Jacked up and let down

Some thoughts on the latest developments from the Enhanced Games, and an exclusive sneak preview of some pages from my forthcoming book on Ireland

The deadline for the first draft of my Ireland book is technically this coming Friday (I’m hoping that’s not a super strict deadline as I still have a lot to write!) so I hope you’ll forgive the brevity of this week’s Musings. Possibly next week’s too, if I miss that deadline! As soon as I write this, it’s all hands to the pump! (And yes, the exclamation marks are warranted on this occasion!)

Since I’ve written about it in the past, a quick few thoughts on the Enhanced Games, which announced this week that they will finally happen in May 2026 in Las Vegas - but of course. The announcement came accompanied by news that they had four swimmers signed up now (still no track athletes), including one swimmer who had already doped and broken the existing world record for the 50m freestyle.

The video of that world record, in an Enhanced Games branded pool, is strangely subdued due to the fact there’s no crowd, and it all seems a little underwhelming. I can see why Kristian Gkolomeev, who had finished fifth at the Paris Olympics, may have been tempted to take part. His tears after the event, as he called his wife, were almost certainly more at the joy of winning $1 million than actually setting a doped world record that won’t actually stand.

Still, for the billionaire bros putting up the money, there was a lot of fist pumping and crotch thrusting, as it vindicated their claims that they would break world records - or in their own grandiose words “redefine the limits of humanity”.