The Enhanced Games have been gaining popularity ever since track and field’s Fred Kerley and Ben Proud announced their commitments. Their participation in the inaugural games has fueled a massive debate on the internet over the event’s premise (competition without anti-doping regulations) and its potential impact on athlete welfare. And now, the UK Athletics CEO, Jack Buckner, has voiced his concerns. 

While discussing the state of track and field and the difficulties in bringing innovation to the sport with The Athletic, Buckner acknowledged his concerns regarding the Enhanced Games. He said, “I worry about it from all sorts of aspects. I just think it’s going to be awfully sad — I think it’s going to be a joke. It’s scary.” 

Buckner further expressed his worries, giving the example of the bodybuilding community, and raising concerns regarding the athletes’ mental health. He stated, “I worry about that aspect, people’s mental health. Like with the whole bodybuilding culture, there’s a whole bunch of issues about your self-image and mental health, and a healthy relationship with your body and your self-worth.” 

Aron D’Souza, the founder and president of Enhanced Games, previously told The Athletic that he wanted to push the limits of human potential to the maximum. And that became his stance for the event. However, everyone, including the World Anti-Doping Agency, stood against D’Souza. The World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) president, Witold Bańka, has condemned the project as “dangerous” and “irresponsible,” warning of the serious risks to both athlete welfare and sporting integrity.

According to Banka, the world’s anti-doping agencies need to be “very strong” in their opposition to the event, with USADA at the forefront. “We really want our colleagues from the US to do more to make sure that this event will not happen.” The Enhanced Games are set to begin in July 2026 in Nevada. And with strong funding from investors, the list, which even includes Donald Trump Jr., there’s a firm push to make it a success.

Buckner’s comments added more woes to the concerns surrounding the Enhanced Games. And that conversation involves many leading voices in track and field, including Carl Lewis. 

Track and Field’s Carl Lewis reveals his stance regarding the Enhanced Games

Not too long ago, EssentiallySports had a brief conversation with Carl Lewis. When he was asked about the Enhanced Games gaining rapid fame, he replied, “The reason why we can even talk about whatever those games–Enhanced Games– is because people have been talking about it for years. ‘Oh, let everyone take what they want.’ And the world just shuts them down.”

But now, according to him, the sporting world or landscape in general is at a spot where things don’t matter as long as people are famous. The current culture is to blame as per Lewis. Lewis opined, “It’s not really about sports. It’s about culture. The culture now is you allow fake things to be important. And you allow someone on a TV show to become president one day because they think you’re good because of a TV show. So I think it’s a bigger cultural issue than just a sports issue.” 

Together, Lewis and Buckner outlined the two central concerns shaping the current discussion: the cultural environment enabling the Enhanced Games’ rise and the potential risks to athlete welfare. Their perspectives, offered from unique positions within the sport, underscore how the issue now spans across both structural and societal dimensions as the debate continues to develop.