WEBVTT - The “Steroid Olympics” 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:18.840 As I am the fastest man in the world, but 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:24.040 you've never heard of me. I've broken you sain Bolt's 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:28.720 one hundred meter record, but I can't show you my face. 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:32.760 In the summer of twenty twenty three, this video started 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:37.160 making the rounds online. An incredibly fit built runner taking 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:40.599 his place on a track starting line. The race starts 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:43.800 and he sprints off. The whole time, you can't see 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:44.200 his face. 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:50.240 I am a proud enchance to athlete. The Olympics hate me. 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:53.320 I need your help to come out. 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:57.440 It's an advertisement for a new event that's attracted a 0:00:57.480 --> 0:00:58.440 ton of controversy. 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:02.760 Come join me at the first Enhanced Games and see 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:05.000 me break the world record in public. 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:13.760 The Enhanced Games, or the steroid Olympics, as lots of 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:16.319 people keep calling it. I first heard about the idea 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:19.600 when tech entrepreneur Aaron Desue's a one on Joe Rogan's 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:24.080 podcast Check it out the Joe Rogan Experience. 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:29.360 Well, the Olympics is kind of a scam because it 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:32.800 generates billions of dollars in revenue, and the people that 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:36.280 are there to perform make almost none of that. 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:39.600 That's correct, It gets wasted building stadiums, it gets wasted 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:40.720 paying officials. 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:44.960 Aaron says the Games are his Protestant revolution, and this video, 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:48.120 plus the press release that went out with it, they're 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:51.560 his version of Martin Luther's ninety five THESS. Whatever is 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:54.280 corrupt about the Olympics, Aaron says, he has the fix. 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:57.560 I've been studying the Olympics my entire life. You know, 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:00.560 forty four percent of Olympians admit to using band performance 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:02.360 enhancing drugs within the last year. 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:06.120 And the other you know, probably lying. 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:09.840 Aaron sees it this way, it's not the athlete's fault. 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:13.600 Some teams play by the rules, others put pressure on 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:14.720 their athletes to cheat. 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:17.680 And then I learned that the average American Olympian only 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:20.760 earned thirty thousand dollars a year, and I thought to myself, 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.680 there's something really wrong in the system. And instead of, 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:27.000 you know, trying to reform it, let's take a blankly 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:31.160 slight of paper and invent the Third Olympiad from scratch. 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:35.400 The idea for the Enhanced Games was pretty straightforward. What 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:39.120 if we take the world's best athletes, Olympians, let's say, 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:42.440 and let them take whatever performance enhancing drugs that they 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:46.720 want to take, Stuff like steroids, stimulants, and peptides. 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:51.040 We all know that the Olympics are dirty. We all 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:54.560 know that funded, state sponsored programs have existed forever and 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:58.720 they've just been doing weasley things to try to avoid detection. 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:02.519 They're taking things, everyone's taking things. They're all hiding things. 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:05.880 Right, and so instead of doing it underground in secret, 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:08.919 let's do it out in the open with clinical supervision 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:10.800 and safety. 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:14.960 In other words, if people are going to dope anyway, 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:18.919 why shouldn't we try and safely facilitate the biggest, strongest 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:23.360 and fastest humans in the world getting bigger, stronger, and faster. 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:28.400 And why shouldn't we pay them to do it? Besides, 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:31.040 Aaron says, nobody has to dope. 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:33.639 You don't have to take enhancements to be at the 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:34.200 enhanced game. 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:36.320 So just be a regular person, can be a regular genes. 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:38.440 Yeah, I could say, hey, I'm I'm I won the 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:41.680 genetic lottery, right, and I think I can beat all 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:43.800 the enhanced athletes and make great television. 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:47.680 Yeah that's fun too, right, Personally, I'd be so down 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:53.800 to watch that. Putn't you from Kaleidoscope and iHeart podcasts? 0:03:54.320 --> 0:04:01.440 This is superhuman? I'm your host? Chris Gayamali, the world 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:05.080 Anti doping industry, and the International Olympic Committee were quick 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:08.760 to announce the Enhanced Games, calling it a travesty, a 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:12.720 mockery of fairness and safety in sport. Should the Enhanced 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:14.400 Games be allowed to go. 