Dope-olympics?

[Goblin Slayer]

Guys have you guys ever wonder if there a olympic were all the participants just dope like hell and go compete in sport with roided out body just to see how much diffrece a human can be with a boost from science? Would it be cool? Would it be ethical? Would it make for good entertainment? Would it be poor sportmanship if everyone does?

[Murk]

I've thought about this, and I'm sure it would make for cool entertainment. You'd get monstrous addict cyborgs competing, and hey, that's awesome.

I'm also pretty sure it would be very unethical. You would, in a way, be taking advantage of people's ambitions to make them do unhealthy things. So many hormones are just not healthy for a human (see, for example, the many documentaries about East German women athletes, who suffered from problems their entire lives after their sport careers).

Even more, I think these dope-olympics would be less about physical prowess, and more about scientific prowess. It won't be the strongest body winning, but the best science team. The sportsman with the best doping wins, and that means that the sportsman with the best doctors and the most money wins - not the sportsman with the best training or the most talent.
Of course sports aren't "equal" as they are (some people are just small, and there's nothing fair about that), and in a lot of sports equipment matters, but the dope-olympics would only broaden that gap.

Without going too much into politics, it might also be illegal. Some drugs are, after all.

[Doorhandle]

Even more, I think these dope-olympics would be less about physical prowess, and more about scientific prowess. It won't be the strongest body winning, but the best science team.

To some extent that's true, but human effort always plays a part in these things. Racing car drivers are still given credit for racing after all, even if it's the tech that gave them the lead.
Of course, if a concept car crashes and burns it can be recycled an rebuilt...human can't, so as you suggested the main issue is on ethical grounds.

[Goblin Slayer]

I've thought about this, and I'm sure it would make for cool entertainment. You'd get monstrous addict cyborgs competing, and hey, that's awesome.

I'm also pretty sure it would be very unethical. You would, in a way, be taking advantage of people's ambitions to make them do unhealthy things. So many hormones are just not healthy for a human (see, for example, the many documentaries about East German women athletes, who suffered from problems their entire lives after their sport careers).

Even more, I think these dope-olympics would be less about physical prowess, and more about scientific prowess. It won't be the strongest body winning, but the best science team. The sportsman with the best doping wins, and that means that the sportsman with the best doctors and the most money wins - not the sportsman with the best training or the most talent.
Of course sports aren't "equal" as they are (some people are just small, and there's nothing fair about that), and in a lot of sports equipment matters, but the dope-olympics would only broaden that gap.

Without going too much into politics, it might also be illegal. Some drugs are, after all.

I mean they want it and your giving them the augmentation yes some of the said augmentation might harm them but we let people do many dangerouse plastic surgery and other medical procedure that would have side effect and it seems we are ok with it mostly. I mean its their body right. Like if a person wants to push it beyond human limits who are we to say no?

Also think of it as a proving ground for medical augmentation that would be benificial if a company can show how robust an artificial limb or organ can be to attact investor.

Also id say the subject would still need to be quite fit for them to be on the dope-olympic. Like lance armstrong pretty sure an average guy dope up on the drug he used would still not be able to get 7 consecutive wins.

I think the dope- olympic could be the petri dish to see what augmentation could work and not have adverse side effect

[Vinyadan]

We already have bodybuilders and cyclists, though.

[deuterio12]

Guys have you guys ever wonder if there a olympic were all the participants just dope like hell and go compete in sport with roided out body just to see how much diffrece a human can be with a boost from science? Would it be cool? Would it be ethical? Would it make for good entertainment? Would it be poor sportmanship if everyone does?

The main problem with this is that doping can easily become quite dangerous to your health. And if you want the strongest effects, you gotta take the strongest stuff in big amounts while trying to avoid an overdose at least until at least you can collect the winning prize.

You may see some "cool" stuff, but the top competitors would be dropping dead like flies from the secondary effects, or at least ruining their own bodies for the future.

[Goblin Slayer]

i would say that the case lance Armstrong case would be a significant implication that using the right drug would ensure its does not make the athlete drop like flies. id assume the doping and augmentation they will use will not cause any sort therm problems but maybe in the long run after they have ended their sport career. i mean the whole point of the dope-Olympics would be to have contestant to participate and obviously the participant are not gonna use a drug that kills them. there are many doping drugs that give them an edge that are used in our medication. they are not dangerous per say but is more to it being not sportsmanship like cause of the edge they give which is null in the dope-Olympics cause everyone is doping.i mean for all we know if we allowed it there could be a doping drug that would have other functions that could be used in medicine. aside from doping maybe they can have prosthetic that give the user more speed when running and height when jumping. the point of the dope-Olympic would be to see how much better the human body can go with augmentation be it from chemical, bio-engineering or even implanting some kind of mechanical part ala dues ex style.

