ROLL ON: Enhanced Games

**Rich Roll** (0:01)
Hey, everybody. Today, we're going to talk about the Enhanced Games, the event that transpired in Las Vegas the other weekend. Adam and I are going to share our thoughts on what it was, what happened, what we make of it, our perspective, the implications, both financial, cultural, ethical, et cetera, and dig into our personal opinions on it.
Does that sound good, Adam? Sounds good, man.

**Adam Skolnick** (0:29)
I love it. Are these UV safe lights?

**Rich Roll** (0:32)
I don't know. You didn't bring your umbrella? Okay. We're going to talk about that. But first, before we get into it, for those that don't know what the Enhanced Games are, this somehow eclipsed your radar. The Enhanced Games is a obviously controversial, privately funded international multi-sport event that lacks any kind of governmental body oversight from like WADA or the International Olympic Committee. And in this event, they don't just permit athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs, they actually encourage it, with the caveat that the use of these substances must be under medical supervision and taken through an FDA-approved regimen.
They also at the Enhanced Games offered significant prize money, especially if you broke a world record, we're going to talk about that. And this all took place the other weekend in Las Vegas. It was 42 athletes across three sports, swimming, track and field, and weightlifting. And it was only a few events here and there. I think they had aspirations that it was going to be like all sports, and there were going to be hundreds of athletes, this was the inaugural event.
So, humble beginnings, but my perspective is this is only the first year of an event that is going to grow over time. And we talked a little bit about it before the event, do you remember? We were on the phone.

**Adam Skolnick** (2:03)
Yes, yes.

**Rich Roll** (2:04)
And you were asked-

**Adam Skolnick** (2:05)
Like a couple days before, right?

**Rich Roll** (2:06)
You were asked by some publication to write an article about this or something like that?

**Adam Skolnick** (2:10)
No, no, I was a Canadian broadcasting company, so I was asked by Canadian radio to be on the show called Comotion, which is a pop culture and sport show. And I've been on there before for different articles I've written or something I've covered, like the Olympic surfing was the first time I think I was on there. And so they asked me to be on there and comment on the Enhanced Games. But the caveat was I had to watch the Enhanced Games. So we hadn't talked about it. And then I called you, I'm like, I have to watch that. And you were like, couldn't wait to watch it. And I was like, I have to watch it. And so I watched it. You know, I was like, I think the early prelim events, I was kind of like, just keeping tabs on. But then once it was like on, like from like three o'clock Pacific time on, I was basically watching the whole thing throughout the night. And yeah, so I saw it all. I saw the, and it was interesting because the broadcast of it was, I thought it was well done. The broadcast part of it was well done. And I thought it was interesting. They built this arena in 30 days. 30 days, 100 meter track, 50 meter pool, we think. We think these measurements are correct.

**Rich Roll** (3:14)
There's a lot of sort of conspiracy-minded videos being made right now. It's like, was it a 50 meter pool? Are we sure? There's no governing body, so we don't know. It's a private event. They could be doing anything, but anyway.

**Adam Skolnick** (3:29)
And so they build this thing and then there's all these seats, and mostly luxury boxes with a little bit of bleachers. And for the beginning of the time, when it was hot out, there was almost nobody in the bleachers, but it did end up getting a lot of people there. Chad Kroger from Chad Kroger's Deep Post.

**Rich Roll** (3:44)
I know, I saw that.

**Adam Skolnick** (3:46)
From the Enhanced Games. And who else? What was the...

**Rich Roll** (3:49)
Well, there were a lot of influencers there to make content.

**Adam Skolnick** (3:52)
Emil Hirsch. They was in an interview scrum at one point.

**Rich Roll** (3:56)
I didn't see that.

**Adam Skolnick** (3:56)
He was there. So it was this weird, but yeah, it was kind of Manasphere adjacent influencer type crowd that they brought in. And it was a curiosity. That's the thing I would point to it right now. It's a curiosity. It's curious because they did get some amazing athletes. I mean, you do see these athletes. These guys weren't playing. Like they were going for big money. Fred Curley was there, who's an incredible sprinter.