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Next new Olympic sport might be one played in the virtual world

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On the first day of these Games, on the eve of his sport’s Olympic debut, Tony Hawk hopped on his board and tested out the new bowl on Tokyo’s waterfront. He called the experience, shredding Ariake Urban Sports Park, surreal. Skateboarding had already broken into mainstream, but reaching this stage was another level.

“As a kid that was mostly lambasted for my interest in skateboarding, I never imagined it would be part of the Olympic Games,” Hawk wrote on Instagram.

Hawk’s competitive skateboarding career began when he was 10 years old, two years after the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics, back when skateboarding’s stigma seemed insurmountable.

By the turn of the century, he was widely regarded as the greatest skateboarder ever. He was in commercials, movies and television shows. He had his own video game. He was the sport’s most famous ambassador, a household name alongside Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky. But he never was given the opportunity to compete in the Olympics.

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“I’m surprised it took this long for them to figure it out,” Hawk said. “I believe they needed a youthful energy to the Summer Games and it’s overdue.”

The International Olympic Committee certainly understands its predicament. The Olympics’ audience is aging and the battle for younger eyeballs is fierce with more entertainment options than ever. The event’s grip is slipping.

The reality prompted the IOC to have skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing debut at the Tokyo Games. All three will remain on the program for Paris 2024, which will also include breakdancing for the first time.

The benefits flow both ways. The sports give the Olympics a different energy and a gateway to a different audience. The Olympic Games provide the sports unmatched exposure.

“I think it’s important for our sport to grow even more,” Slovenian women’s sport climber Janja Garnbret said. “More people will get involved in climbing, so I think it’s good in every aspect.”

Garnbret won gold Friday in a final that felt different from most others at the Olympics. Music blasted for the entire six-hour event. Commentators talked over the speakers during the eight competitors’ climbs, encouraging the climbers when they weren’t narrating the action. Enough event workers, team members and Olympic officials congregated to briefly make the absence of fans an afterthought.

How Tokyo Olympic organizers managed to keep COVID-19 mostly in check

Aggressive testing, tracking apps and restrictions prevented a widespread COVID-19 outbreak from derailing the Olympics, but there were problems.

It was a successful step into unchartered territories, perhaps giving the IOC confidence to further pursue other less traditional sports in the future. But the next frontier remains unsettling.

Esports fit the criteria to sustain the Olympics’ demand. Competitive video game tournaments draw thousands of fans in person and millions more viewers on broadcasts around the world. Global revenue is projected to surpass $1 billion in 2021, according to a report by games and esports data company Newzoo. It’s growing without an end in sight.

The IOC has not ignored the surge. The inaugural Olympic Virtual Series was launched ahead of this year’s Games with players competing in five sport simulation competitions — auto racing, baseball, cycling, rowing and sailing.

The IOC also recognized the Intel World Open , an international virtual event that had players competing in “Street Fighter V” and “Rocket League,” last month. While it wasn’t an officially IOC-sanctioned event, it was featured on the IOC’s website.

“I do think that esports will be part of the Olympics at some point. Absolutely,” said Steve Arhancet, co-CEO and owner of Team Liquid, a North American professional esports organization. “Absolutely. There are just way too many gamers. There’s too many people watching other people play video games. Gaming is now more ubiquitous with growing up. And it’s all up and to the right. That’s a fact.

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“So in order for the Olympics to stay contemporary with the times, they’ll need to take a serious look at this and figure out how to have esports participate in Olympics.”

Esports’ potential inclusion, however, presents unparalleled complications. Entities don’t own traditional sports, but companies own esports titles. Having developers release their IP would require negotiation. Choosing the games would require a quadrennial discussion since popularity is often cyclical.

Then there’s the matter of violence. The IOC has refused to consider games it deems violent, which could prevent the majority of esports’ most popular titles from consideration.

But esports’ candidacy starts with one fundamental question: Is gaming even a sport?

“All of our players are athletes,” Tricia Sugita said. “I don’t think you can argue the skill or the time put in. I think the last part that may be questionable for some is just the physicality and that’s just the last criteria.”

Sugita is the CEO of FlyQuest Sports, another prominent North American esports organization. It was founded in 2017 by Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Wesley Edens, a member of a growing group of traditional sports executives who have invested heavily in the esports industry.

Edens saw two of his Bucks players — Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton — win gold with the U.S. men’s basketball team in these Olympics. One day, if the Olympics’ hunt for younger viewers veers into the next frontier, he may see one of the FlyQuest players take gold in esports. It might just be a matter of time.

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Hampton morris breaks world record, closes in on olympic weightlifting spot.

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Hampton Morris became the first American man to break a senior weightlifting world record since 1969 and all but clinched his first Olympic berth on Tuesday.

Morris, a 20-year-old from Georgia who is coached by his dad , broke the world record in the clean and jerk in the 61kg weight class by lifting 176 kilograms (388 pounds) at a World Cup in Thailand.

He also broke the American records in the snatch with a 127-kilogram lift and for his total weight lifted of 303 kilograms between the snatch and clean and jerk.

Morris finished second overall in Tuesday’s competition and moved up from seventh to second in global Olympic qualifying rankings behind Tokyo Olympic champion Li Fabin of China.

After the World Cup, 10 lifters in each men’s and women’s weight class qualify for the Olympics. There is a maximum of one lifter per country per class, and a nation can enter no more than three lifters per gender across all five classes per gender.

Morris was the lone American man in the top 10 of any weight class going into the World Cup. The rest of the top Americans will compete in the coming days.

Morris can become the youngest American weightlifter to compete at an Olympics since Cheryl Haworth at the 2000 Sydney Games, according to the OlyMADMen.

