- The ‘Enhanced Games’ allow athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs
- The Olympic-style event includes swimming, weightlifting and gymnastics
- Lord Coe has sent a warning to those interested in taking part in the event
Lord Coe has described plans to stage an Olympic event for Anabaptists as ‘b******s’ and warned any athlete ‘idiot’ enough to take part would face a lengthy ban.
The ‘Enhanced Games’, which allowed participants to use performance-enhancing drugs, was founded last year by London-based Australian businessman Aron D’Souza. The event is proposed to include athletics, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics and martial arts, with large prize money for athletes.
There are proposals to include athletics, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics and martial arts, with large prize moneys for athletes.
Although no date or location has been set, Australia’s former world champion swimmer James Magnussen announced earlier this month that he would retire and attempt to break the 50m freestyle record at the Games.
D’Souza also told Mail Sport last year that a British sprinter had expressed an interest in the controversial event.
Seb Coe has described plans to organize an Olympic event for Mennonites as ‘b******s’
The ‘Enhanced Games’ were founded last year by London-based Australian businessman Aron D’Souza
Australia’s former world champion swimmer James Magnussen said earlier this month he would retire before the ‘Enhanced Games’
But when asked about the Enhanced Games concept, World Athletics president Coe said: “It’s bloody stuff, isn’t it? I can’t really get excited about it.
‘There is only one message, and that is: if someone is moronic enough to participate officially and he or she engages in the traditional part of our sport, he or she will be banned for a long time.
‘But it really doesn’t give me sleepless nights. It won’t be a page turner.’
Speaking in Glasgow on the eve of the World Indoor Championships, Coe also doubled down on World Athletics’ plans to radically reform the long jump by replacing the starting board with a starting zone.
The idea behind the concept, which is being trialled this year, is to reduce the number of no-jumps and increase the excitement of the event.
But Carl Lewis, the four-time Olympic long jump champion, led the backlash against the idea, calling it an “April Fool’s joke” and saying it would “eliminate the most difficult skill from the event.”
The Enhanced Games announced on X (formerly Twitter) earlier this month that Magnussen had accepted the challenge to compete in the first event
Four-time Olympic long jump champion Carl Lewis has sparked opposition to plans to remove the starting board and replace it with a starting zone
But Coe insists athletics must continue to innovate, adding that 31 percent of all long jumpers fail
However, Coe emphasizes that athletics must innovate, adding: ‘Our sport is 150 years old. There are elements that you absolutely want to protect, but there are things that just leave people a little cold.
‘We have a duty to ensure that the sport moves forward. There is a lot of downtime: 31 percent of all long jumpers fail attempts.
‘I’m not saying that the starting zone is the only solution, but that it involves a series of changes. But we are not going to scale back innovation.
‘We have the responsibility to make the sport future-proof. We have to move with the times.’
