Drugs, sex, and enhancement: Threats to sports integrity at the Olympics

The Olympic Games represents a majestic sporting showcase on a uniquely global scale. The Paris 2024 Olympics could mark the start of a new era for the Olympic Movement. This viewpoint focuses on three existential threats to modern Olympic Games: doping, gender issues, and enhancement, while cutting-edge research and science need to be at the heart of a concerted reaction to restore integrity of competition and protect the concept of “true” sport. Performance enhancement in the context of sport denotes or relates to a drug or other substance or method used with the prospect of improving an athlete’s performance; specifically, substances and methods that enhance any number of components of physical and mental performance, such as agility, speed, strength, power, endurance, and competition preparation and execution.