The last U.S. men’s weightlifting medals came at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

The top American women in Olympic qualifying going into the World Cup were Olivia Reeves (ranked second at 71kg), Jourdan Delacruz (ranked fourth at 49kg) and Mary Theisen-Lappen (ranked fifth at +81kg).

WORLD RECORD DAY FOR HAMPTON MORRIS 🌎🏆 at 61 kg at the IWF World Cup: SN 127 kg = American record 🇺🇸 CJ 176 kg = WORLD RECORD 🌎 T 303 kg = American record🇺🇸 Morris earned gold in the C&J and silver in the total with his performance and jumps to No. 2️⃣ in the world at 61… pic.twitter.com/lWkjbef2Xd — USA Weightlifting (@USWeightlifting) April 2, 2024

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Duncan Scott: ‘The Olympics are more gruelling mentally than physically’

Scottish athlete is targeting success at Paris Olympics this summer after a record-breaking return of four medals in Tokyo

D uncan Scott is a hard man to catch, in the pool and out. During the Tokyo Olympics the British press spent a lot of time trying, and failing, to get a word with him as he peeled off nine races in eight days. There were three rounds in the 200m freestyle, three more in the 200m medley, two in the men’s 4x100m medley relay, and another in the 4x200m freestyle relay. By the end of the week, Scott had won more medals than any British athlete at a single Games – one gold and three silver – but had barely said a word in public because he was so busy racing, sleeping, losing, winning.

It was the same at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. On the Gold Coast Scott swam 11 races in five days and won six medals. In Birmingham in 2022 it was 12 in five, and he won six more. It’s not unusual for swimmers to enter multiple races at major championships, but the job Scott takes on is something else again. His teammate Adam Peaty called him an “inspiration” in Tokyo, and it’s undeniably true there is something heartening about watching him go about his swimming. He has an abundant love of what he does, but apparently no interest in the trappings that go with it.

“Sadly it all kind of came back to haunt me at the end,” says Scott, who is working as an ambassador for Aldi, official partner of Team GB & ParalympicsGB. “When I finished my last race in Tokyo I had to do eight hours of media back‑to‑back‑to‑back, which was kind of raw.” Everyone wanted a piece of him, but by then Scott was so exhausted that he wasn’t able to say much more about his achievement than it “hadn’t really sunk in” . If anything, his feelings seemed more bitter than sweet. Those three silver medals, seemed, by his way of thinking, only to mean that he had endured three defeats.

“Looking back, after every race I was thinking: ‘I’m falling short of each thing I want to achieve.’” Even the 4x200m freestyle relay was disappointing, he says, because “we missed the world record by 0.03 seconds”. When I cheerily remind him that he still won the gold, he says: “Yeah, that’s probably the difference in our mindsets, there.” Time was, and not so long ago, when British swimmers seemed happy simply to make the Olympics. In 2012 they sent 38 swimmers to London, and won just a silver and two bronze medals between them. Scott, like Peaty, is cut from different cloth.

He reminds me of Andy Murray. Some of it simply down to his accent – Scott grew up in Alloa, 20 minutes down the road from Murray’s old hometown of Dunblane – but it’s also in his attitude. Like Murray, Scott has a same dry sense of humour that takes some getting used to and, like Murray, he is always ready to speak his mind. He refused to shake hands with Sun Yang at the world championships in 2019, in protest against the Chinese swimmer’s doping conviction . And he has also spent a lot of time in the past year publicly lobbying British politicians to provide more funding for local leisure centres, after two of his own local pools closed.

“The leisure industry took a beating because of the rising energy bills,” Scott says. “And that is a worry, especially because the pools being closed tend to be in quite deprived areas. If you’re in a low-income household it’s quite challenging to find the time and money to commute to another one.”

Learning to swim, he points out, is a skill that can save your life. But it’s more than that. “Those leisure centres are more like community hubs, they’re places where the young go to learn a new sport, the elderly go to socialise, and the injured go for rehab, you know? Worse, from what I’ve been told there’s probably more closures down the road as well.”

More than any of that, though, Scott is like Murray in that he seems, even by the standards of elite athletes, to have an almost boundless appetite for doing the hard yards, and the fact they make competing look like such suffering.

Turns out Scott used to be a tennis player himself, and even trained on the courts alongside Murray at the University of Stirling as a junior. “I wasn’t great to be honest,” he says. “I was just someone that was keen to turn up, get beaten six-love and go home. But it’s a sport I love. I used to watch Andy train at Stirling, and I’ve loved watching him compete against arguably the best players ever in Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal. And I still love the fact that he still plays even when people keep asking him why he doesn’t quit, just because he loves it so much.”

Seems Scott feels similarly. You need to, to be a swimmer. It is a thankless sport, all long days and endless lengths. He started doing it competitively when he was seven, his mum sent him along for trials at the local pool. He met his coach, Steven Tigg, at that session, and they’re still together now.

Tigg was only a young volunteer coach himself at the time, and the two of them have come up together. Scott gives Tigg a lot of credit for turning him into the athlete he is now. “He believed in me way more, way earlier than I did myself. And I’m hugely grateful for that. It’s only over the last few years that I’ve been truly aware of what I’m able to achieve.”

Tigg thinks Scott’s tennis background is one of the reasons he is able to plough through the races, because he grew up playing a sport that forced him to always think about the next point instead of the one just gone. “I certainly think the schedule is more gruelling mentally than it is physically,” Scott says.

It still took him time to come to terms with what happened in Tokyo, where he was a fingernail’s width away from winning gold in the 200m free and the 200m medley. “On reflection, I’m incredibly proud of it. It’s probably the best that I’ve competed on back-to-back days. I swam the best that I ever have in the final, every single time, and there’s not much more that you can do than that.”

