Most of the 42 athletes who participated used performance-enhancing substances and Enhanced Games said “13 athletes set personal bests.”
The event took place in front of a crowd of around 2,500 people, and tickets were not on sale to the general public.
On the track, former American world champion Fred Kerley, one of the athletes who compete “fairly,” won the men’s 100 meters in 9.97 seconds, less than his personal best of 9.76.
British swimmer Ben Proud, who won silver in the men’s 50m freestyle at the Paris 2024 Olympics, triumphed in the 50m butterfly, clocking 22.32 seconds, 0.05 seconds shy of Andrii Govorov’s world record.
“We all know what we came for. And that’s world records. So to be so agonizingly close is frustrating,” Proud said.
Another British Olympic swimmer, Emily Barclay, won the women’s 50m freestyle in 24.09, around half a second slower than the world record.
Weightlifter Hafthor ‘Thor’ Bjornsson, who played The Mountain in the TV series Game of Thrones, was another entrant but failed to beat his own deadlift record of 510kg.
Medications used in Enhanced Games must be legal and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
They include testosterone, growth hormone, peptides, anabolic steroids and other substances prohibited in sport.
Those behind the event argue that there is already an improvement in elite sport, but in secret and without transparency, and they say that bringing it to light where it can be monitored makes it safer.
However, many sports governing bodies have publicly reprimanded athletes for choosing to compete in the games and some sports governing bodies have banned athletes from participating.
The IOC and WADA have called the Enhanced Games “immoral” and “a dangerous and irresponsible concept”, while World Athletics president Lord Coe said all participants were “idiots”.
The project was founded by entrepreneurs Aron D’Souza and Maximilian Martin in 2023 and has attracted backing from prominent investors, including billionaire Peter Thiel and Donald Trump Jr.
Martin had predicted that athletes would break “quite a few” world records in the event.