At the Enhanced Games, drugs don’t get athletes banned. They could get them rich.

When Shania Collins was first approached about taking performance-enhancing drugs last year, it made her nervous enough to contact two members of the Drug Enforcement Administration — her parents.

LAS VEGAS — When Shania Collins was first approached about taking performance-enhancing drugs last year, it made her nervous enough to contact two members of the Drug Enforcement Administration — her parents.

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Collins had enjoyed modest success as a sprinter, with contracts from Puma and Adidas. But by 2024, with her career stalled and earnings shrunk, she retired at 29 to begin a long screening process to follow her parents into working for the DEA.

Then organizers of the Enhanced Games, a controversial sports startup, got in touch last fall with an offer. The organizers were planning a one-day competition of sprinting, swimming and weightlifting in Las Vegas that would not only allow but encourage doping. And it paid the kind of money that might take some athletes years to make — six-figure salaries, on top of prize money of up to $250,000 for event winners and $1 million for a world record.