It will be similar in Paris, where the competition will, he says, be “stacked” again. Scott is planning to compete in the 200m free and the 200m medley, as well as the relays. He has to qualify first, at the British championships which begin on Tuesday, where he will be up against his friend Tom Dean again.

Beyond that, in Paris he will be racing Yang and Leon Marchand, the Frenchman who beat Michael Phelps’s world record in the 400m individual medley. “He’s probably the face of French swimming, if not of world swimming, at the minute,” Scott says. “He’s phenomenal to watch, and a really nice kid, hopefully I’ll be able to get myself into a nice head-to-head with him.”

I tell him I look forward to being there to watch him put himself through it all over again. “Yeah,” he says with a laugh, “I look forward to not speaking to you again.”

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The 2024 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Rowing Team Trials are set to begin this weekend — on Saturday, April 6 and Sunday, April 7 — at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida.

The trials will be streamed on NBC.com, the NBC Sports App and Peacock from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. ET on both Saturday and Sunday .

At the trials, rowers from 11 different categories (eight Olympic, three Paralympic) will compete, with winning crews in the men’s pair, women’s pair and women’s single sculls clinching spots at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Other boats — including men’s single sculls, men’s double sculls, lightweight men’s double sculls, men’s quadruple sculls and women’s quadruple sculls — can qualify for the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in May with a top-two finish.

Racing takes place along a 2,000-meter, buoyed course in Sarasota.

The buildup to the Paris Games begins a redemption path for U.S. rowing. At the 2020 Tokyo Games, not a single U.S. crew won a medal, marking the first time in Olympic history that no American earned a medal at the Olympics, dating back to the 1900 Paris Olympics.

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How Many Olympic Sports Are There? See a Complete List for the 2024 Summer Games

The City of Light will play host to 32 sports at this year's Summer Games, including four new additions.

As the  Summer Games in Paris, France swiftly approach, it’s time to get to know which sports are in and which sports are out because, in an effort to consistently stay relative and mirror trends in competitive athletics, the Olympic powers that be are shaking things up!

If that ruffles your feathers, fear not because elevating and demoting specific concentrations as needed to meet the demands of modern-day sports fans is really nothing new when it comes to following standard Olympic protocol. Did you know that tug of war had a run in five different Olympic Games between 1900 and 1920? And believe it or not, but long before Clint Eastwood made pistol duels famous in his legendary westerns, they were featured (to some degree) during the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens, Greece. Not to forget the elite chorus singers and other artists who earned their right to claim medals atop an Olympic podium during the 1912 Games in Stockholm, Sweden. Not only that, but a version of croquet called roque, long distance plunging, and live pigeon shooting — literally, real birds — even had their blissful moments in the Olympic sun.

But alas, to stay fresh, hit refresh — and that’s exactly what the Olympic governing body has done in crafting the sport lineup for the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, France . For more on the Olympics: Everything to Know About the U.S. Gymnastics Olympic Trials: "Got to See It to Believe It" How Much Do Olympians Get Paid to Compete? It’s Complicated — Here’s What We Know Kelly Clarkson, Peyton Manning, and Mike Tirico Will Host the 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony

What Olympic sports have been added to the 2024 Paris Games?

Whether fans are watching the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France live in the City of Light, at home on NBC’s exclusive coverage of the tournament or on the go through Peacock , which is offering a first-ever multi-view as well as a “whip-around,” live studio show called GoldZone , with so much content to choose from, don’t forget to keep an eye out for the four new sports set to make a splash at this year’s Olympiad. In a multi-pronged effort to be more inclusive, gender-balanced and youth-centered in its selection of sport concentrations, breaking, sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing have all been added to the lineup in France.

Having made its Olympic debut at the 2018 Youth Games in Buenos Aires, breaking is a popular style of acrobatics-infused dance that originated from hip hop culture in the 1970’s. Paris will feature a men’s event and a women’s event where 16 B-Boys and 16 B-Girls will square off against each other in jaw-dropping solo battles.      The sport climbing category consists of three formats: boulder, speed and lead. According to Paris 2024 , the boulder event tests the athletes’ ability to scale 4.5-meter-tall walls with no ropes, in the least attempts possible, over a set period of time. The speed event is designed to showcase the athletes’ precision and explosiveness as they mount 15-meter-high walls, featuring five degrees of incline. In the lead event, athletes have six minutes to climb as high as they can on a 15-meter wall without having seen the potential routes in advance.

After successfully debuting during the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, Japan, skateboarding is back on the menu in Paris, featuring the sport’s two most popular disciplines in park and street. With each event category consisting of two rounds, judges will be scrutinizing the competitors’ most impressive tricks, taking into consideration their degree of difficulty, speed, and spectrum of moves.  

After its inaugural run in the 2020 Tokyo Games, the surfing events for the Paris Games will occur outside of France on the fabled Teahupo’o waves in Tahiti. Five judges will assess the athletes’ variety, type and trick difficulty while analyzing the surfers’ overall flow, power and speed. The French Polynesia venue, which has been the site of the Pro Tahiti world championship competition for more than two decades, is revered for not only its best-in-class, challenging surf for short boarders, but also for its breath-taking beauty.

RELATED: The Olympic Medals in Paris Will Literally Contain a Piece of the Eiffel Tower

Which sports have been removed from the 2024 Summer Olympics in France?