[HasSIn]

I mean they want it and your giving them the augmentation yes some of the said augmentation might harm them but we let people do many dangerouse plastic surgery and other medical procedure that would have side effect and it seems we are ok with it mostly. I mean its their body right. Like if a person wants to push it beyond human limits who are we to say no?


That's true, but most Olympians start their training as kids, often forced into it by their demanding parents. I suspect some parents already dope their kids, so imagine what would happen if those PEDs would become legal and widely available? I don't know. It's a really tricky subject.

[Blithesome]

I feel like people going ‘but we’d be encouraging people to do unhealthy things’ are sort of ignoring the fact that society is pretty much built around encouraging people to do unhealthy things?

9 to 5 jobs are terrible for you. Fast food is terrible for you. High heels are terrible for you. Campfires are terrible for you. Starving yourself so you can have a ‘beach-body’ is terrible for you. Sleeping too little so you can get that big presentation done is terrible for you. Collegiate stress is terrible for you.

That doesn’t mean that we ban 9 to 5 jobs, and fast food, and high heels and campfires and college. Society as a whole has ‘drugs that are bad for you’ as there own little category, separate from the rest, and acts like they’re somehow uniquely bad, like ruining your liver with steroids is magically worse than ruining your heart with stress from your high status corporate job.

It isn’t magically worse than its equivalents, and it shouldn’t be treated that way.

[tomandtish]

That's true, but most Olympians start their training as kids, often forced into it by their demanding parents. I suspect some parents already dope their kids, so imagine what would happen if those PEDs would become legal and widely available? I don't know. It's a really tricky subject.

Minor clarification: allowable. Most of them are perfectly LEGAL, they just aren't allowable in sports. When we talk about PEDs, we are actually talking about 4 possible things;

Anabolic steroids: Basically man-made versions of testosterone. They are legal to possess/use only with a prescription (so no over the counter).

Masking agents: Used to hide the presence of banned substances. Diuretics are a common masking agent, and plenty of diuretics can be bought over the counter. But they are banned in many sports.

Stimulants: self-explanatory. And some are banned and some are limited. Heck, at the NCAA level you can only have 15 micrograms of caffeine per ml. The IOC limits it to 12. And while that's actually a pretty heavy coffee habit, there are over the counter pills and energy drinks that hit that level quickly (if dangerously).

Erythropoietin: Increases production of red blood cells. No over the counter method, and requires medical staff to do it legally.

But always important to distinguish between legal and allowable. Pretty much all of these things are legal under the right circumstances. If I use anabolic steroids w/ a prescription I haven't broken a law, and neither has an Olympic athlete. He has cheated however and can be banned.

And I'm right there with you on the potential risk to kids. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if some people hit their kids with this stuff early, then wean them off when they start competing.

[Mechalich]

Any reasonably honest assessment of the current state of the Olympics is that anywhere from a significant minority to a gross majority of the participating athletes already are doping in a highly significant way. Lance Armstrong wasn't the only person on the Tour de France doping, everyone was doping and they still are, they've just been forced to switch to different drugs and tactics due to changes in testing regimes. Consequences for doping are fairly minimal. The entire Russian team got banned from the most recent Olympics, but they did a deal where pretty much all the athletes - most of whom had benefitted from doping fairly recently - still got to compete anyway.

Open or tacit allowance of doping already exists in a number of sports or sports-adjacent activities, such as professional body-building. It doesn't change that much, it just adjusts the baseline and means that absolutely everyone has to be on a regimen to compete.

[deuterio12]

i would say that the case lance Armstrong case would be a significant implication that using the right drug would ensure its does not make the athlete drop like flies. id assume the doping and augmentation they will use will not cause any sort therm problems but maybe in the long run after they have ended their sport career.

Yes, there are already plenty of athletes doping, but they are forced to use relatively light stuff to try to evade the rules.

If you allow everything, then there's plenty of nastier, stronger stuff available.



i mean the whole point of the dope-Olympics would be to have contestant to participate and obviously the participant are not gonna use a drug that kills them.

People already smoke and do dangerous drugs just for momentary fun.