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:16.839 You're an athlete who's competing in the Sabina, You're risking 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:18.760 your career and you'll rip you tit not. 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:20.880 The Enhanced Games is counter to. 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:23.760 See which cheater comes down on top. 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:26.920 But by that point Aaron had real buy in hundreds 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:30.280 of news outlets covering his games, new and eager investors, 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:34.320 which included billionaires some of the world's most notorious investors 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:36.760 like Peter Teel and Donald Trump Junior. 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:40.520 Imagine an Olympics where everyone is on performance enhancing drugs. 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:43.960 What might be any anti doping regulator's nightmare is some 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:45.200 millionaire's dream. 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:48.760 All told, the Enhanced Games have entered twenty twenty six, 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:52.200 with hundreds of millions of dollars behind them, and they're 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:55.760 happening soon at the end of this month in Las Vegas. 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.120 In the lead up to the Games, the athletes are 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:01.560 all living together at a cushy hotel on the other 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:05.320 side of the world. They train, eat lunch, do wellness, 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:09.560 check ins, recovery everything. And while the Enhanced Games get 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:12.240 compared to the Olympics, they're not much like the Olympics 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.720 at all. The Olympics corrupt, though they may be, are 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:19.120 owned and governed by the IOC, an independent Swiss nonprofit. 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:23.279 To the extent that there is a product, it's literally 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:28.000 the Olympics and international event where different countries compete for gold. 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:32.040 The Enhanced Games are a privately funded, for profit event. 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:35.599 The entire enterprise is valued at one point two billion. 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:39.720 Their intention is to go public and they've raised another 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:43.640 forty million to do that. They've got a lot more planned. 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:47.400 Enhance Games we hope will be a crystallization factor. 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:50.440 Christian Angermeyer is one of Aaron's co founders. 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:54.080 That Enhanced for a whole societal change on how we 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:58.040 look at body autonomy, how we give how we give 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:01.680 the decision that to people what they want to be 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.240 with the body, with the mind, and all of that. 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:07.360 When it comes to Enhanced there's one thing that everyone 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:12.240 funders founders, they all have in common, broadly speaking, it's 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:16.080 a vested interest in human optimization, improving our bodies and 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:20.200 brains to maximize one's potential and well being. It all 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:24.880 fits into the larger bucket of longevity or anti aging, 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:28.360 the idea that we humans can effectively reverse age our 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:32.400 own bodies. Christian and Aaron, they're so bought in on this, 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:33.920 they're already enhancing. 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:37.320 I have, yes, but I'm not as enhance as some 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:39.159 of my colleagues. If you want to talk about enhancement, 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:40.280 talked to Christian. 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:42.719 I can tell you I started the whole process. So 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:45.920 I'm going through the enhancement process of an athlete myself, 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:50.360 and it's unbelievable, Like you feel twenty years younger in 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:54.320 like recovery. I can train every day, I wake up 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:56.320 in the morning and don't feel stiff anymore. I'm like, 0:06:56.360 --> 0:06:58.000 oh shit, this is how it felt when I was 0:06:58.040 --> 0:06:59.159 in my twenties. 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:07.880 And you know what, I want that too. I'm forty 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:10.000 one and have a young kid, and I wake up 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:13.320 most mornings feeling my age. So I'm pretty much in 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:18.840 the bullseye of whatever enhanced is selling. I am also 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:21.440 a journalist based in New York City. I worked at 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:23.680 chiqu as an editor for almost a decade, and my 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:26.600 day job right now is in fashion. But outside of 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:30.000 all of that. My journalism is mostly about the human body, 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:33.920 all the things it can and can't do. I've written 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:37.840 about men who break their bones to become taller. I've 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:41.120 spent a lot of time profiling UFC stars, and I've 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:43.160 tried to figure out why the business of protein is 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:47.559 suddenly booming. I also work out a lot practice muy Thai, 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:50.320 like five times a week, and I run this health 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:54.360 and wellness newsletter called Heavies. But it's not really sports 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:58.360 that I care about. I'm mostly interested in human augmentation, 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:01.640 how we can make ourselves feel better and more powerful. 