Only one athlete set a world record during Sunday’s Enhanced Games festivities in Las Vegas, as Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev completed the 50-meter freestyle in 20.81 seconds.
Gkolomeev’s record is unofficial, though. The Enhanced Games encouraged athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs and banned tactics — like uber-slick swimsuits — in what ended up being a mostly unsuccessful attempt to shatter previous records.
Enhanced Games organizers offered to pay $1 million to any athlete who broke a record during the event. All other first-place finishers received a $250,000 prize.
“Another million, it’s not bad at all,” Gkolomeev said. “It’s going to change my life to the good, for sure.”
American sprinter Fred Kerley won the 100-meter sprint, a staple event. However, with a good-but-not-great time of 9.97 seconds, he fell short of the Usain Bolt record Kerley said would be “destroyed.”
Kerley later blamed the organizers and other runners for his lackluster time, which would have landed him in last place at the Paris Olympics. The race featured several false starts and a delay for an athlete who needed to tie his shoe.
“Man, they gotta do better than that,” said Kerley, who planned to compete without performance-enhancing drugs. “Gotta train a little harder, train on that [expletive] a little more.”
The Enhanced Games featured a curated crowd of 2,500 invited spectators and a handful of events that included swimming, sprinting and weightlifting. The event streamed live on Roku.
“It’s just the beginning,” Enhanced Games CEO Max Martin said.
— This article is based in part on wire service reports.
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