This photo combination shows Megan Romano, of the U.S., at the FINA Swimming World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, Aug. 4, 2013 and Australia's James Magnussen during the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, Australia, April 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, Rick Rycroft)
This photo combination shows Megan Romano, of the U.S., at the FINA Swimming World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, Aug. 4, 2013 and Australia's James Magnussen during the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, Australia, April 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, Rick Rycroft)
The startup Olympic-style sports festival promising no drug testing filed an $800 million antitrust lawsuit against its detractors Wednesday for what it claims is an illegal campaign to make athletes boycott its event.
The Enhanced Games filed the lawsuit in federal court in New York, naming World Aquatics, USA Swimming and the World Anti-Doping Agency as defendants. It seeks damages and injunctive relief to stop what it says is the defendants' illegal campaign.
The lawsuit keys on a earlier this year that threatens to banish athletes who compete in “sporting events that embrace the use of scientific advancements or other practices that may include prohibited substances and/or prohibited methods.â€
In an interview with The Associated Press, Enhanced Games President Aron D'Souza insisted the lawsuit was not a publicity stunt, but rather an attempt to remedy “the real damage that's being done†to swimmers and other athletes who are dissuaded from competing.
Thus far, the Enhanced Games have signed five athletes to compete in an event in Las Vegas next May set to feature track, swimming and weightlifting competitions offering $500,000 first prizes.
According to the lawsuit, events sanctioned by World Aquatics in 2024 provided $71 million in prize money to 319 swimmers.
“In contrast, the 2026 Enhanced Games will have a potential prize purse of $7.5 million for just a single day of competition,†the lawsuit said.
World Aquatics withheld comment until its lawyers review the lawsuit. USA Swimming was reviewing the suit and WADA did not immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press seeking comment. The lawsuit said it included USA Swimming and WADA because they supported the World Athletics rule.
D'Souza — who helped steer billionaire Peter Thiel to bankroll against Gawker that resulted in a $140 million verdict — says “natural†athletes who compete at, say, world championships and Olympics are also welcome to line up at the Enhanced Games, and he presumes the prize money would be tempting.
“But until this issue is resolved, it's causing irreparable harm to our ability to sign athletes,†he said. “Athletes who are both ‘natural’ and ‘enhanced’ can compete at the games. That's part of the narrative that makes this interesting. Can a ‘natural’ athlete beat an ‘enhanced’ athlete?â€
That's a new twist for a start-up that introduced itself as a league designed to push the limits of human ability while using science to monitor athletes' intake without punishing them for taking drugs that are banned under the world anti-doping code.
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