Future of Sport and Competition

This is the Guardian today Wh elite athletes are openly doping for the year's biggest sporting spectacle High interest debt is one of the toughest opponents you'll face Unless you power up with a so far personal lo A so far personal loan could repackage your bad debt into one low fixed rate monthly payment It's even got suuper speed since you could get the funds as soon as the same day you signed Visit sofi. com slash power to learn more. That's soFi d. com slash PW ER L loans originated by Sfi Bank NA, member F theIC terms of conditions supppply andMLS six nine six eight niney one always talented in the water ride., always had a natural affinity to water and it's a place of peace, right? When you put your head under the water, there's no one's talking to you. It's just you and your thoughts or you just pushing yourself. So there's that part I always love My dream was always like when you're a little kid is to win an Olympic gold medal. As you get older, you start understanding how rare that is So it kind of shifted towards, you know, just making the Olympic games. I' Max Mcusk He's an elite swimmer. with the shoulders to prove it Bs trained with military discipline in his childhood Six to eight sessions a week, entering every competition going And it paid off All right they're off now for the last final of day two here at the national Championships. Look at that breakout from McCusker He represented Ireland as a finalist in the European and World Championships. Three strokes to go. McCusker wins a twenty three forty four. That's pretty slow. I missed the u Tokyo twenty twenty one Games by C couple of hundredths of a second, maybe Max did make it to the Olympics, Paris twenty twenty four. You'd have thought this was just the beginning of a glorious career An Olympian repepresenting his country and being skilled at a level most of us can barely physically imagine. Pretty much straight after the Paris Olympics, I retired you to like Mainly financial reasons, but just had no support or funding. from the governing body. so just decided that, you know what, I've made my childhood career dream and I had to go work in the corporate world for a bit At twenty four Max thought his swimming career was done A year later He got a call. The enhanced games. new era where sport meets spectacles records fall and traditions are rewritt W worldld's best athletes, fully unleashed and powered by science Yeah, so it was actually an old teammate who really shout to me, Shane Ryan and was like, there's a spot For a butterfly swimmer, I've told them about you and I've told them that you might be interested. Max was invited to compete in the Ehanced games It's the world's first sporting event where athletes aren't just openly taking drugs They're being encouraged to do so I always thought there was more for me. I always thought I was continuously improving. And then yeah, it kind of went from there, started speaking with with the team and the coach and then Before you know it, I was out on a plane to the training camp. This weekend The first ever enhanced games will take place in Las Vegas Where else to show the world what it looks like to turn athletes into superhumans using a radical cocktail of drugs peepides, supplements So called longevity medicine Bot of which You can conveniently buy from their website From the Guardian, I'm Nosin Nik Bal Today in focus Slling Sperhumans? Are the enhanced games looking to get us all hooked Jan Engle, you're a chief sports reporter at the Guardian, and you recently wrote about not getting your media pass for the enhanced games. Can you tell me how come We all thought it would be quite interesting to go along applied for accreditation and we got a reply back saying, sorry, no. I then got an email from the Enhanced Games people saying had nothing to do with scrutiny from the Guardian. know we don't care about that. It's because the Guardians big in America., okay. I point out that actually we are one of the sort bigger news media websites in America and the world without sort of, you know, picking up the trumpet and blowing it too loudly And at the end of last week, they said, okay, You can actually go So the Enhanced games, they're absolutely embracing that sports should be aligned with drug use and that it's fair game for everyone to be taking them. Their starting point, I guess, is that they believe that lots of elite athletes take banned drugs already They're just not caught So they can't essentially say, look We're honest here. We're being transparent We're not hiding in the shadows. This is what the athletes are doing whereereas more athletes than you think at Olympics and elsewhere are taking these drugs. They're just doing so secretly and legally When I speak to Ld Anti doping aggency, they would absolutely dismiss this. They would say,, of course, there are cheats out there that don't get caught It's not the majority. It's more than we'd like, obviously, but it's still better than free four, which is what enhanced games are talking about So curiously, the Enhanced games say that it's not compulsory for athletes to take drugs to compete and that they're also not allowed to use illegal drugs and that it's prescription only So inerms of drugs we're talking about What are the actual risks? I asked the World Anti doopeE aggency this and their view is all drugs when taking effective doses carry risks They point it out steroids for example, can increase the risk of heart attacks, stroke and liver damage A human growth hormone can trigger diabetes, heart problems, and innormal growth in organs and bones. Oh my Godd. Testosterone can lead to increased risk of hypertension, heart attack, and blood cots as well as infertility and testicular shrinkage They say there is plenty of published peer review literature on this. I did speak to a couple of scientists at Birmham University And they made another point that sometimes we don't see this stuff for ten, twenty, thirty years afterwards. So you can feel