Enhanced Games are dangerous and must be stopped, says Wada head

Witold Banka: ‘It is irresponsible. I hope it will not happen’

The Australian swimmer and former Olympian James Magnussen will compete in the Enhanced Games. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency has called on US anti-doping authorities to act to stop the Enhanced Games, describing the new event – which allows athletes to take performance-enhancing drugs in competition - as “dangerous” and “irresponsible”.

Witold Banka said the world’s anti-doping regimes had to be “very united” in their opposition to the Enhanced Games and said Usada had a responsibility to push against it. Banka went on to criticise the anti-doping regime in the US, at a time when the US government has withheld crucial funding from Wada’s operations.