Certainly some percentage of athletes would risk high cancer chances and whatnot just the thrill of victory and big fat paychecks.



there are many doping drugs that give them an edge that are used in our medication. they are not dangerous per say but is more to it being not sportsmanship like cause of the edge they give which is null in the dope-Olympics cause everyone is doping.i mean for all we know if we allowed it there could be a doping drug that would have other functions that could be used in medicine. aside from doping maybe they can have prosthetic that give the user more speed when running and height when jumping. the point of the dope-Olympic would be to see how much better the human body can go with augmentation be it from chemical, bio-engineering or even implanting some kind of mechanical part ala dues ex style.

Define "better". Because there's plenty of ways to enhance the human body short term while sacrificing the mid-long term. As Bladerunner went, the candle that burns brightest also burns out faster.

Like anphetamines. Nowadays they are mostly illegal and heavily regulated because they will ruin your health in the mid-long term, but they were legal and distributed like candy to soldiers by most sides during World War II because short term they gave a significant boost.

[2D8HP]

Something like this:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jAdG-iTilWU

[Strigon]

I feel like people going ‘but we’d be encouraging people to do unhealthy things’ are sort of ignoring the fact that society is pretty much built around encouraging people to do unhealthy things?

9 to 5 jobs are terrible for you. Fast food is terrible for you. High heels are terrible for you. Campfires are terrible for you. Starving yourself so you can have a ‘beach-body’ is terrible for you. Sleeping too little so you can get that big presentation done is terrible for you. Collegiate stress is terrible for you.

That doesn’t mean that we ban 9 to 5 jobs, and fast food, and high heels and campfires and college. Society as a whole has ‘drugs that are bad for you’ as there own little category, separate from the rest, and acts like they’re somehow uniquely bad, like ruining your liver with steroids is magically worse than ruining your heart with stress from your high status corporate job.

It isn’t magically worse than its equivalents, and it shouldn’t be treated that way.

It is worse. It is far, far worse. If you don't believe me, look up the average life expectancy of, say, a heroine addict vs a CEO. I'd be willing to put money on there being a pretty major discrepancy.
9 to 5 jobs aren't terrible. Some fast food is awful if it's all you eat. High heels aren't lethal. Society isn't built around campfires, and very few people use them so much that they can be considered as harmful as a drug habit. Pretty much everyone agrees starving is bad, and there are plenty of healthy ways to slim down. Sleeping too little for a few nights won't kill you. Collegiate stress is largely overstated.

Nothing you mentioned is, in any way, comparable to a drug habit.

[Knaight]

We already have bodybuilders and cyclists, though.

Neither of which are necessarily sports with high doping levels - they just actually increased testing rates significantly, and as such people are more likely to get caught.

As for the broader idea, the ethics aren't ideal here - you're basically simultaneously creating an appealing class of people that a lot of people will want to join, almost certainly having elaborate marketing teams dedicated to just that (sports generally do), and then requiring that these people screw up their bodies in extremely dramatic ways to compete at all. This isn't comparable to current doping either - when you don't care about what the blood tests say the standard is going to involve going heavy.

[LordEntrails]

To some extent that's true, but human effort always plays a part in these things. Racing car drivers are still given credit for racing after all, even if it's the tech that gave them the lead.
Of course, if a concept car crashes and burns it can be recycled an rebuilt...human can't, so as you suggested the main issue is on ethical grounds.
Except I'm not aware of any car racing organizations that don't limit the allowable technology. For instance, NASCAR is highly regulated, not only the engine but even the aerodynamics. Even the amateur groups like NASA and ProAuto Sports regulate allowable technologies and classify them accordingly.

[Bohandas]

http://www.gotfuturama.com/Multimedia/EpisodeSounds/1ACV05/04.mp3

[Blithesome]

It is worse. It is far, far worse. If you don't believe me, look up the average life expectancy of, say, a heroine addict vs a CEO. I'd be willing to put money on there being a pretty major discrepancy.
9 to 5 jobs aren't terrible. Some fast food is awful if it's all you eat. High heels aren't lethal. Society isn't built around campfires, and very few people use them so much that they can be considered as harmful as a drug habit. Pretty much everyone agrees starving is bad, and there are plenty of healthy ways to slim down. Sleeping too little for a few nights won't kill you. Collegiate stress is largely overstated.

Nothing you mentioned is, in any way, comparable to a drug habit.

