of athletes on a cocktail of banned substances, and a promised bonanza of shattered world records - may have been the most audacious and controversial show the city has ever staged.
The event, backed by billionaire investors including Peter Thiel and Donald Trump Jr., billed itself as a new model for sport: one in which performance-enhancing drugs are permitted, regulated, and celebrated. An event to push the human body to its ultimate limit.
Athletes competed for $250,000 per event win and a $1 million bonus for breaking a world record.
“We have arrived in mainstream culture,” claimed the Enhanced Games’ CEO, Maximilian Martin. “We are here to stay. We have changed the world tonight.”
