Credit score: Unsplash/CC0 Public Area
Olympic swimmer Ben Proud has change into the primary British athlete to hitch the Enhanced Video games—a controversial new occasion that enables athletes from all around the world to compete utilizing performance-enhancing medication. The prize cash on provide can hit US$1 million (£730,000). However the swimmer, who gained a silver medal finally yr’s Paris Olympics, has sparked sharp criticism from sporting our bodies after asserting he could be participating.
In essence, Proud’s resolution challenges the core values of truthful play and athlete security. Whereas he frames it as a pursuit of human potential, motivated by monetary reward, critics argue it undermines clear sport, poses well being dangers and may be very prone to injury his legacy.
It additionally leaves him unable to compete in future Olympic Video games and raises questions on his suitability to obtain public funding.
The Enhanced Video games will debut in Las Vegas in Might 2026. The occasion gives prizes of US$250,000 per occasion and US$1 million for breaking the world file. It was created as a substitute for sport managed by the Worldwide Olympic Committee, with athletes being permitted to make use of substances accepted by the US Meals and Drug Administration (FDA). These might embrace steroids, testosterone and development hormones.
Athletes will compete in swimming (50m and 100m freestyle, 50m and 100m butterfly), athletic occasions (100m dash, 100m/110m hurdles) and weightlifting (snatch, clear and jerk). Thus far, 5 elite-level swimmers have signed up, together with four-time world champion Megan Romano. She is the primary American and the primary lady to commit. Australian Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has indicated that he’ll come out of retirement to compete within the 50m freestyle.
The occasion has needed to look to different sources for funding. Worldwide enterprise capitalists and personal buyers have supplied a multimillion-dollar funding into the undertaking—reportedly Peter Thiel (co-founder of PayPal) and German entrepreneur Christian Angermayer are amongst these backing the undertaking.
However outdoors the world of enterprise capitalism, the World Anti-Doping Company (Wada) has labeled the Enhanced Video games “dangerous and irresponsible”. The governing our bodies Aquatics GB and UK Sport have condemned Proud’s resolution.
In addition to his Olympic success, Proud can be a former world and European champion within the 50m freestyle. So that you would possibly assume he has little left to show. However in an interview, the swimmer stated his aim is to check the bounds of human potential, and change into the quickest man on the planet.
However, in fact, the query of cash is looming massive. Proud has additionally admitted that this performed a serious half in his resolution. Elite-level swimming, in comparison with sports activities like males’s soccer, rugby and tennis, doesn’t provide large monetary wins for athletes.
Proud claimed that prize cash of US$250,000 would take “13 years of winning world championship titles” to earn. A gold medal on the world championships in 2025 would have earned a swimmer US$20,000 at most.
Inequality in sport
Inside sport, there are deep divisions when it comes to how it’s financed and supported, with variations in sponsorship, industrial funding and viewing figures. On the high-performance degree, this inequality is most keenly felt in minority sports activities reminiscent of swimming, the place even extremely profitable athletes wrestle for monetary rewards.
In truth, the British Elite Athletes Affiliation (the unbiased consultant physique) has warned that almost all of athletes funded by the World Class Programme from UK Sport won’t be able to afford to remain of their sport till the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and not using a funding enhance.
In line with a survey accomplished by the affiliation final yr, two thirds of the 87 respondents who traveled to Paris in 2024 stated they might be pressured to give up earlier than 2028. This might put British sport in a precarious state of affairs with probably severe ramifications.
It will imply that the variety of athletes representing the UK would fall, with penalties for the longevity of sports activities packages, group initiatives and grassroots schemes to get individuals extra energetic. At a time of rising weight problems ranges, sedentary lives and declining well being, the UK can’t ignore the optimistic results of getting extra train, bolstered by sporting position fashions.
So whereas it might earn him severe prize cash, Proud’s resolution is a direct problem to scrub sport values. And it dangers normalizing drug use in sport, undermining a long time of anti-doping efforts. Consultants have outlined clear sport as being freed from “drugs and other forms of artificial enhancements.”
What’s extra, it pits athlete autonomy in opposition to their duty to the general public. There’s a pressure between Proud’s resolution to check his limits and the duties he has as a job mannequin—and a recipient of public funding.
And the well being dangers of performance-enhancing medication is an issue. Even when FDA-approved, the usage of otherwise-banned substances in aggressive sport introduces unknown long-term well being penalties, particularly when utilized in excessive coaching environments.
This highlights the inherent contradiction of sport as a fascinating, wholesome exercise, whereas on the identical time selling probably harmful practices.
And the affect on an athlete’s legacy and status can’t be overstated. Proud’s Olympic achievements at the moment are prone to be overshadowed by his affiliation with a motion extensively condemned by sporting our bodies. No matter his success on the Enhanced Video games, his presence there might shut him out of the various alternatives that sporting heroes can take pleasure in lengthy after they’ve retired.
Supplied by
The Dialog
This text is republished from The Dialog beneath a Artistic Commons license. Learn the unique article.
Quotation:
Enhanced Video games athletes can dope to compete for US$1 million prizes. However at what price to sport? (2025, September 16)
retrieved 16 September 2025
from https://medicalxpress.com/information/2025-09-games-athletes-dope-us1-million.html
This doc is topic to copyright. Aside from any truthful dealing for the aim of personal examine or analysis, no
half could also be reproduced with out the written permission. The content material is supplied for data functions solely.