I’ll grant that they aren’t comparable to a heroin addiction- but they almost certainly are equal to or lesser than a steroid habit, which is more pertinent to the discussion. Not all drugs are equally bad as all other drugs, and I’m figuratively willing to bet that a steroid habit is actually much better for you than an alcohol habit, which is already legal. Taking steroids for your athletic career- which is already really common- isn’t fundamentally different and worse than having a high stress job, and is in fact likely better- I can’t find a study linking its use to decreased lifespan, while studies linking stress to such are all over the place.

And what often gets neglected in this sort of discussion is that much of the negative effects of those sorts of drugs comes from how they make people forget to do self care- teeth brushing, bathing, eating anything remotely healthy- and how they’re correlated with extreme poverty, which is terrible for your life expectancy. Professional athletes taking equivalents would almost certainly have caretakers for that sort of thing.

And there are over ten thousand injuries caused each year by high heels; they’re genuinely dangerous.

[snowblizz]

For some idea I'd suggest looking at sumo wrestling which has very specific demands on the body.
This is what wikipedia has to say about health in sumo wrestlers.


The negative health effects of the sumo lifestyle can become apparent later in life. Sumo wrestlers have a life expectancy between 60 and 65, more than 10 years shorter than the average Japanese male, as the diet and sport take a toll on the wrestler's body. Many develop diabetes or high blood pressure, and they are prone to heart attacks due to the enormous amount of body mass and fat that they accumulate. The excessive intake of alcohol can lead to liver problems and the stress on their joints due to their excess weight can cause arthritis. Recently, the standards of weight gain are becoming less strict, in an effort to improve the overall health of the wrestlers.

I'd expect chemicals like anabolic steroids that has a long list of potential problems listed on wikipedia to be a fair bit worse.

[Vinyadan]

Anabolic steroid abuse has been associated with a wide range of adverse side effects ranging from some that are physically unattractive, such as acne and breast development in men, to others that are life threatening, such as heart attacks and liver cancer. Most are reversible if the abuser stops taking the drugs, but some are permanent, such as voice deepening in females.
Most data on the long-term effects of anabolic steroids in humans come from case reports rather than formal epidemiological studies. From the case reports, the incidence of lifethreatening effects appears to be low, but serious adverse effects may be underrecognized or underreported, especially since they may occur many years later. Data from animal studies seem to support this possibility. One study found that exposing male mice for one-fifth of their lifespan to steroid doses comparable to those taken by human athletes caused a high frequency of early deaths.

ROBERTS, PK. Steroid Use and Abuse. New York : Nova Science Publishers, Inc, 2010. (Drug Transit and Distribution, Interception and Control Series). ISBN: 9781606923245.

[wumpus]

For some idea I'd suggest looking at sumo wrestling which has very specific demands on the body.
This is what wikipedia has to say about health in sumo wrestlers.

I'd expect chemicals like anabolic steroids that has a long list of potential problems listed on wikipedia to be a fair bit worse.

American (pro) football has long been known to reduce average lifespan by close to 20 years (twice that of Sumo). Only recently has a specific means (CTE) been widely known (I imagine just college and high school does a number on you, but I suspect the studies are even more of a career limiting move).


Neither of which are necessarily sports with high doping levels - they just actually increased testing rates significantly, and as such people are more likely to get caught.

Unless bodybuilding has changed (a quick GIS revealed bodies effectively impossible without massive amounts of steroid abuse) it has testing and essentially requires maximum amounts of steroids possible.


Yes, there are already plenty of athletes doping, but they are forced to use relatively light stuff to try to evade the rules.

If you allow everything, then there's plenty of nastier, stronger stuff available.

This assumes that the "light stuff" is easier to detect than the "nasty stuff", which almost certainly isn't true. Especially if the "new stuff" is nastier than the "old stuff" (granted, relying on the "new stuff" gets you to conditions like the recent disqualification of a 2012 weight lifting medal winner. Eventually they find a test and your sample is still sitting there...). Also don't forget that under testing situation you drugging athletes need to take not only the steroids, but also a set of masking agents to pass the test. Often the masking agents can be worse than the steroids.

I suspect this will all be a bit quaint once it becomes next to impossible to tell if an athlete is purely genetically engineered, created out of carefully selected chromosomes from each parent, or did it the old fashioned way of hitting the genetic lottery.

[Goblin Slayer]

i realist dope Olympic is the wrong title for this. imagine the possibility of genetically engineering a child to be the best at swimming and stuff
they would have web feet more red blood cells to carry oxygen and a aerodynamic face to reduce water resistance.

