Alex Yee fears Enhanced Games will be ‘dangerous’ for former GB teammates
Olympic triathlon champion Alex Yee fears the Enhanced Games will be dangerous to athletes who accept big-money offers to take part in the pro-doping multi-sport competition.
Two of Yee’s former Team GB colleagues, springer Reece Prescod and swimmer Ben Proud, are among those set to compete in the first edition of the Enhanced Games later this year.
Organisers have offered a $1m bonus to athletes who break a world record at the competition, which will allow the use of performance-enhancing substances banned in the Olympics and almost all other elite sports events.
“My first emotion is that it seems quite dangerous. There’s a reason why substances are banned and it’s priority to health and wellbeing of our athletes, primarily,” said Yee.
“You hear about so many people from different walks of life who were doping in previous generations, who are having to stand up in the middle of the night because otherwise their heart will stop moving and stuff like that. And you are concerned that it could be a matter of time before something more serious does happen as a result of something like this.
“So my primary concern is for the wellbeing of the athletes, that they’re taking on this risk for, I guess, financial benefit.”
Yee: Elite sport must be viable for athletes
Enhanced Games organisers insist that all performance-enhancing substances it will make available have been approved by the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration), and that athletes will be under close medical supervision.
The company behind it, whose investors include Donald Trump Jr and Peter Thiel, has also launched a supplements business in order to offer some of the products available to Enhanced Games athletes to the paying public.
Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev beat the long course 50m freestyle world record in a behind-closed doors race with a fellow Enhanced athlete, Australian James Magnussen, last year. Since then, controversial US sprinter Fred Kerly has also enrolled.
“I probably wouldn’t watch it, no, to be honest,” said Yee of the inaugural competition, which is set to be held in Las Vegas on 24 May.
“I’ve seen the clip of, I can’t remember what his name is, the Australian guy [sic] breaking the world record, but, yeah, it’s just just the concern for athletes’ wellbeing.
“It sadly comes as a consequence of there being, in some sports, little to no financial incentive. And you hear Ben Proud talking about that being the major concern.
“You then look to how you can make it viable for people to be able to make money in clean and natural sports, which they aspire to do as a young person watching the Commonwealth Games and the Olympic Games, and why we can’t just do that through elite sport now.”
Londoner eyes track at 2029 World Champs
Yee, who won triathlon gold medals at both the Tokyo and Paris Olympics, underlined his endurance ability by running the second fastest British marathon time in Valencia last year but is returning to swim-bike-run in 2026.
The Lewisham native will be the star attraction when the World Triathlon Championship Series returns to London for the first time since 2015 this summer as he steps up his preparations for the LA 2028 Olympics.
Beyond that, however, he has hinted that he might switch back to running in order to compete at the 2029 World Athletics Championships, which could be held in London.
“Post-LA, we have some really exciting things coming up in the athletics calendar. There’s hopefully going to be a World Champs in 2029 so that is a really exciting prospect,” Yee said.
“For me, the opportunity to race in London is something I don’t shy away from. It’s something I really want to do and am really excited by. So I’m not ignoring the fact that’s there, and I don’t know if that will be possible but I think the most natural fit will happen. When I cross that finish line [in LA], I think something will feel right, and it don’t quite know what that is right now.”