absolutely great and have these benefits. And I don't think anyone is denying that if you take a bunch of testosterone, you will get stronger. you will probably feel better There will be side effects too And so what do Ehanced games say about the safety and the side effects and the risk? Well, they will say that for the ones that the athletes are using on Sunday, these are all FDA approved On the official Enhanced Games website, there are other drugs such as peptides theseese new things that are coming through that aren't currently FDA approved. However, enhs are hoping that will change and There is currently a battle at the moment to get more of peptides through Congress. And there's every possibility that a lot of these peptides will be FDA approved in a year or two, but whether they are safe We know the long term side effects. I to say we don't know about that so because they haven't actually been adequately studied enough yet with the rigor that you would get with approved medicines And Sean, are you aware of any stories, any cases where taking these kind of drugs has had a really negative bearing on an athlete When you only have to go back to before the Iriron Ctain, Look at the number of East German athletes, Look at the number of Soviet athletes broke records, did incredibly on things and then years later they were diagnosed with all sorts of issues. Indeed, I think in two thousand five in Germany, a number of East German athletes took the pharmaceutical company to court. What E Hhance would say is those athletes were taking enormous doses, pererhaps things weren't as developed back then and they would say, look, we are doing sort of smaller safer doses, but Wider would dispute that and say no amount of certain drugs can be safe I wonder was there any reservation on your part to compete in the Ehanced games? For sure, I'd be lying if I said there wasn't. You know when you first get the phone call You have all these thoughtorts of All right, well I haven't done any of this my whole career. All you hear is bad things about you know, enhancements or steroids I had these questions. My family' had these questions I brought these questions to the team And I got all of the questions answered by professional doctors or the relevant team members from the ennhanced team. And it was all put my mind at ease within the first week of conversations. What was the training like in the United Arab Amnaments? I know you've been there since January? For me, I've never trained so well so consistently in my whole life. I went from thirteen percent body fat to six percent body fat in probably about two months I've probably never been under eleven percent in my whole life. or maybe when I was like a six year old kid, I was probably around that At the same time I put on about five Kr of muscle you're able to do things that I was never able to do when I wasn't enhanced If I had a hard session on Monday, when it was time to go fast again on Wednesday, I was right where I needed to be. Do you mind be asking what is it that you're taking to of seeing all these changes in your body. Yeah, so I don't really delve into what exactly I'm taking just for the reason that let's say I'm going to give her name her Jim. sees me at may twenty fourth and sees Oh, his physique looks a lot better. I'd like to get leaner like him or he just broke a record or swam swam a really fast time or won the event And he goes, o, I'll go back on an interview and see what he took You know, and he hasn't got the blood work done. He hasn't been through the testing or got it sourced from maybe the enhanced team or he's found it somewhere else. I don't want to say what I've been taking so people use it in a similar way when they haven't done the the testing for it and make sure it's safe for their physiology the negative stigma that this organization gets is that Oh they're just doing loads of steroids, they're just doing drugs, they're just doing all this. It's like, if that were the case, I wouldn't feel comfortable doing it. and I'm not promoting peopleeople going behind the scenes without doctors doing steroids and stuff like this, right? That's not what we do at all. It's everything is extxtremely tested, everything is meeasured to the te, everything is prescribed based on your biomarkers, blood work, everything, right It's completely our choice, right? It's completely our choice of I would like to do part of this or I'd like to do less of this or why am I doing this? then From that there is extensive check ins I just had I just had a check in this morning, you know? And to be honest, obviously we're Five days from the competition now I can say that it's deviated from that at all. I feel the best I've ever felt in my life and I felt safe doing it not to break a world record. was actually to break all What incentives are the organizers offering athletes to compete Every athlete is getting a salary Eharts ges say that's between three and five times what they would get. S you compete for TamGB. I've seen some athletes talk about six figure salaries in US dollar termes. So that's Sificant about somebodyud. They also get an appearance for me for racing as well as that for every race there is a half a million dollar prize pool we're receiving a quarter of billion dollars. And then if you break a world record in what they call the glamour events, which is the fifty meter free style swimming and a hundred meter athletic sprint you also would receive an extra one million dollars. Wow Max, what was the main appeal for you? For me it was getting back into swimming, right? gettingetting back into something that I loved and You spend best part of fifteen years maybe more of honing a skill that's pretty specific, right? And I can't go into the corporate world and start teaching people how to swim butterfly. you know if someone gives you an opportunity, you know what? you're going to be supported for once and in every way and see what's the most potential you can get out of yourself in this sport That was