Synecdoche

We continue to outperform out own enhancements
Originally published on May 29, 2026
Filed under Microblog

Something about this feels like an apt synecdoche of our era:

The week’s greatest (read: saddest) sports story comes from the Enhanced Games, a new Vegas-based competition showcasing athletes openly using steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), and vowing to crush records in marquee events like the 100-meter dash and the 100-meter freestyle swim. Interestingly, a competitor who vowed he’d “juice to the gills” performed worse than he did when he couldn’t use drugs. Even more embarrassing: The 50-meter backstroke winner was a non-enhanced athlete, thus, writes James Dator for SB Nation, “tearing apart the entire premise for the games.” All told, one world record was beaten while three unenhanced athletes won their events. It’s a victory for man over pharma.

I mean that we continue to delude ourselves into thinking that artifical enhancements will best our natural selves, only to be (dis)satisfied when that doesn’t pan out.

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