Supporters of the controversial Enhanced Games are facing a cold reception from the global swimming community. After all, in a bold move that sends a clear message across elite sports, World Aquatics has issued a sweeping bylaw effectively banning anyone associated with the pro-doping initiative from participating in its events. The rule doesn’t just raise eyebrows. It raises the stakes.

Unveiled during the World Aquatics Bureau meeting on June 3, the new bylaw takes immediate effect and aims directly at individuals, organizations, and competitions that either promote or enable doping. While the Enhanced Games, a proposed event permitting athletes to openly use performance-enhancing drugs, hasn’t held its first contest yet, the global aquatics body isn’t waiting to see how it unfolds.

This preemptive strike reflects a deepening divide between traditional sporting values and a radical new vision that some claim threatens athlete safety and fair competition. “This is about protecting the integrity of aquatics,” said World Aquatics President Husain Al Musallam. His statement left no room for ambiguity. Enhanced sport has no place in the water. 

The bylaw ensures that anyone seen as supporting chemically enhanced performance in sport can be ruled ineligible to attend any World Aquatics event. Cases will be assessed individually, but the tone from the top is unmistakable. If you’re aligned with the Enhanced Games, you’re not welcome. In a further push to solidify its stance, World Aquatics is urging national federations to mirror this policy.

That call for unified action suggests the organization is seeking not just compliance but consensus across the aquatics world. As the countdown begins toward the Enhanced Games’ debut in May 2026, the sport’s governing bodies appear determined to draw a hard line in defense of clean competition. The battle for the future of sport is no longer hypothetical; it’s already begun.

Is chasing gold worth a dead libido and a broken heart?

In a stark warning that slices through the bravado surrounding the Enhanced Games, leading scientists have cautioned that athletes using performance-enhancing drugs could be courting serious health consequences, ranging from irreversible hormonal damage to life-threatening cardiac issues. “We are also now starting to see some serious long-term effects from steroid use,” said research fellow Martin Chandler.

They further added, “Things like reproductive function or libido just being killed off with no real clear understanding of why.” The concerns come in the wake of the Enhanced Games’ bold claims of athlete safety and regulated drug use. But experts argue those reassurances are not grounded in medical reality. In a new paper, Harm reduction in the Enhanced Games: Can performance-enhancing drugs be safe?, Chandler and his co-author, Prof. Ian Boardley, dismantle the notion that supervised use of banned substances eliminates risk.

Chandler noted that testosterone use has been linked to “serious cardiovascular conditions,” including heart muscle damage and reduced ejection fraction—an issue he calls especially insidious. “With reduced ejection fraction, the heart has to work hard to pump blood around the body,” he warned. The words further read, “It’s probably going to end up with a heart attack.”

Equally alarming is the profile of unapproved drugs like BPC-157 and ipamorelin, which Chandler emphasized have “very limited human trials” and no FDA approval. The paper also highlights a spike in psychiatric conditions among steroid users, suggesting the psychological toll may be just as dangerous as the physical. While competitors like James Magnussen claim to “feel like 18 again,” scientists warn that the long-term cost could be far higher than anticipated.