Emma Gillespie

It's not like these athletes are, you know, doing cocaine and then racing.

They're taking drugs that are approved by the FDA, the US Drug Authority, but they're banned in the world of competitive sports.

So World Aquatics has called this a circus built on shortcuts.

The Sport Integrity Australia CEO called it a grossly irresponsible event.

And the US Anti-Doping Authority accused organisers of looking to make a quick buck at the expense of kids across the world thinking they need to dope to chase their dreams.

So there is that debate of, you know, what are the health concerns, but also what is the message that this sends out to the world of creating this spectacle out of, you know, real people's lives?

Yes.

So they have said that all athletes were put through health testing, blood tests, heart and brain screening.

This is really a program, or at least the Enhanced Games have tried to sell it as such.

So the founder described this kind of rigorous protocol that all athletes were subjected to that...

They are enhanced, quote, ethically and safely with effectiveness.

The head of the Enhanced Games Medical Commission said that there are some risks associated with these drugs, but that those risks are very rare.

He said, quote, I don't want to brush the risk away.

I'm here to make sure we recognize this and we help to minimize this.

I'm reasonably confident nothing will happen.

Yeah, I mean...

These drugs, when taken in excess or in even a small amount, have a lot of different kinds of risks associated with them.

And it depends on the exact substance.

The reason that they're banned in the world of sport, professional sport, is not only because of those risks, but also because they're seen as an unfair advantage that they give athletes rather than athletes winning or achieving success on their own physical merits.

But in terms of the broad strokes, they can cause high blood pressure, elevate your risk of heart attack, stroke.