British Olympic medallist Proud joins drug-fuelled Enhanced Games

Swimmer Ben Proud, who won an Olympic silver medal at Paris 2024, has become the first British athlete to join the Enhanced Games, a competition where athletes will be free to use performance-enhancing drugs.

Proud, a world and European champion in the 50m freestyle, will be barred from international competition for taking part in the drug-fuelled spectacle.

The event has been criticised for endangering athletes’ health, with the World Anti-Doping Agency describing it as a “dangerous and irresponsible project”.

The inaugural event, comprising swimming, sprinting and weightlifting, is set to be held in Las Vegas in May 2026.

“I think it opens up the potential avenue to excel in a very different way,” 30-year-old Proud told the BBC.

“I think realistically I’ve achieved everything I can, and now the Enhanced (Games) is giving me a new opportunity. I definitely don’t think that’s undermining a clean sport.

“I really respect the sport I’ve been part of, and I would never step back in knowing I’ve done something which isn’t in the rules.”

Athletes competing in the Enhanced Games will be allowed to use drugs banned across international sport such as steroids and human growth hormones, with winners of each event receiving $250,000, and a bonus of $1 million for any athlete who breaks a world record.

In June, World Aquatics became the first international federation to ban athletes, coaches and officials from its events if they take part in the Enhanced Games.

“It is incredibly disappointing that any British athlete would consider competing in an event that flies in the face of the true spirit of sport,” said Jane Rumble, chief executive of UK Anti-Doping.

“Any decision by any athlete to compete in the Enhanced Games risks undermining the values of a sporting landscape that prizes hard work, integrity, pure talent and 100 percent clean sport.”