Emmanuel Acho defends Enhanced Games after underwhelming debut

Emmanuel Acho thinks the Enhanced Games were a win for everyone.

The Enhanced Games held their inaugural competition in Las Vegas over the weekend, billing themselves as the first event to permit athletes to take as many performance-enhancing drugs as they wanted in pursuit of world records. Of the 42 athletes competing across swimming, sprinting, and weightlifting, only one non-enhanced mark was broken: swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev touched the wall in 20.81 seconds in the 50-meter freestyle, edging Cameron McEvoy’s record by seven one-hundredths of a second and collecting a $1 million bonus.  In the headliner, Fred Kerley — who predicted before the competition that Usain Bolt’s 9.58-second record would be “destroyed” — ran a 9.97.

Acho, who served as co-lead studio anchor alongside Jennifer Stehlin, took to social media on Memorial Day to push back on the criticism of the games, which saw several events won by athletes who were not using performance-enhancing drugs, competing against those who were.

Seeing a lot of chatter about the Enhanced Games, and here’s the truth:

Both sides of the moral aisle should feel better today, having witnessed the Games, than they did yesterday.

The Enhanced Games proved that drugs don’t work unless the athletes do the work. Some athletes didn’t come close to their personal bests. This isn’t because the drugs don’t work, but rather because drugs can only do so much in a two-month time span. Especially for an athlete that’s been retired or hasn’t worked out in 18-36 months… The drugs didn’t make them “slower,” the untrained diet without a professional workout or Olympic lift for years, did.

This is incredible news for the sport purists: nothing beats hard work and elite talent. Hence why Hunter Armstrong, a non-enhanced athlete, still dominated his field. Drugs or not, he’s simply better. The same goes for Fred Kerley.

Now, for those eager to see how far human potential can really go, the Enhanced Games put that on full display. There were 14 personal bests and 42 athletes, several of whom delivered performances that sparked conversations about what’s possible.

Also, let’s put some more respect on *World Records.* 2 months of drug use likely won’t make you greater than anyone that has ever lived, unless you were already close.

I’ll leave you with this, each of these athletes finally got the attention, care, and compensation they deserve. Over 7 million dollars were paid out to 42 athletes. $166K on average. Love or hate the Enhanced Games, they challenged societal norms, and the growth of humanity is dependent upon that challenge.

Seeing a lot of chatter about the Enhanced Games, and here’s the truth:

Both sides of the moral aisle should feel better today, having witnessed the Games, than they did yesterday.

The Enhanced Games proved that drugs don’t work unless the athletes do the work. Some athletes… https://t.co/RrIuyojtTd

— Emmanuel Acho (@EmmanuelAcho) May 25, 2026

What Acho failed to reckon with is that the Enhanced Games never secured a broadcast deal and streamed free on Roku, YouTube, and Twitch. The Enhanced Games never secured a broadcast deal and streamed free on Roku, YouTube — which saw 800,000 live stream views — and Twitch. Outside of Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, known to most as The Mountain from Game of Thrones, there was little star power to speak of.

Acho signed on for this in April alongside Fox Sports play-by-play man Justin Kutcher, venture capitalist Bryan Johnson, swimming expert Kurt Mills Hanson, NFL analyst Isaiah Stanback, and a broadcast crew assembled around an event that international sporting organizations, athletes, and scientists had spent two years objecting to on health and ethical grounds. He hosted it, he defended it, and he is entitled to do both. But the Enhanced Games positioned themselves as a referendum on human potential, spent two years building toward a weekend in Las Vegas, and produced one world record in the final event.