The “Enhanced Games,” colloquially known as the All-Drug Olympics, are about to begin this Sunday. Yes, you heard that correctly, unlike all major drug-free professional and amateur sport leagues, the Enhanced Games not only permit illegal performance enhancement drug usage, but encourage it. Ironically, Saturday Night Live did a skit in 1988 about the “All Drug Olympics” as a joke, never thinking we could actually devolve into a sport competition fueled by illegal dangerous drugs. But here we are in 2026, dismissing all concerns related to safety, integrity, and role modelling for kids — something I doubt the writers at SNL could have ever seen coming:
Safety concerns
While there is certainly room to discuss and debate the grey areas of sport performance drugs and substances and what sport leagues will tolerate, to create sport competition where anything goes is a dangerous slippery slope, and a terrible precedent to set. When competitive athletes have no rules, parameters, or consequences, many will fall prey to the emotions associated with being the best, and some will make irrational and unhealthy decisions as a result. In fact, an argument can be made that legitimate sport leagues who do enforce drug policies actually save some athletes from themselves. The competitive spirit for high performance athletes can leave them vulnerable to experimenting with their training (including drug usage), but those temptations are mitigated when leagues hold athletes accountable with strict guidelines, and serious consequences for cheating. The Enhanced Games don’t seem to care about any of this, leaving their athletes in potentially dangerous spots (even if they don’t realize it).
Integrity?
Aside from the obvious safety concerns, how important are sports records that occurred because of steroids? If you look at some of America’s biggest steroid cheaters (i.e. Barry Bonds, Lance Armstrong), their records are tainted, and most fans write them off as unscrupulous people. If you win an event at the Enhanced Games, or break a record, should anyone actually care? Does it matter at all? And what message does this send to kids? That if you only get so far with natural abilities, cheat!!! While there is no doubt that some athletes do cheat and look for ways to work around drug policies, governing bodies need to remain vigilant and preserve integrity, not go the other way and incentivize drug usage. After all, how impressed are you by artificially fueled performances?
Final thoughts
Admittedly, I never thought there would be a sport competition where using illegal, dangerous drugs would be not only tolerated, but encouraged. In fact, as a lifelong SNL fan, I thought there would be a better chance of me seeing John Belushi eating little chocolate donuts in the Olympics long before the Enhanced Games — if you haven’t seen this skit before, enjoy!
