Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel is throwing his monetary muscle behind an “Olympics on steroids” — whose organizer boasts that athletes will dope “out within the open and actually.”
Thiel, who made his fortune as an early investor in tech startups like PayPal and Fb, is backing the Enhanced Video games, which is able to actively encourage athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs.
The enterprise — geared toward aiding analysis into dietary dietary supplements and biohacks that push the boundaries of human efficiency — is the brainchild of Dr. Aron D’Souza, a lawyer by coaching who famously conceived Thiel’s lawsuit against Gawker Media.
He plans to offer extra particulars on April 17 and promote the controversial idea in Paris in the course of the Summer season Olympics, which start in July.
Thiel is amongst a number of high-profile enterprise capitalists who’ve backed the challenge, together with billionaire Christian Angermayer of Apeiron Funding Group and Balaji Srinivasan, the previous chief expertise officer of cryptocurrency trade Coinbase.
D’Souza wouldn’t reveal how a lot cash was raised, telling The Publish it was within the “excessive single-digit hundreds of thousands” — a sum that’s “sufficient to provide the primary video games.”
D’Souza stated that Enhanced Video games are negotiating with a number of host cities “which have requisite infrastructure” although he declined to specify which venue will host the inaugural competitors, which he expects to get underway by the center of subsequent yr.
The competitors will function 5 occasions — swimming, gymnastics, weightlifting, observe and area, and fight — and shall be held annually at already-existing venues.
He instructed The Publish that the thought behind Enhanced Video games is to permit athletes to make use of no matter substances they want “out within the open and actually” — unlike at the Olympics, the place “44% of Olympians admit to utilizing banned substance whereas just one% get caught.”
“My physique, my alternative, your physique, your alternative,” D’Souza instructed The Publish when requested concerning the philosophy behind permitting athletes to juice.
“People ought to be capable to make decisions about your physique and nobody — whether or not it’s a sports activities federation or the federal government — ought to be capable to inform them what to do about it,” he stated.
He stated that the occasions are open to any athletes — present and former professionals and amateurs — and that permitting them to boost their efficiency with substances will allow researchers to get a greater thought of what applied sciences are on the market that may increase longevity and “wholesome growing old.”
“We predict that it will create situations by which we’ll get a a lot bigger knowledge pool of athletes and people who’re aspiring to self enchancment by means of science,” D’Souza stated.
He stated that the information can be “very helpful to figuring out compounds and therapies to extending human life.”
D’Souza predicted that Enhanced Video games would do for anti-aging what “ChatGPT did for AI.”
The 56-year-old Thiel is amongst a number of Silicon Valley moguls who’ve invested hundreds of thousands in funding analysis geared toward serving to individuals stay longer.
Thiel himself takes human progress hormone to assist preserve muscle mass in addition to anti-diabetes drug metformin, which has grown well-liked within the anti-aging neighborhood.
Thiel instructed media shops that he adheres to the paleo food plan — which eschews processed meals in favor of unprocessed fruits, greens and lean meat — and that he goals to sooner or later have his physique cryogenically frozen in order that he could be posthumously revived if and when expertise permits for it.
To date, 900 athletes have expressed curiosity in taking part within the Enhanced Video games, in keeping with D’Souza.
He stated Enhanced Video games’ free-for-all philosophy will permit athletes who “didn’t win the genetic lottery” to experiment with supplementation that would increase their efficiency.
“Anybody who desires to compete and may achieve this,” D’Souza stated.
Enhanced Video games can even pay athletes a base wage along with prize winnings.
The concept is to keep away from an Olympics-style competitors by which nations and municipalities compete for the correct to host the video games by constructing taxpayer-funded stadiums and venues — just for those self same venues to face unused after the occasion is over.
Economists at Oxford College carried out an evaluation which discovered that each Olympics since 1960 has run over funds.
D’Souza instructed The Publish that the Enhanced Video games shall be fully funded with non-public cash.
“The Olympics wastes tens of billions of {dollars} constructing stadiums after which throwing them away after two weeks,” D’Souza stated.
Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the Russian anti-doping whistleblower who uncovered the nation’s state-sponsored doping program, referred to as the thought a “hazard to well being, to sport.”
Anna Meares, a former Olympic gold medalist who serves as Australia’s Olympic chef de mission for the Paris Summer season Video games, instructed The Guardian: “It’s a joke, to be trustworthy.
“Unfair, unsafe — I simply don’t assume that is the correct approach to go about sport,” she stated.
