Anti-doping agency condemns ‘drug’ games
Calistus Kolantsho | Monday June 23, 2025 06:00
The Enhanced Games scheduled for Las Vegas, are a sporting event that advocates and allows for the use of performance enhancing drugs (PED) by athletes. Africa Zone VI RADO manager, Andrew Kamanga has urged the Africa Union Sports Council (AUSC) to take action against any African athletes who participates in Las Vegas. “It has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that utilisation of consumption of performance-enhancing substances can cause irreversible damage to the health of athletes. Therefore, all people should condemn these games with a genuine love for sport and the global sports movement.
The organisers are interested not in the health of athletes but their own benefits,” Kamanga told MmegiSport. He said the only thing that World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) can do is to appeal to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and government. “However, this charade is being bankrolled by some billionaire. It really should be stopped as it poses a grave danger to public health. Doping is an existential threat to sport integrity and the health of athletes, especially the young, gullible, and vulnerable athletes who are misled to thinking that it is the fast-track route to generation of wealth in sport,” Kamanga hissed. Meanwhile, Africa Zone VI RADO chairperson, Fahmy Grant said in a statement that the games represent a dangerous departure from the principles of fair competition, athlete safety, and the integrity of sport. “The Enhanced Games constitute an existential threat to sport as we know it. Therefore, the board of member country representatives of the Africa Zone VI RADO stands firmly against this event and any similar initiative that attempts to dilute the established ethical standards in sport and any other initiatives which undermine clean sport,” Grant said.
He further said scientific research from various countries and across sport codes have confirmed that the use of PEDs, in non-therapeutic contexts, poses severe risks, including long-term physical and mental health consequences for athletes. “Normalising doping practices and promoting PED use, removes safeguards against abuse, coercion, and exploitation of athletes,” he added. Grants said sport rewards talent, application of effort, discipline, and training in the pursuit of excellence. He argued that rewarding sport performance that is enhanced through pharmaceutical advantages is an anathema to the established values of sport. “Promoting PED use violates both the UNESCO Conversion Against Doping in Sport and the World Anti-Doping Code. More importantly, it sends a harmful and confusing message to children and young athletes,” Grant said.