Friendship Games, ‘Enhanced Games’ and Olympic Games: What and when are they?

2024 is an Olympic year. Paris and other French cities will celebrate the Games of the 33rd Olympiad from July 26 to August 11, a multi-sport event that will bring together more than 10,000 athletes, 30,000 volunteers and millions of spectators in its 41 venues to be the biggest event ever organized. of the French nation in its history.

But in other parts of the world some initiatives want to compete with Olympic Games organizing similar competitions, for political or economic interests. We are talking about Friendship Games and ‘Enhanced Games’. Below we will briefly explain what they are and when each of them is celebrated.

What are Friendship Games?

The Friendship Games (World Friendship Games) is a multi-sport event taking place from September 15 to 29, 2024 in the cities of Moscow and Yekaterinburgin Russia.

Included in your program 35 sports, many of them are Olympic such as athletics, basketball, boxing, fencing, judo, swimming and triathlon. Other program sports such as acrobatic rock’n’roll, algorithmic programming, chess, mixed martial arts and wrestling are not on the Olympic program.

40 years ago, the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries held the Friendship Games as an attempt to boycott the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Almost 50 countries participated in the event, with the Soviet Union being the main player. winner.

This year, Russia decided to relaunch the Friendship Games in response to suspension from the Russian Olympic Committee.

Both Russia and Belarus have been banned from international competitions for an indefinite period as a result of their role in the war in Ukraine. Only a few individual athletes who did not support the war or are linked to the army will compete in Paris 2024, but under a neutral flag.

He International Olympic Committee has denounced the Friendship Games as having a political character and called on governments and sports organizations not to participate in them.

For its part, the World Anti-Doping Agency warned about the impossibility of guaranteeing cleanliness and justice in such an event, stating that “general confidence in the anti-doping system in Russia remains low.”

What are ‘Enhanced Games’?

The ‘Enhanced Games’ (Enhanced Games) is a controversial private initiative that aims to hold a multisport competition in the style of the Olympic Games where the use of doping substances is permitted.

Its founder and president is the Australian businessman Aron D’Souza and funded by billionaire investors such as Peter Thiel, Christian Angermayer and Balaji Srinivasan.

On its website, the event presents itself as “the next evolution of sport” and asserts that “by embracing science and not drug testing, athletes competing in the Enhanced Games will be able to use drugs and performance therapies that will help them perform at their best.”

‘Enhanced Games’ focus on excellence and spectacle, which is what they aim for eliminate team sports from your program and focus on individual performance.

In this sense, it proposes five categories of sports (athletics, aquatics, gymnastics, strength and wrestling) in which it aims to include sports with more demand at the audience level, such as mixed martial arts.

There is still no confirmed date for the ‘Enhanced Games’, but its president confirmed to Reuters that his aim is to hold the event in 2025.

The president of World Athletics, Sebastian Coehas been categorical in its decision to punish any athlete who participates in this initiative.

The World Anti-Doping Agencyfor its part, expressed concern about considering it a “dangerous and irresponsible” concept that endangers the health of athletes by “promoting the use of potentially harmful substances and methods.”