[Knaight]

i realist dope Olympic is the wrong title for this. imagine the possibility of genetically engineering a child to be the best at swimming and stuff
they would have web feet more red blood cells to carry oxygen and a aerodynamic face to reduce water resistance.

The ethical can of worms doesn't exactly get smaller when branching out this way. On top of that, drugs are at least a well established technology. Genetic engineering is a field in its infancy, and that's usually bacterial or at least unicellular. That genetically engineered child example is very much a science fiction concept.

[deuterio12]

This assumes that the "light stuff" is easier to detect than the "nasty stuff", which almost certainly isn't true. Especially if the "new stuff" is nastier than the "old stuff" (granted, relying on the "new stuff" gets you to conditions like the recent disqualification of a 2012 weight lifting medal winner. Eventually they find a test and your sample is still sitting there...). Also don't forget that under testing situation you drugging athletes need to take not only the steroids, but also a set of masking agents to pass the test. Often the masking agents can be worse than the steroids.

That may be technically true, but does not matter for pratical reasons.

Because the only real limit of how many enhancement drugs you can take is not how nasty each drug dose is, but how many secondary effects the athlete can take before falling into a coma.

So if the steroids are lighter than the masking agents, if you no longer need the masking agents that just means you take a lot of extra steroids for an even a bigger boost.

As a famous medic once said, there are no poisons, only wrong dosages. You can always get a bigger effect by throwing more stuff, but the secondary effects also get amplified until they eventually screw you up.



I suspect this will all be a bit quaint once it becomes next to impossible to tell if an athlete is purely genetically engineered, created out of carefully selected chromosomes from each parent, or did it the old fashioned way of hitting the genetic lottery.

There already is no scientific test to know if somebody (or something for plants which are already being genetically engineered quite a lot) had their genes cherry picked or won the lottery, you can only go check historical records to see if they did get manipulated at origin or not.


i realist dope Olympic is the wrong title for this. imagine the possibility of genetically engineering a child to be the best at swimming and stuff
they would have web feet more red blood cells to carry oxygen and a aerodynamic face to reduce water resistance.
...
I believe it would be even less ethical to force a child to live all their life with fish face and fish hands/feet just because their parents wanted them to be a champion swimmer. Maybe the kid would've liked to do something else for starters.

(also for less water resistance it's called hydrodynamic, there's a reason submarines and fish look different from planes and birds).

[AMFV]

What you are looking for is the World's Strongest Man competition, which is pretty much that, at least as far as seeing what the maximum capacity for human strength is.

[Vinyadan]

Because the only real limit of how many enhancement drugs you can take is not how nasty each drug dose is, but how many secondary effects the athlete can take before falling into a coma.

A related theme: secondary effects of self-administered steroids are often fought through more self-administered drugs, which is called polypharmacy and ends up causing even more side effects, due in part to the single drugs, and, in part, to their combinations.


(also for less water resistance it's called hydrodynamic, there's a reason submarines and fish look different from planes and birds).

With some unfortunate exceptions. https://youtu.be/E6SxN_fxN1s?t=1m2s

[Lvl 2 Expert]

In a completely open "no rules" Olympics though, why use doping? Swimmers should just use fins. Fin swimming is now a separate sport, because normal swimmers consider it cheating, just like doping and shark suits, but a lot faster. You know what even fin swimmers think is cheating? Boats. Also a great way to be faster in the water. Paddles, sails, engines, all things fin swimmers don't use. But kayak racers/wind surfers/powerboaters do. Doping is a cheater's last resort. You dope up because you don't think you can get away with a small electric motor hidden in your bicycle frame. It's often one of the if not outright the most inefficient common way(s) to gain an advantage, and typically also one of the least healthy ways. Yeah, it would be kind of interesting to see just how much weight someone can lift if they decide any chance of heart failure is an acceptable risk, but it's another thing to actively encourage it. Use a hydraulic lift man, think about your back.

[Eldan]

Look up the very first few tours de France and Olympic games if you want a laugh, by the way. A hundred years ago, the cheating was super blatant. (People ditched their bikes and used cars.)

[Goblin Slayer]

If we are gunna go with no rule at all might as well make a hunger games and let our kids participate in it. Of course we gunna have the same rules of the sport minus the rule for no doping and no other stuff that would be consider augmenting human bodies to get an extra edge.

[wumpus]

If we are gunna go with no rule at all might as well make a hunger games and let our kids participate in it. Of course we gunna have the same rules of the sport minus the rule for no doping and no other stuff that would be consider augmenting human bodies to get an extra edge.

