'Extremely dangerous': Health experts slam doping-friendly Enhanced Games

PARIS: Athletes at the Paris Olympics later this month will be tested for performance-enhancing drugs, but at a competition plotting to rival the Games, doping will be the point.

The Enhanced Games, currently planned for late next year, will not test competitors for drugs but instead encourage them to take advantage of medical advancements to break world records.

The organisers say that by freeing athletes from the tyranny of anti-doping agencies and embracing technology, the Enhanced Games aim "to safely evolve mankind into a new superhumanity".

But researchers who have studied the effects of performance-enhancing drugs told AFP they fear the Games will push athletes to dope at such extreme levels they could risk heart attack, stroke or even death.

It remains unclear if the Enhanced Games will actually be held at all. World Athletics president Sebastian Coe has dismissed the whole idea as "bollocks".

But momentum seems to be building after retired Australian Olympic swimmer James Magnussen signed up earlier this year and the competition announced millions of dollars in funding from investors including United States libertarian billionaire Peter Thiel.

Astrid Kristine Bjornebekk, a researcher at Oslo University Hospital, said she was shocked to find out there was even a chance this "extremely dangerous" idea could become reality.

Bjornebekk, who has studied how anabolic steroids damage the brains of weightlifters, warned that the Games would "trigger use with no boundaries".

Illustrating how the concept could incentivise such use, Magnussen told a podcast he would "juice to the gills" to get the US$1 million on offer for breaking the 50m freestyle world record.

As well as swimming, the Games also plan to host track and field