With breaking, sport climbing, skateboarding, and surfing all earning roster spots in the 2024 Paris Games, their promotion sadly means that multiple sports are getting the boot. Come July, three sports will be absent from the City of Light, including karate, softball and the heavy hitter, baseball. Karate’s viewership has historically failed to generate significant traction with audiences, and the difficulty with baseball has traditionally been due to scheduling conflicts with Major League Baseball (MLB). While baseball was introduced in 1992 and softball in 1996, both were removed for the 2012 Games in London and only returned for a brief stint with the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Though fans of America’s National Pastime are unhappy to see their beloved sport strike out, both baseball and softball are set to return to the mound for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California. According to The Athletic ’s Evan Drellich, the MLB and MLBPA (the league’s players association) sent a joint letter to the IOC, urging the Olympic organizers to reinstate baseball and softball for the 2028 Games.    

A Complete List of Olympic Sports for the 2024 Paris Games

In total, there will be a cumulative 329 medal events at the 2024 Paris Games , stemming from 32 different sports. Here is the full list of all 32 featured sports:

Aquatics (Swimming, Marathon Swimming, Diving, Water Polo, Artistic Swimming) Archery Athletics Badminton Basketball (3x3, Basketball) Boxing Breaking Canoe (Canoe Sprint, Canoe Slalom) Cycling (BMX Freestyle, BMX Racing, Road Cycling, Track Cycling) Equestrian (Equestrian Eventing, Equestrian Dressage, Equestrian Jumping) Fencing Football Golf Gymnastics (Artistic Gymnastics, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Trampoline Gymnastics) Handball Hockey Judo Modern Pentathlon Rowing Rugby (Rugby Sevens) Sailing Shooting Skateboarding Sport Climbing Surfing Table Tennis Taekwondo Tennis Triathlon Volleyball (Beach Volleyball, Volleyball) Weightlifting Wrestling (Greco-Roman Wrestling, Freestyle Wrestling)

NBC  and  Peacock  will present live coverage of the  Opening Ceremony  on Friday, July 26, beginning at noon ET.  Telemundo  will provide Spanish-language coverage beginning at 1 p.m. ET. Primetime coverage will begin at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT on  NBC  and  Peacock .

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What is breaking? Rules, scoring for new Olympic Games sport at Paris 2024

We have a brand new sport to enjoy at the 2024 Olympic Games , with breaking joining the fold.

It's certainly not your typical Olympic event, but the IOC is aiming to attract more young people, and have made a fresh addition in Paris.

MORE:  When do the Olympic Games start?

While most people are relatively familiar with break dancing, how will it work as an Olympic sport?

The Sporting News takes a look.

What is breaking? History, origin of Olympic sport

Breaking – commonly known as 'break dancing' – is a dance style with strong urban roots.

According to olympics.com , it originated in the New York City borough of the Bronx in the 1970s, and is characterised by "acrobatic movements, stylised footwork, and the key role played by the DJ and the MC (master of ceremonies) during battles". 

Break dance competitions have been held since the 1990s. Since then it has continued to grow in popularity and has led to the creation of an international organising body – the World DanceSport Federation.

MORE:  Olympics football draw 2024 – Schedule, matches, bracket

The sport made its first Olympic appearance in 2018 at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires.

Its inclusion was deemed a success by organisers, with breaking to feature as a new sport at the Paris 2024 Games.

Breaking at the Olympics: Rules, scoring

For many, dance is considered an art form, which can make it difficult to score or grade objectively.

There is already a system in place for Paris, though.

Two medal events will be run – one for men and one for women – with 16 'b-boys' and 'b-girls' competing.

A maximum of four athletes per continent will be allowed to compete in each event.

Judges will score solo battles based on six criteria:

• Personality
• Performativity 

An uneven number of judges (minimum three) will be required to score battles.

Grades for technique, performativity and creativity make up 60 per cent of the total score, while variety, musicality and personality are worth 40 per cent.

Judges submit their votes after each round, with the competitor with the most points the winner.

New Olympic sports 2024

Breaking is the only sport set to debut in Paris.

At the last Games in Tokyo, four new sports were introduced – karate, surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing. 

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Grandstands and gallop tracks: Versailles Palace gardens get ready for Olympic equestrian events

A couple jogs past the stands to watch the equestrian sports, Friday, March 29, 2024 in the park of the Chateau de Versailles, west of Paris. The site will be the venue for equestrian sports at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The Chateau de Versailles is seen in background. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

The stands to watch the equestrian sports are seen Friday, March 29, 2024 in the park of the Chateau de Versailles, seen in background, west of Paris. The site will be the venue for equestrian sports at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

The track for the equestrian sports is under construction Friday, March 29, 2024 in the park of the Chateau de Versailles, west of Paris. The site will be the venue for equestrian sports at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

Workers discuss in the stands to watch the equestrian sports, Friday, March 29, 2024 in the park of the Chateau de Versailles, west of Paris. The site will be the venue for equestrian sports at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

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VERSAILLES, France (AP) — Preparations are underway for the gardens of the Versailles Palace to welcome Olympic horse riders and tens of thousands of visitors when it hosts equestrian and modern pentathlon events during this summer’s Paris Games.

Temporary facilities including grandstands are being built across the park, where up to 40,000 people are expected to attend the cross-country part of the event.

The main arena will hold over 16,000 seated spectators for the dressage and showjumping competitions. Located at one end of the Grand Canal, the largest basin in the park, it will offer a spectacular view of the palace, once home to Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette.

“It’s a real opportunity to be able to organize such an event in such an amazing and iconic venue. We feel very honored and respectful,” said Anne Murac, who is in charge of the Versailles site for the Paris 2024 organizing committee.

On the western side of the park, temporary stables, with air conditioning, remain to be built. A nearby track with both grass and sand surfaces has already been set up to allow horses to warm up before the competition.