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:06.680 Who do you see being like the enhanced customer? 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:08.080 Anyone? 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:12.040 Yeah, if you have a body, enhancements can help you 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:15.920 become closer to achieving your goals. I'm like, better at 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:17.880 what you want to do than without. 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:21.640 Okay, So have you got this crazy idea to let 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:24.320 world class athletes let it rip and just go ahead 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:27.480 and use whatever drugs they want. And it's got some legs. 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:31.360 It's pretty marketable. People want to see what's going to happen. 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:36.280 You have all these Olympic athletes across three initial sports swimming, 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:41.480 track and weightlifting, basically turning themselves into the Avengers. It 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:44.000 proves on some level that humans are capable of doing 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:47.680 impossible things. Some people are calling it cheating, but whether 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:50.000 you think it's cheating or not, you might still want 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:53.520 to watch. But before any of that can happen, what 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:57.880 does enhance need. It needs athletes, athletes willing to dope, 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:01.600 which is a hard sell. To take drugs would jeopardize 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:05.120 the reputations understandably, not to mention a shot at the 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:10.040 actual Olympics from go. A key question is who would 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:11.320 ever say yes to that? 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:14.560 As a thirty four year old, I'm actually really excited 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:19.320 about that prospect because having been an athlete, my whole 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:23.840 identity was linked to being the fastest, or the strongest, 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:28.800 or you know, things that are linked essentially with being young. 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:33.920 James Magnuson is a three time Olympic medalist six foot six, 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:39.520 super handsome dude Captain America except he's Australian and his 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:43.720 nickname is the Missile. He's one heaps of championships and 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:45.840 at one point he was one of like the five 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:47.160 fastest swimmers in the world. 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:50.959 And as I got into my thirties and well into 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:54.280 my thirties now I'm like, as I get older. What 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:58.559 is my identity if I'm no longer that young, fast 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:03.520 fit guy, And that's that's a daunting prospect for someone 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:07.160 whose identity has been linked purely to their physicality. 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:10.400 James is in his mid thirties now, which in the 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:16.000 rude time continuum of professional sports means he's old, he's washed, 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:19.320 which also makes him exactly what Enhans is looking for. 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:23.040 Not that James needs much convincing here. He is on 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:26.199 a sports podcast back in twenty twenty four, before in 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:27.680 Hands had even been in touch. 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:30.720 I'll give you an exclusive here on the show. They've 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:33.920 said they've got a billion dollar, billion dollar person backing them. 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:36.880 If they put up a million dollars for the fifty 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:39.719 three style world record, I'll come on board as their 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:42.440 first athlete. I'll juice to the gills and I'll break 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:43.640 it within six months. 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:49.040 Enhance actually did make James the exact offer that he 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.520 asked for one million dollars in an attempt to drum 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:55.800 up more media attention. In exchange, he need to break 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:58.959 the world record in the fifty meter freestyle, a zippy 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:03.560 single lap across Olympic pool. That record was twenty point 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:06.560 nine to one seconds. That was the number that James 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:11.120 needed to be. He said yes, this was twenty twenty four. 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:15.080 He moved across the world to Irvine. This extremely steppard 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:18.160 as suburban in southern California, where he trained in secret 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.760 with a swim coach. Enhance had recruited Brett Hawk, also 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:25.480 a former Olympian. The local indoor poo wouldn't let him 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:28.880 train there on account of the doping, so we practiced 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:32.400 for hours a day at an outdoor community pool. People 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:35.880 out walking their dogs would stop to watch him. At 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:39.400 this point, James was already doping, or what Enhance calls 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:44.160 the protocol. Their system is doctors work with athletes, presenting 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:46.360 them with a menu of doping options and then help 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:49.679 them decide. And all the while James was training his 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:50.240 butt off. 