the biggest draw to me, right? O the bat. And then just also the interest in this science, obviously competing professionally for I guess six years, best part of six years. clean you know, getting drug tested every couple of weeks right and never having a negative tests right. So it was completely new to me What is the potential for earning at these games I'm competing in two events. so I guess the minimum if I come forth in both events is one hundred thousand in Iing a couple of hour event or the maximum being five hundred thousand, right? If I win both events So compare that to my swimming career before where You know maybe over the course of four years I maybe made ten grand. so It's like chalk and cheese for me Seaan, this is the inaugural year, but the games themselves have had so much press since they were first announced two years ago. Can you tell me about that and the kind of attention they've had? Clearly, anything that disrupts what we know as traditional sport, this idea of fair competition, this idea of there are some drugs that you cannot take for either health reasons, for safety reasons or also just for reasons of unfairness anythingything that does that is's going to raise eyebrows And the fact some of the people behind it, people from Silicon Valley throwing millions and millions of pounds at this also creates huge interest. So Shean, can you tell me who is behind the ennhanced games? Where did the idea come from One of the key guys is an Australian Investor called Aron Dooza He' talks about building a super humumanity through the Enhanced games. We're building the Apollo mission for the twenty first century. You know, what did the Apoll mission do? It showed us that we were so much more capable as a human species We hit a new threshold going to the moon using science and technology to overcome our limits. This is exactly what the Enhanced Games is about. He's an Australian law expert, Oxford University, graduate, venture capitalist, tech entrepreneur You know, he claims that he will reimagine sport in the future, even though he admits that he isn't a big sports fan. in a recent Vality Fair interview, he said, I get invited to Center C Wilmwardham box seat of football games. everyveryone in the sports world wants to meet me and I'm really just not interested in sitting there However, I think he said a money making opportunity And hence here we are the Ehanced Games. Behind all this is this idea that anti aging as a business is growing hugely everywhere, but particularly in the U.S and there'll be Thousands, millions of people who perhaps be watching on said they thinking, o, I'd like a body like that. And if you go to the Enhanced Games website, there are all sorts of things that you could buy that will make you, they say you go faster, stronger, etcera, etc There's a lot of other capital invested in the ennhanced game, someome of it coming from the billionaire, Peter Thial, who we've featured a lot on today in foocus in the past He's had his fingers in a lot of pies, eBay, PayPal, Palantir and now the ennhanced games What do you think the interest was for him? Well, I think he is very much into the whole longevity side of things as well I have to say the adhced games have pushed back On the whole Peter Theal and Donald Trump Jr. who have both been involved They say they are passive and small investors at the start and they needed to cede capital. But I was speaking to them, I flagged up the fact that the Times had essentially called them a MAGA experiment and and again, they pushed back on that. And they said our only social experiment is to show the world how their lives can improve from safe, clinical, guided use of enhancements So they'd say they're non political, they're not MAGA. Peter Teal and Donald Trump Juni. are only a sort of a small part of their investment group But Sean, in your sort of expertise on the sports be and you look at who is pushing the bier haacking, longevity, advanced science, end of things. And then you look at the investors of the enhanced games and who's taking an interest Would you make a link between the games and the connection with MAGa Yes and no. I think yes, in the sense, clearly look at some of the people behind it and they are the right of American politics But what did Michael Jordan once say? The famous basketball player? he said, Republicans buy sneakers too. and I suspect If you went to the adhanced gays people, they would say, lookook, you, Democrats could be you know, a captive audience for this stuff Their goal certainly is to make things that you and I and perhaps many of our listeners would feel squeamish about at the moment They hope that in five, tened, fifteen years time, you or I will think, well, you know, I'm in my fifties, sixties now, I haven't got the energy I once was. I'm waking up turing the night I will take something. It's no different than a sleeping tablet or it's no you know, I will inject myself with testosterone. Suddenly I'm able to lift more than I've done in twenty years. That's what they want. When it comes to customers, they're not picky This isn't just sport This isn't just athletes It's a revolution can be a part of it together F enhance Is it expected to be a commercial success? Because one wonders why so many investors have rushed to back something so controversial and untested? A hundred billion dollars question. There are a bunch of companies in the longevity space at the moment. And I think everyone expects this area to grow What en hance are doing? I think are using Olympic athletes someome of them world champions, some of the world record holders. to sell a dream The other thing I think that's worth flagging is there are already an awful lot of people, particularly in the US taking this stuff A lot of it though, is coming from China of it is unregulated, a lot of it you're not sure of the dose What enhanced and other US companies are trying to do is say, look, when you buy this stuff for us, you could be sure If it says, X about testosterone in