In addition, the 5-kilometer (3-mile) cross-country path is being carefully prepared, Murac said.

“We are working the ground very deeply to put some sand and drainage to make sure the cross-country track will be consistent and to be able to guarantee the safety of the horses and the riders,” she said.

Pontoon bridges, tested last summer , will enable horses to cross the Grand Canal during the cross-country.

Several water obstacles are being prepared. One newly created pond will have the shape of the royal lily, or fleur-de-lis, a symbol of the French monarchy. Horses will also pass through water in the circular basin of a fountain which had not been filled for over 40 years until now.

Murac said, “we wanted to integrate sports and culture altogether and to be able to promote French heritage.”

The five events of the modern pentathlon (swimming, fencing, riding, running and shooting) will also be held in the gardens of the Versailles Palace.

The site will offer “a wonderful frame” for the horse trials, Versailles Palace President Christophe Leribault said. “Horses are so obviously in the iconography of the palace,” including in paintings, sculptures and fountains, he said. “So it’s a wonderful meeting of this old tradition and the modern sport.”

After the end of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, all temporary facilities will be removed, the soil will be entirely put back in place and grass will be reseeded to leave the place the way it was before, organizers said.

The palace itself will remain open to the public during the Games.

AP Olympics coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Let them juice.

Billionaires are backing a sporting event where athletes could take steroids — and get paid.

Sometime in 2022, while working out at an Equinox gym in Miami, Aron D'Souza, a tech founder, overheard gymgoers shamelessly talking about juicing and taking "tren," short for trenbolone, an anabolic steroid.

Using steroids — Schedule 3 drugs in the US — without a prescription is illegal but not uncommon. One study estimated that 3 million to 4 million Americans used anabolic-androgenic steroids for athletic or cosmetic purposes.

So when people told D'Souza they were indeed on steroids , he had an idea: Why don't I put all these juiced-up folks under one roof and start my own Olympics-style event?

D'Souza knew people on social media often described those who took performance-enhancing drugs as " enhanced ." He named his event accordingly: the Enhanced Games.

The competition, introduced last June as the "first international sporting event without drug testing," brings up legal quandaries around the drugs and is likely to face pushback from the public and athletes who believe that doping compromises the integrity of sports.

In the Enhanced Games, D'Souza said, athletes would be able to use performance-enhancing drugs under "clinical supervision" as they compete and would be paid for their participation with a base salary and a prize pool ranging from seven to potentially nine figures.

While the Olympics brought in almost $8 billion in revenue from 2017 to 2021, the International Olympic Committee doesn't pay participating athletes . Several countries pay bonuses to medal winners, and high-profile athletes may get brand deals and sponsorships, but many Olympic athletes live quiet lives. Some medalists have said they're homeless .

D'Souza told Business Insider he believes this gives him the moral high ground.

He described the Olympics as "corrupt," run by a cabal of "blood-sucking bureaucrats who earn millions of dollars a year" and "fly around the world in private jets." He specifically called out Thomas Bach , the president of the IOC .

"The IOC president literally lives in a palace, and the athletes earn nothing," D'Souza said. "So if you want an Olympic gold medal, sure, go and do it, but get financially exploited while you're at it."

While Bach, a former foil fencer for West Germany's Olympic team, is considered a volunteer for the nonprofit IOC, the organization said in its 2022 annual report that the IOC president received an annual "indemnity" payment of 275,000 euros. He also receives free accommodation at the Lausanne Palace, a luxury hotel in Switzerland.

Bach's role is to maintain the Olympics' relevancy in the world, but his 11-year tenure as president has not been without controversy. His critics have described him as an autocrat because of his singular influence on the games and condemned his relationships with dictators. In 2021, The New York Times called him "one of the most powerful people in global sports."

When reached for comment regarding D'Souza's statements, an IOC spokesperson said in an email to Business Insider, "The idea does not merit any comment."

D'Souza dismissed the IOC's statement. "I'm sure when Uber launched, the taxi monopoly said the same thing," he said.

The Enhanced Games announced on January 31, eight months after its unveiling, that the project had received financial backing from venture capitalists including Christian Angermayer , the founder of Apeiron Investment Group; Balaji Srinivasan , Coinbase's former chief technology officer; and, notably, the former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel, a close associate of D'Souza's.

Angermayer, whom D'Souza described as deeply committed to the project, told Business Insider that his investment in and cofounding of the Enhanced Games was a "natural extension" of his work in the "field of human enhancement." Apeiron's investments heavily focus on biopharma, psychedelics, and human longevity.

"I expect to see the Enhanced Games grow into an unmissable event series, with world records regularly broken, athletes performing at new peaks, and a huge community of devoted fans around the world," he wrote in an email to BI.

Srinivasan did not respond to a request for comment.

An Oxford alum with a doctorate in jurisprudence from the University of Melbourne, D'Souza describes himself as an "academic lawyer" and venture capitalist who manages his own capital "into a variety of portfolio companies."

But D'Souza gained notoriety for quietly spearheading the takedown of Gawker Media in 2016, sparking what would become a fruitful relationship with Thiel.

Thiel bankrolled Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against the media organization alleging invasion of privacy — but behind the scenes, D'Souza provided the blueprint for the billionaire's plans, BuzzFeed News reported in 2018 .

"I developed the whole strategy for the Gawker lawsuit," D'Souza told BI.

The BuzzFeed News report said D'Souza approached the billionaire VC around 2011 with the idea to either "pay someone or create a company to hire lawyers to go after Gawker."

He enlisted the help of an entertainment lawyer named Charles Harder, who would file the lawsuit on Hogan's behalf and then represent the wrestler under a law firm he founded in 2013, Harder Mirell & Abrams, which now operates as Harder Stonerock.