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:52.560 The first seven weeks I was here in America, I 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:55.640 trained seven days a week, twice a day for forty 0:11:55.720 --> 0:12:00.760 nine days straight, so seven weeks straight without any recovery days. 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.040 It prescribed to stosterone to boost his muscle mass and 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:07.920 improve bone density. He also got on peptides, which maybe 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:10.559 you've been hearing about. There are a lot of different 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:12.960 kinds that are said to do a lot of different things. 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:16.640 There's TV five hundred, which is supposed to help the 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:19.760 body create new blood vessels, or maybe you've seen pt 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:22.600 one four one, which is said to make your skin ten. 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:25.160 There are a lot of different kinds of peptides said 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:27.440 to do a lot of different things. Think of them 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:30.240 as chunks of protein or rather the building blocks of 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:34.240 proteins amino acids that signal to your body to take action, 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:39.080 to say, rebuild itself, to aid in recovery. From what 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:43.120 we know, Magnesen's peptide protocol included the Wolverine stack to 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:46.520 help him heal really fast, plus other peptides that boost 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:48.360 his natural production of growth hormone. 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.160 Because I'd white copy in the morning, I feel fresh, 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:53.640 I'd feel strong, I'd feel fit, and I'd say, let's 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:55.400 go again, Let's go again, let's go again. 0:12:56.160 --> 0:13:00.000 Right, he felt awesome. Every day James woke up, chomp 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:02.160 at the bit, he go to get back in the pool. 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:04.960 At one point he was even training twice a day, 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:07.400 seven days a week. It was a lot. 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:11.280 What I didn't realize is my central nervous system was 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:13.840 just getting beat down. My muscles were fine, they were 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:16.760 bouncing back. I had no muscle soreness for five months, 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:21.040 but neurologically, I was being torn down by just having 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:23.400 to swim fast every day and those part. 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:26.040 He claims he gained nearly forty pounds in muscle mass 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:29.680 in just a few weeks, which is almost unbelievable. His 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:33.360 racing suit no longer fit. They'd sometimes bust open when 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:37.480 he tried putting them on in the mornings. After seven 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:39.640 weeks in California, it was time to go to North 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:43.360 Carolina to Greensboro, where Enhance was staging a sort of 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:46.439 publicity stunt. James was going to try winning the million 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:48.960 dollars by breaking the twenty point nine to one second 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:50.960 world record for the fifty meter free. 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:53.640 By the time I got to Greensborough, it was almost 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:56.400 like we're limping towards the finish line because I'd absolutely 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.199 cooked myself from training so hard for so long. 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:02.560 In spite of how on the protocol made James feel 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:07.119 those past few weeks, something was wrong. He wasn't registering 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:10.600 any pain, but that didn't mean his body wasn't experiencing it. 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:14.840 I wasn't respecting the fact that my brain was working 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:17.880 so hard every day as well to fuel my muscles 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:20.880 to tell them what to do. Those pathways from my 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:24.240 brain to my muscles were slowly getting fried over that 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:25.200 seven week period. 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.360 The day of the fifty meter race, James squeezed into 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:33.040 his speedsuit, his traps spilled out, his muscles couldn't be contained, 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:35.400 like he was trying to fit a twin size sheet 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:56.720 over a king sized mattress. And then Brett was running 0:14:56.720 --> 0:15:00.680 alongside the poor, clapping and cheering him on his fiance. 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:04.480 For swimmers as good as James, a single second might 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:07.760 as well spend an entire year. He got nowhere close 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:12.480 to beating the record. He tried twice. His best of 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:15.000 the two came in at twenty two point seven to two, 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:17.560 nearly two seconds slower than he needed. 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:21.040 I'm really disappointed with the time on the board. 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:25.160 Because I don't think it's a true reflection. 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:29.360 Of my preparation and the sacrifices I've made. 