Statement on the Enhanced Games

We are aware that Enhanced Games staff are actively recruiting weightlifters and have contacted USA Weightlifting-affiliated athletes.

USA Weightlifting stands with the International Weightlifting Federation in strong opposition to the Enhanced Games. Leaders within our sport have worked diligently for years to clean up the sport, reestablish trust in the results we see on the platform, and cement the continued participation of weightlifting in the Olympic Games. The Enhanced Games fly in the face of those efforts and corrode the foundation of integrity of which true sport operates.

 We have worked too hard to rebuild trust around our sport to go backwards now. Performance enhancing drugs have no place in weightlifting. There are no shortcuts to the top. USA Weightlifting is committed to bolstering the integrity of weightlifting, ensuring the pillars of clean sport are upheld, and protecting the health and safety of athletes.  The Enhanced Games are an unwelcome sideshow that threaten to take the sport of weightlifting backwards, violate the spirit of true sport, and unnecessarily risk the long-term health and safety of athletes.

We encourage any athlete contemplating participation to carefully consider how their legitimization of the use of performance enhancing drugs sets a negative example for younger generations who look to them as role models, and how their participation impacts the trust in our sport.  USA Weightlifting has been a longstanding proponent of clean sport. We believe in the pursuit of excellence with integrity, and the Enhanced Games are incompatible with our core values.

Matt Sicchio, USA Weightlifting President & CEO