this file, it will contain it. So they are trying to sort of make this area both legitimate but also publicly acceptable if that makes sense. And I think they will succeed But it sounds like not only are they able to put on a huge spectacle, but they're conducting a live human science experiment while they're at it. Absolutely. They're spending fifty million dollars on this wide event. The killers are going to play at the after showow party. There will be, I'm sure lots of celebs about. It's going to be in resesorts worldld, Las Vegas. They're throwing big bucks at this. They have got serious athletes here decent people like Ben Prowdo. I like a lot. Fred Curley, he's Olympic hundred meter silver medalist and Bonze medalist. He's the world' champion in twenty twenty two. I hundred meters is one of the fastest men ever. So they've got serious people and they're using those athletes, I think, to raise the stock price and get lots of customers clicking on their website come Sunday night coming up How does Max feel about being an advert for enhancements? 'ause you didn't just say, how can I provide these investments? youd think, How do I holistically provide everything? How do I bring in the legal, the accounting, all of this, and do it at a price point no one else is doing it. Learn more about how we approach wealth management at creativeplanning d. com slash integrated. High interest debt is one of the toughest opponents you'll face. Unless you power up with a so far personal loan A so fi personal loan could repackage your bad debt into one low fixed rate monthly payment It's even got super speed since you could get the funds as soon as the same day you signed. Visit Sfi d. com slash power to learn more. That's soFi d. com slash PoW ER Lans originated by SfFi Bank NNA, member of theIC Terms of Cnditions supppply MLS six nine six eight nine one Obviously, you notice changes in your body. and I wonder how you feel about the organizers behind it also using this as something of an advert for the products that are being used, right? And for Mainstream audiences, potentially being able to access this stuff I'm not here to pretend that I'm a swimmer again. like I know why I've been brought here. I know I've been brought here to perform product so we can sell more product. I understand it's a business. It's not Max McCuska going for an Irish record again. It's how can we allow Max McCuska to do what he's best at to help sell a product? I undernderstand that That's what it is And in terms of the products, you know It's what we've been doing. everythingverything's above board and done properly People don't have to buy the product. No one's being forced to use the product If you like what you see come may twenty fourth, then yeah, it's a free country. You should be able to benefit from things that you want to want to undergo Have you faced criticism from your peers? and if so, how have you handled that I haven't, to be honest, I get The old keyboard warrior every so often who G me some criticism. From my point of view and I've said it since day one, I wanted to make sure that I wanted to do it I wanted to make sure that my family, my four family members were comfortable with me doing it and a couple of friends If everyone was on board and I could reassure them, then I was happy doing it. I've had teammates, people from sports organizations come to me secretly and be like, I actually really rate that How do you think the two things will be seen now in the future in the world of sport, having athletes taking enhancements, competing in these enhanced games? What's the sort of prestige compared to the Olympics or European championships I'd be sad if there's not always a place for the Olympics in European championships and worldorld Championships, right? That's how I got here. I think they're separate. I think there's a place for that and there's a place for us Do I think we're going get more views? Yeah, I do think we're going to get more views. I think it's something new. people are more interested in. There's a lot more talk about The enhanced games in the past year than any other swim meet that hass happened in the past ten years. So I think that that tells you a lot, right People want to see different things now. you know, like we just saw Jake Paul fight Antony Joshua like a couple of months ago You know, people people are interested. Did you enjoy that though I watched it You know, I watched it, but what we're trying to do is even different from that. We're trying to do things that Unenhanced people haven't done. It's a different sort of thing. it's not swwimming, it's it's a different aspect now. T worry that it might make it difficult to ever return to mainstream tournaments. and is that even a goal For me no, like I don't see myself going to mainstream tournaments again, you know? To be honest with you, I'm not one hundred percent sure if that's possible I'm not someone who believes that clean sport M Uninhanced sport should should be dirty. I think it should be clean. I was always clean my whole career. I never failed a drug test. I never would even dabble in it. And when I was doing it, I did everything by the book as I should have done it. How did you feel when you'd hear about doping allegations? And did you ever compete against someone who later failed a drug test It's a great question. If athletes told you they don't think about it be lying because it's something that is in your head, right There was a documentary that came out years ago called Icarus. It's a It's a cycling doping scandal from, I believe it was Russia, right? And I couldn't bring myself to watch it because As an athlete, when you do know you're playing by the rules and you're checking your supplements and you're checking to make sure strictly thatre you're not doing anything And then there's structural doping through other nations or individuals find ways to get through tests. It's a wind up. you know, it's a complete slap in the face to people that are trying to do it by the book