I can only assume that hunger games were at least partly an allusion to jingoism-driven warfare. But even that has the Geneva Convention.


Look up the very first few tours de France and Olympic games if you want a laugh, by the way. A hundred years ago, the cheating was super blatant. (People ditched their bikes and used cars.)

Sounds like you could adjust the course to avoid those issues (such that a 1903 bicycle would work better than a 1903 car). And cheating is still pretty bad in the cycling world: you can cheat via drugs, motors, and other ways.

[other ways include catching a tow]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E4vRtC7IcY

[Eldan]

That said, mentioning technology, the idea of an obstacle course where you're allowed to bring all the tech you could think of would at least be interesting.

[Vinyadan]

That said, mentioning technology, the idea of an obstacle course where you're allowed to bring all the tech you could think of would at least be interesting.

Isn't that just mountain climbing?

[Eldan]

That doesn't usually feature jetpacks, but yeah, I suppose it is.

[Vinyadan]

That doesn't usually feature jetpacks, but yeah, I suppose it is.

It would be great for swordfighting, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLAylZFSn9M

[Lvl 2 Expert]

That said, mentioning technology, the idea of an obstacle course where you're allowed to bring all the tech you could think of would at least be interesting.

This kind of competition I can see. Broad categories where people have a lot of freedom to fill them in. They might get a lot less fun after about a decade when people figure out the winning formula, but until that time they're very interesting.

Options:

Throwing contest. The thrown object has a minimum weight measured in atmosphere, there are restrictions on non-human power and on storage of power in springs and such and the competition is run at close to no wind.

Speed race. Get from point A to point be. Variants include over the road, offroad, water, amphibious and human powered variations of everything.

Fighting championship. With weight classes not for the competitors but for the amount of gear you're allowed to bring. :smalleek:

Scavenger hunts, cooking competitions, lawn mowing matches. Anything where you can come up with strict criteria to judge the end result but lax criteria for the base setup.

Would be kind of cool.

[Eldan]

Hm. Throwing context would be difficult. I mean, air cannons would just win that, so they'd be out. But then you'd have to define where exactly the border is between "throwing" and using a catapult or sling. Or atlatl.

There are various drone contests already, where you have to program a small robot to solve a task and then let it loose on the field. A drone scavenger hunt, where they have to find, recognize, collect and retrieve four or five items from inside a house might be very interesting for an robotics competition.

[gomipile]

Something like this:


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jAdG-iTilWU



This clip from the Weekend Update was exactly what I thought of when I first read this thread's title.

[LordEntrails]

It would be great for swordfighting, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLAylZFSn9M

Yea, that's not how jetpacks work. Or to say it another way, that was faked.

There is a reason "jetpacks" are not used for mountain climbing or sword fights, they are unwieldy, they are extremely hard to control, they only last seconds.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Yea, that's not how jetpacks work. Or to say it another way, that was faked.

There is a reason "jetpacks" are not used for mountain climbing or sword fights, they are unwieldy, they are extremely hard to control, they only last seconds.

Yeah, they're on wires. (Not nearly enough wind and way too much stability while swinging their bodies around.) Cool show though. Someone apparently thought "Wushu is awesome, but I'd like there to be an explanation for why they're dangling in the air during jumps".

[Goblin Slayer]

i think there a point where you may limiting how much tech can be involve. the drone thing might be a no no but a exo skeleton? hell yeah.

[137beth]

Here's what I want to see for a race:

All contestants must pass a visual inspection before the race, and again during the race. Each contestant must, in the opinion of the contest officials, appear to be a human, and must appear to be moving in a way that would be legal for a human athlete during an Olympic foot race (so, a contestant may not look like a human riding an electric scooter, for instance). The goal is to get robots that move as fast as possible, but look enough like human track athletes that people who want to see human athletes can still enjoy watching them race.

[Vinyadan]

Here's what I want to see for a race:

All contestants must pass a visual inspection before the race, and again during the race. Each contestant must, in the opinion of the contest officials, appear to be a human, and must appear to be moving in a way that would be legal for a human athlete during an Olympic foot race (so, a contestant may not look like a human riding an electric scooter, for instance).

http://dilbert.com/strip/2013-11-03

[Honest Tiefling]

Maybe just use weed, which probably has fewer long term effects than most steroids. And if they can actually accomplish whatever task they are supposed to, they get a medal.