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:32.720 I wasn't in North Carolina back when this race happened, 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:35.920 but Enhance did have their own documentary crew on site. 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:40.200 That's where this tape comes from. Watching all of this 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:43.320 on YouTube a few months later, this guy had worked 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:47.480 really hard, put himself in this isolating situation, injected himself 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:49.960 every morning with a bunch of weird shit and got 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:52.960 really big, only for the enhancements to make him a 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:56.440 lot slower. But this was just a test run and 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:59.840 James was effectively a guinea pig. He's going to adjustice 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.640 to call with doctors and try again at the Games 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:03.880 in just a few short weeks. 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:14.840 In Las Vegas, at five am on February twenty fourth, 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:19.720 twenty twenty two, Vladimir Putin ordered his army to invade Ukraine. 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:24.320 He launched business and sent attack helicopters when the war started. 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:25.840 What were you doing at the time. 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:29.200 I've been in a training camp in Germany and my 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:34.720 family been visiting me before, and actually my family left 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:39.960 two days before the war started. Taked everything and goal. 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:43.560 World record swimmer Andre Govov is from the don Bas region, 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:45.840 a part of Ukraine that's been at the epicenter of 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:50.120 the Russian invasion for about four years now. For months, 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:53.640 Andre's family couldn't even get back home from Germany. They 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:56.480 went to Poland and then to Austria, where a friend 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:59.800 of his had an apartment that they could use. So far, 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:04.240 the war's cost Andrea a lot. Like first starters, his job, 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:07.800 a business he was running to support himself and his family. 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:12.560 When the artillery started going off, nothing was spared it. 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:16.840 Andrea's business was literally destroyed. A while trying to keep 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:19.200 up his training and compete in the Olympics, but. 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:23.200 When it happened, all my dreams, all my plans just vanished. 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:27.600 Andrea's tall and blonde and very broad, kind of like 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:30.400 a bulldog. He's someone who at the minute you see him, 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:31.919 you know he's an a late athlete. 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:34.240 Grain I'm thirty three years old. I'm the current world 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:36.640 record holder of the fifty butterfly. 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:39.400 So when he talks, it's just as obvious. 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:44.160 Fastest butterfly in the world in the history of humanity, 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:47.080 plus time the finalist of Olympic Games in a fifty freestyle. 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:53.280 Imagine that you put everything in your life into this achievement, 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:57.160 and you feel that you're superhero. You're unstoppable, you speak better, 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:01.840 you thinks faster, you're smarter. Everyone wants to be with you, 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:04.399 and you're so energized. 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:08.359 And Andre's a bit different from the other swimmers, like he's 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:12.320 a power swimmer, a specialist, and his specialty is the 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:13.800 fifty meters butterfly. 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:14.880 Andres are different animals. 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:15.960 So I'm trying to figure him out. 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:17.600 Ut, Yeah, he's just a. 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:20.040 Powerhouse that's enhanced swim coach Brett Hawk. 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:24.360 So like he's just he's he's the ultimate power machine. 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:27.680 And with him, he just takes a lot more recovery. 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:29.840 And so you just gotta you gotta treat him a 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:30.480 little bit different. 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.119 An injury kept Andre out of the twenty twenty Tokyo Games, 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:36.840 but he kept training harder and planned on competing at 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:40.840 the twenty twenty four Games in Paris. Unable to train 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:43.320 at home and without a way to earn any money, 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:46.560 Andre has lived basically as a nomad, and all the 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:48.600 while he's been trying to maintain his training. 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:55.200 I called every single organization whoever supported me, and most 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:59.480 of them they were not interest. They say, uh, you know, 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:01.760 in order to support, you need to show the result first. 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:04.399 And I'm a world record holder, an actual one, you know, 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:07.359 And I mean, I'm fine to show the result, but 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:09.520 how can I show the result without having any support? 