A source told BuzzFeed News that Hogan's lawyers didn't know that Thiel funded the wrestler's lawsuit. The report described sources as saying Thiel kept his role under wraps by using D'Souza as a middleman who'd take the money and meet with Hogan's attorneys.

The lawsuit was settled for about $31 million , and Gawker went bankrupt. The lawsuit's success may have proved financially beneficial for D'Souza.

In 2015, D'Souza founded Sargon Capital, a financial-services company his website says is "for the pensions and superannuation industry." Two years later, the Australian Financial Review reported that Sargon claimed in a pitch deck for investors that it had secured millions of dollars in backing from none other than Thiel. "Peter and I are good friends, and we have worked together on many projects," D'Souza said.

D'Souza suggested he received funding for the Enhanced Games in the "single-digit millions" but declined to specify the amount. He added that other VCs had floated term sheets — nonbinding agreements that express serious interest in investment — for more backing. He declined to share which VCs had shared term sheets, saying they're "confidential."

Thiel hasn't publicly said why he's interested in the Enhanced Games. D'Souza described all the investors as "willing to go against the grain." Thiel did not respond to a request for comment.

D'Souza told BI that none of the athletes would be expected to take performance-enhancing drugs. The competition, he said, is coming from a "very freedom-first libertarian attitude" in which "everyone is entitled to healthcare privacy."

D'Souza contrasted his games with countries that mandated COVID-19 vaccination for certain groups, suggesting that people who declined to get vaccinated were wrongly "excluded from society." And he likened the games to the abortion-rights movement and its mantra " My body, my choice ."

"No one, no government, no sports federation should be telling individuals what they have to do with their own bodies," he said.

So far, it's unclear what kind of talent Enhanced Games will attract. D'Souza said his team was in talks with "several Olympic medalists whom we're going to guarantee minimums to come and compete on our side."

James Magnussen , an Australian swimmer and Olympic gold medalist, recently said on a podcast that he'd come out of retirement and "juice to the gills" if the Enhanced Games put up a $1 million prize for the 50-meter freestyle.

D'Souza told BI his team was "very excited to have James involved" and later said he'd write Magnussen a million-dollar check if he broke the race's world record.

The monetization plans he described were broad but vague; he told BI the games would monetize through "traditional sports rights: broadcasting, sponsorship, and ticket sales."

Angermayer told BI in an email that he expected the Enhanced Games to become a "significant and profitable revenue generator that pays those who compete fairly, and, possibly most importantly, act as a catalyst for extending the evident benefits of human enhancement science to the wider population."

D'Souza also said he'd been approached in commercial negotiations to host the games at several professional-team stadiums, removing the need to spend billions of dollars to build elaborate stadiums as some Olympic host cities have done. He didn't specify which stadiums had been considered.

The founder envisions hosting popular sports that are already featured at the Olympics — such as aquatics, athletics, gymnastics, and weightlifting — as well as some that aren't, such as mixed martial arts .

"The UFC has done an amazing job of pushing boundaries about performance enhancements," D'Souza said, pointing to the MMA promoter's split last year with the US Anti-Doping Agency.

The UFC still conducts drug tests through its own program, but D'Souza said he felt the breakup was a "very public condemnation" of the broader World Anti-Doping Agency .

The UFC has said its new anti-doping program enlists Drug Free Sport International to obtain "no-notice sample collections" from athletes. That organization's partnerships include the NFL, the NBA, and MLB.

D'Souza said Enhanced Games would closely examine its athletes, but for entirely different purposes.

He described drug testing at the Olympics as about fairness of competition, not athlete safety. He said that at the Enhanced Games, athletes would get comprehensive health checkups to monitor the effects of "whatever enhancement protocols" they're on and ensure they're fit to compete.

The International Testing Agency, an IOC affiliate that administers anti-doping programs, pushed back on some of D'Souza's claims and his proposal.

In an email to BI, Marta Nawrocka, a spokesperson for the ITA, listed risks that could come with an event that promotes drug enhancements.

"It encourages risky behavior and ignores the clear scientific evidence that doping is clearly harmful to the athlete's body," she wrote. "It ignores the impact that such an event could have on young people and children, encouraging them to prioritize results over their health, potentially leading to a culture of doping that goes beyond professional sport. It also ignores that athletes with greater financial resources or access to better doping techniques would have an unfair advantage over those who cannot afford or do not have access to such improvements."

She added, "There are many more arguments against an event that allows and encourages doping."

Health experts told BI's Gabby Landsverk in 2022 that using performance-enhancing drugs like steroids could come with a litany of health risks — including hair loss, erectile dysfunction, liver damage, and heart disease — that can increase as an athlete ages.

The Enhanced Games could also face legal hurdles, especially if the games are based in the US, where anabolic steroids are classified as Schedule 3 drugs and illegal to use without a prescription.

Jim Walden, the lawyer for Grigory Rodchenkov , the whistleblower who led the state-sponsored doping program in Russia, told CNN last year that the Enhanced Games seemed to be "advertising their disregard of the law" on its website.

"They wrap themselves up in what I will call the cloak of legitimacy by using phrases like body autonomy and coming out as an enhanced athlete," he told the outlet. "I hope they're thinking hard about how they're going to pull this off in the world in which the FBI has a specific unit that is called the Sports and Gaming Initiative that's focusing on these very issues."

An FBI spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

When asked about legal issues, D'Souza said his team was looking at the "many opportunities and challenges in numerous jurisdictions."

He also suggested that some performance-enhancing drugs were "available under clinical supervision," pointing to synthetic testosterone, part of some gender-affirming hormone therapies. He added that anabolic steroids are legal in several countries.

