Billionaire NZ citizen Peter Thiel invests in Enhanced Games

Billionaire and New Zealand citizen Peter Thiel has thrown his support behind the Enhanced Games - a startup competition being deemed the Olympics on drugs, though developed to be a direct competitor to the Olympics.

News broke of Dr Aron D’Souza’s plans for a meeting where the athletes are not tested for performance-enhancing drugs late last year. Now Thiel, who co-founded PayPal, fellow billionaire Christian Angermayer, a venture capitalist and biotech pioneer, along with multi-millionaire tech and crypto capitalist Balaji Srinivasan, have been revealed as private-sector funders for the Games.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB’s D’Arcy Waldegrave when the games were first announced last year, D’Souza said the Enhanced Games aimed to be the first international sports event without drug testing.

“The use of performance enhancers is skyrocketing,” D’Souza said.

“The use of performance enhancements is everywhere in international sports and it is a farce that the Olympic Committee continues to promote this idea that sport is clean.

“Science is part of our everyday life. It makes us better and stronger, and it should be a part of sports.”

While the Games will allow athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs, D’Souza also plans for the event to be for-profit to allow athletes to earn money from it, with full details of the compensation structure expected to be announced in the middle of this year.

D’Souza said there had been plenty of interest from athletes for the event, and told AAP an Australian Olympic gold medallist is among a swag of those keen to take part in the Games.

In a press release, D’Souza said the Games aimed to provide profitable event without burdening taxpayers, and focusing on world records in sports such as track and field, swimming, gymnastics, weight lifting and combat sports would eliminate wasteful infrastructure spending and the money would be reinvested to fairly pay all athletes.

The release also stated the Games would have a “sophisticated safety protocol” that would include health checks before and after competitions and advanced screening to check for pre-existing conditions.

The announcement of Thiel, Angermayer and Srinivasan investing in the event did not include any indication as to when the first edition of the Games would be held, however, it has been reported that they have tentatively been scheduled for December this year.