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:15.120 The thing about training for the Olympics, it's expensive and anyway, swimming, 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:19.159 it's not the NFL or the NBA. Very few Olympians 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:21.679 can carve out a living for themselves, let alone for 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:24.720 their families. Even at the highest highest level. 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:27.800 In order to be able to train, you need to 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:31.000 have at least like six or seven thousand dollars a 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.200 month in order to have decent maintenance. 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:37.480 But elite athletes have a village around them. First, you've 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:39.919 got to pay your main coach. Then, if you're lucky, 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:43.720 an assistant coach and a strength coach. Then you have 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:48.200 to pay for your recovery, to massage, physical therapy, because 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:51.280 if you can't stay healthy, you can compete. And if 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:53.840 you've got a manager to help you secure brand deals, 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:55.399 they're taking a cut as well. 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:58.160 To be good and actually chase the world record. It's 0:19:58.560 --> 0:19:59.640 ten thousand months at. 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:02.320 Least, and it isn't like winning the Olympics pays very much. 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:04.640 If you're lucky to live in the US, you might 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:08.400 make five or low six figures, but those expenses add up, 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:12.560 so most athletes turned to sponsorships to keep the cash flowing, 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:16.159 or patrons wealthy donors who fund your training for you. 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:19.040 On top of all of that, Andrea was still without 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:21.840 a home, so his training for the twenty four Games 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:25.800 was put on hold. Now he's missed two whole Olympic Games, 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:37.440 eight years of his career just poof gone. In April 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:40.840 of twenty twenty five, the International Olympic Committee announced some 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:44.359 upcoming changes to the swimming category. One in particular stood 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:47.480 out to Andrea. For the first time ever, the IOC 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:52.639 was including the fifty meters butterfly. Suddenly Andre could have 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:55.040 more than just a world record, he could have a 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:59.200 gold medal too. At the same time, Andrea had heard 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:02.240 all about in Hand and how they were basically employing athletes, 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:07.000 offering them a fresh start and Enhanced. They wanted Andre 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:12.840 to forget the Olympics to come from with them. Andre 0:21:12.960 --> 0:21:16.000 had a decision to make. If he stuck with the Olympics, 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:20.000 he'd have the chance to be a gold medal winning Olympian. Plus, 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:22.800 if he did win gold, he'd be eligible for a 0:21:22.920 --> 0:21:26.320 Ukrainian grant reserved for Olympians about one hundred and twenty 0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:32.159 five thousand dollars. Maybe if he went with Enhanced, well, 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:36.679 he'd have money, which on its own fair enough. But 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:42.280 in Andre's case, considering his destroyed business, his displaced family, I. 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:44.880 Have a son, I have a wife, and I went 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:48.240 very deeply down financially because of that situations. 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:52.040 I had Should Andre break a record with Enhanced. They're 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:55.200 offering to pay him a million dollars and he gets 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:59.399 free housing and free training with the best coaches, his food, 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:02.800 his recover, and even a monthly salary, all paid for. 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:06.160 All he has to do is subject himself to Enhancement 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:08.840 and agree to be studied. It was a no brainer. 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:14.480 Last May, about a year before the Games, my producer 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:17.800 Sam went to Las Vegas for yet another Enhanced announcement event. 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:21.679 This one officially debuted the location and venue for the 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:24.960 inaugural Enhance Games. You all get to know Sam better 0:22:25.000 --> 0:22:27.199 as we go along. He was with me for a 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:30.360 bunch of my interviews and vice versa. It'd be fun 0:22:30.359 --> 0:22:33.639 to say we're like Batman and Robin or Beavis and 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:34.280 butt Head. 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:37.680 But really we're just two guys who, like anyone, are 0:22:37.720 --> 0:22:38.720 getting older every day. 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:43.399 Remember that term longevity, that aging is basically something we 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:47.240 can and should be able to solve for Well, Sem 0:22:47.240 --> 0:22:49.840 and I have been spending so much time reporting on Enhanced, 0:22:50.160 --> 0:22:52.120 It's become a lot of what we talk about too, 0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:54.200 aging getting older. 0:22:54.680 --> 0:22:57.399 I'm six foot one. In a previous life, I was 0:22:57.440 --> 0:22:59.720 a Division one athlete. I was a wrestler at the 0:22:59.760 --> 0:23:03.160 univers Cee Wyoming. I'm still very involved in combat sports. 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:06.959 I fight moy Thai. My hair standing a little bit 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:08.520 on top, mostly in the front, not in the back 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:11.800 yet knock on wood. Also, I should say I'm thirty 0:23:11.880 --> 0:23:12.320 years old. 0:23:12.800 --> 0:23:13.080