- What happens when human performance is pushed beyond its natural limits?
- Fear and Doping in Las Vegas debuts Thursday, July 2, at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN, streaming afterward on ESPN App
For decades, conventional wisdom has been that performance enhancing drugs are unsafe, unfair, and threaten the spirit of sports. The Enhanced Games, and its billionaire backers, want to change that.
A new ESPN E60 documentary presents a look at the controversial Enhanced Games, and what happens when athletes are allowed to take PEDs. Fear and Doping in Las Vegas debuts Thursday, July 2, at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN, streaming afterward on the ESPN App.
Dubbed by critics as the Doping Olympics, the first ever Enhanced Games took place this past May in Las Vegas. It was an event where athletes taking PEDs competed for world records and millions in prize money. It was also an advertisement for a direct-to-consumer drug business. The company, Enhanced LTD, is using the spectacle of the games to promote an online marketplace, where consumers can purchase many of the same FDA-approved substances that the swimmers, sprinters and weightlifters used in their training. Their goal is to normalize many of the drugs that sports have taught are dangerous, sparking a PED revolution and reaping the financial benefits.
E60 followed several of the athletes from when they trained in Abu Dhabi while using PEDs through the Enhanced Games competition in Las Vegas. The athletes included:
- Sprinter Shania Collins, a former USA Indoor Champion who paused her pursuit of a career as a DEA Agent to give athletics one more try.
- Swimmer Cody Miller, a gold medalist at the 2016 Olympics.
- Sprinter Marvin Bracy-Williams, an Olympian who was later suspended for PED use.
- Ukrainian swimmer Andrii Govorov, the current world record holder in the 50-meter butterfly.
- Canadian weightlifter Boady Santavy, a two-time Olympian.
ESPN’s Dan Murphy interviews a wide range of experts and stakeholders including Enhanced CEO Max Martin and the chief financial backer, billionaire biotech giant Christian Angermayer, as well as experts who have spent their careers fighting against doping. What emerges is a portrait of what happens when traditional notions of safety and fairness are turned upside down.
Fear and Doping in Las Vegas was produced and directed by Josh Vorensky and Max Brodsky.
A new written piece by Murphy on ESPN.com will accompany the release of the documentary, following a report by Murphy that published in May.
About E60:
E60, founded in 2007, is ESPN’s highly decorated sports storytelling brand. E60 has received 118 Sports Emmy nominations with 23 wins, scoring eight nominations in 2026 including its sixth nomination and second consecutive win for “Outstanding Hosted Edited Series.” E60 also has won two Peabody Awards. E60 has won accolades for its mix of revealing profiles, hard-hitting investigations and exclusive interviews delivered with innovative production techniques, top-notch journalism with unrivaled storytelling. While E60 has taken on several formats during its lifespan, it’s current format of a single-story documentary program for linear television and streaming has been in place since 2020.
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Media contact: andy.hall@espn.com