In D'Souza's view, the challenge for getting the Enhanced Games off the ground isn't the critics; he insisted that most were just "bureaucrats who are earning big salaries" and are on the "gravy train." Instead, it's been funding.

With the recent round of VC investments, though, D'Souza said some investors who'd previously ignored him were circling back. The buzz on social media, he added, has been nonstop.

D'Souza said he planned to announce more details about the Enhanced Games this summer — right around the Paris Olympics .

"We see that as a major platform for us to highlight the moral superiority of our event," he said.

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A Brief Guide to Every Sport at the Olympics

From archery to yachting, and everything in between: Here are all the sports that are part of the Tokyo Games in 2021.

By Victor Mather

Thirty-three sports. Three hundred and thirty-nine events. And approximately 5,000 Olympic and Paralympic medals in waiting.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics (yes, the Games are still being referred to as 2020) are scheduled to proceed on July 23, with a few preliminary events on July 21 and 22.

Here’s the lowdown on every sport, including the Olympic debuts of karate, surfing, skateboarding , sport climbing and BMX freestyle.

48 gold medals awarded

Track and field

Usain Bolt may have retired, but track, which the Olympics refers to as “athletics,” will still be a marquee event. International stars expected to be on hand include Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica in the sprints, Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands in the middle distances, and Armand Duplantis of Sweden in the pole vault.

The strong American contingent will include Noah Lyles in the 200 meters and the ageless Allyson Felix in the 400 meters — in her fifth Games. Sydney McLaughlin, who broke the world record in the 400 hurdles during the U.S. trials, and Dalilah Muhammad , who had held the record, will continue their rivalry as American teammates in Tokyo.

The marathons and race walking have been moved to Sapporo, Japan, where it is expected to be cooler than Tokyo.

With the retirements of the American swimmer Michael Phelps and the Jamaican runner Usain Bolt, Simone Biles may be the most visible athlete at the Games. The winner of four golds in 2016, she will have a chance at six this year, in the team event, individual all-around, and four apparatus finals.

Numerous stars should make for a compelling meet. Among the American contingent is Simone Manuel in the 50-meter freestyle, Katie Ledecky at long distance, Lilly King in the breaststroke and Caeleb Dressel in freestyle and butterfly. Also expected to be returning to the pool are Katinka Hosszu of Hungary and Daiya Seto, the host nation’s prime hope for a medal, in the individual medleys.

In the relays, get ready for another round of the Americans versus the Australians . Plus, there’s marathon swimming at the Odaiba Marine Park.

Many of the leading players in women’s tennis are expected to participate, including Naomi Osaka , who plans to represent Japan at the Games after pulling out of the French Open and skipping Wimbledon. But Serena Williams will not play in Tokyo.

If Novak Djokovic, who won this year’s Australian and French Opens and Wimbledon, wins an Olympic gold medal, he could complete the so-called Golden Slam by also winning the U.S. Open in September. His path may be easier with two of his longtime rivals, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, sitting out of these Games.

It’s a little different than at summer camp: The archers try to hit a bull’s-eye that is about the size of a grapefruit from 70 meters away. South Korea is the dominant team and has won all eight women’s team gold medals since the event was added in 1988. Brady Ellison of the United States, who has two silver medals and a bronze in his career, will be aiming for his fourth Olympics.

Artistic swimming

The sport was formerly known as synchronized swimming. Russia has been the top team for many years. Although coed duet competition has been added at the world championships, the Olympics is still for women only.

This sport of rackets and shuttlecocks is dominated by Asian countries: 32 of 34 golds in history have been won by that continent. Indonesia, a nation of 270 million, has won seven Olympic gold medals, all of them in badminton — the sport is part of the national identity .

Baseball and softball

Both competitions are returning for the first time since 2008. Cuba has made the final in all five Olympic baseball tournaments. The United States has won three of four softball golds. Major League Baseball players, otherwise occupied, will not be participating in the tournament.

The American men have won six of the seven gold medals since professionals started playing on the Olympic team in 1992. The U.S. women have won eight of the last nine golds.

Three-on-three basketball for men and women has been added this year. The United States men and the Chinese women are the reigning World Cup champions in that sport. The American men’s team for qualifying events has consisted of players from the G League and European leagues. The American women have been W.N.B.A. players.

The women’s competition has expanded to five weight classes, from three. Russia and former Soviet countries like Uzbekistan have been at the top of the sport in recent years.

Canoe and kayak

Canoers use a one-bladed paddle and kneel in the boat. Kayakers use a two-bladed paddle and sit. The canoe sprint takes place over a flat, straight, calm course. In canoe slalom, paddlers snake through gates in river rapids. In 2019, Nevin Harrison became the first American to win gold in the world championship canoe sprint. Conveniently, her event is being added for women to the Tokyo Olympics .

The sport has four separate disciplines at the Olympics. In road cycling, the same riders who contest the Tour de France compete. In track cycling, riders race around a banked oval at high speeds; new this year is the Madison, a sort of tag-team race for two riders. In BMX, riders race over a quick, bumpy course or perform tricks in the new freestyle competition. In mountain biking, riders traverse a long, hilly cross-country course.

China won seven of eight gold medals at the last Games. David Boudia of the United States, who won four medals over three Olympics, failed to qualify for Tokyo.

There are three types of equestrian competitions at the Games. Dressage is almost like dancing on horseback, as riders are judged on precise movements by their mounts. In jumping, horses clear high hurdles. Eventing includes both dressage and jumping, and also adds a grueling cross-country race over hurdles.

There are three different types of swords. The foil is a light thrusting weapon, and hits can be made only on the opponent’s torso. The épée is heavier, and hits can be made anywhere. The saber is the most distinct: It is a cutting weapon, and hits can be made with any part of the sword, not just the tip. While Mariel Zagunis, 36, who is still active, won women’s gold medals in 2004 and 2008, no American man has won since 1904.

Field hockey

European teams, plus Argentina and Australia, have been tops at this sport. The American women, surprisingly, and the American men, unsurprisingly, did not qualify.

Many of the top players in the world will compete at the Kasumigaseki Country Club . Justin Rose of Britain and Inbee Park of South Korea won four years ago in the sport’s return to the Olympics after a 112-year absence.

Judo, a martial art focused on grappling, provides a great medal-winning opportunity for the host country. Japan historically has more than double the golds of the next closest country, and also had the most golds at the 2016 Games. The heavyweight Teddy Riner of France will be going for a third straight gold medal and fourth straight medal over all. A coed team event has been added this year.

Karate debuts at this Olympics. There will be six gold medals awarded in kumite, in which athletes spar against an opponent, and two in kata, a solo event in which judges evaluate competitors’ stances and movements. Japan won the most medals at the latest world championships.

Modern pentathlon

It is a quirky sport that was invented for the 1912 Games in Stockholm. Athletes compete in swimming, fencing, equestrian jumping and a combined pistol shooting and running event, all in one day. Though the sport is hardly “modern,” its name comes because it is newer than the pentathlon of the ancient Greeks. The United States has won six silver medals in this sport, but never a gold.

Rhythmic gymnastics

In this women-only event, both individual athletes and teams of five perform with balls, hoops, clubs and ribbons. One piece of equipment is omitted each Games: This time the rope will be left out.

There are two types of boats. In sculling, rowers have two oars each. In sweep rowing, each rower has just one oar. The American women’s eight has won three straight Olympic gold medals, but finished third at the last world championships behind New Zealand and Australia.

At the Olympics, rugby is played with seven players on each side in a fast, free-flowing version of the game. Fiji won the inaugural men’s event in 2016, its first medal of any kind at any Games. Australia won the women’s event .

There are events for rifle, pistol and shotgun. Three coed team events have been added this year. A live pigeon shooting event held in 1900 did not return, and that competition is now considered unofficial.

Skateboarding

In this judged event making its Olympic debut, gold medals will be available in street and park disciplines. The street arena is designed to simulate a city street, with stairs, railings and benches for performing tricks. The other event resembles a local skate park, with deep bowls and curves to negotiate, setting up midair tricks.

The best women in the world will be at the Games, including the World Cup-winning Americans . The U.S. men failed to qualify for a third Games in a row. The men’s competition is mostly limited to players under 24. Still, the historical roster of gold medalists includes big names like Lev Yashin (U.S.S.R.), Pep Guardiola (Spain), Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon), Lionel Messi (Argentina) and Neymar (Brazil).

Sport climbing

Each competitor will be tested in three separate disciplines in this debut sport. Their combined performance will determine who wins the medals. In speed climbing, athletes race up a wall as fast as possible, usually in less than 10 seconds. Lead climbing is based on how far up a challenging wall competitors can go before they fall. In bouldering, competitors climb without ropes or harnesses.

The Olympic debut for surfing will be held in the relatively tame waves off Chiba, Japan. Many of the best athletes from the World Surf League will be on hand, but the surfing legend Kelly Slater, 49, barely missed qualifying .

Table tennis

Don’t expect too many surprises: China has won every gold medal in this sport in each of the last three Olympics.

This punching and kicking combat sport has been dominated by South Korea and China. But many countries have top contenders: In 2016, athletes from Ivory Coast, Jordan, Azerbaijan, Thailand, Niger and the Dominican Republic all won medals.

Team handball

It’s not the American version of handball, involving bouncing a ball off a wall. Instead it’s a fast-paced team sport, something like indoor soccer, but with players throwing the ball at the goal. The American men and women did not qualify. European teams, and perhaps the South Korean women, will vie for gold.

China and host Japan will be the favorites to bounce their way to gold. It’s a high-pressure event: After a few warm-up bounces, the competitors must consecutively perform 10 tricks without a break.

The two-hour swim, cycle and run is grueling, although not as much so as the eight-hour Ironman race in Hawaii. Besides the men’s and women’s races, there will be a coed relay this year.

In indoor volleyball, a six-a-side game, the United States will be hoping for a medal in both the men’s and women’s events. The other contenders come from nearly every continent: On the men’s side, they include Poland and Brazil; on the women’s side, China and Serbia. In beach volleyball, for teams of two, April Ross of the United States has a silver and a bronze in the last two Games and will be looking to complete the set after turning 39 in June, this time with Alix Klineman as her partner.

The U.S. women’s team has been absurdly dominant, winning the last two Olympic golds and the last three world championships with ease. Teams from Europe should dominate on the men’s side.

Weight lifting

Sarah Robles won a bronze medal in the top weight class in Rio, the first weight lifting medal for the United States since 2000. Since then she has won a world championship and could contend again.

In freestyle wrestling, the kind most familiar to Americans, the United States has several gold medal candidates among men and women. In Greco-Roman wrestling, a men-only event in which all holds must be above the waist, the United States is not expected to contend.

There will be competition in several kinds of boats. The RS:X is a sailboard, the Laser and Finn are one-person dinghies, the 470 is a two-person dinghy, the 49er is a skiff, and the Nacra 17 is a multihull catamaran. Wealthier countries located on the water like Australia, New Zealand and those in Western Europe tend to perform best. But Croatia did win a 2016 gold.

Victor Mather covers every sport for The Times. More about Victor Mather