Thu, September 18, 2025
Australian Olympic gold medallist swimmer Kyle Chalmers rejects multi-million-dollar offer to join controversial Enhanced Games
27-year-old Australian Olympic gold medallist swimmer Kyle Chalmers has turned down the Enhanced Games’ multi-million-dollar proposal to join the controversial event, amid the backlash surrounding Britain’s Ben Proud, Paris 2024 Olympic silver medallist swimmer, deciding to participate.
The controversial privately funded 2026 Enhanced Games is set to take place in Las Vegas in May and allows athletes to use performance enhancing substances without being subject to drug tests in the same way they are in traditional sport.
Phoebe Rothfield of W Sports & Media, Chalmers’ manager, told the Sunday Morning Herald: “it is life-changing money for a swimmer – or any Australian Olympic athlete, for that matter…
It could have set him and his young family up and helped with the mortgage, but Kyle said ‘no’ from the onset. It was a brief discussion…
What drives him is competing for his country, standing on the podium in the green and gold and doing the sport because he loves it.” Chalmers hopes to participate in the upcoming Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
Chalmers also however called for more money in swimming and stated that he wouldn't judge any athlete for capitalising on the opportunity. The Enhanced Games enticed his fellow Australian swimmer and three-time Olympic medallist James Magnussen with prize money of up to $500,000 per event, including $1 million bonuses for breaking world records in the 100m sprint or 50m freestyle. Chalmers stated that he does not judge his “great mate” Magunssen for this:
“Something that's hard in our sport is there's not a huge amount of money or prize money on offer...and we kind of do it for the love of it…
I'm not going to be a person that slams swimmers for wanting to go across and make some money and give themselves a better opportunity...or to set their families up
If they want to make that choice, then good on them.”
Conversely, 30-year-old Ben Proud recently became the first British athlete to join the Enhanced Games. He insists that he is not undermining “clean” sport by doing so and also desires to capitalise on the financial incentives.
Proud’s participation within the Enhanced Games means he will be banned from international competition. The Enhanced Games is suing World Aquatics, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and USA Swimming for $800m after accusing them of orchestrating an unlawful effort to discourage athletes from participating. It was only last month in Singapore that Proud won silver at the World Aquatics Championships.
Despite the lawsuit, Aquatics GB also took to social media to voice: “Aquatics GB is immensely disappointed in Ben Proud’s announcement to sign with the Enhanced Games. Aquatics GB, along with our partners, stand firmly behind the values and principles of clean sport and condemns Ben’s decision in the strongest terms. A further statement will be issued in due course.”
Both Aquatics GB and UK Sport announced that they will stop funding for Proud. UK Sport stated that it: “Condemns everything the Enhanced Games stands for in the strongest possible terms” and is “incredibly disappointed” in Proud.
UK Anti-Doping CEO Jane Rumble expressed: “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.”
However, in an interview with BBC Sport, Proud stated that the Enhanced Games gives him “a new opportunity to continue this pursuit [beating the 50m freestyle world record] and see how far I can take things.”
An Enhanced Games athlete Kristian Gkolomeev recently broke the 50m freestyle world record by 0.02 seconds, though this is not officially recognised by World Aquatics due to his association with banned substances. Gkolomeev received $1million (£739,000) in prize money from Enhanced Games creator, entrepreneur and lawyer Aron D’souza.
In response, Proud stated: “Seeing someone break the world record really changed my perspective. Suddenly there's another format and the fastest man in the water is no longer in the traditional format.”
Ben told the BBC Today programme: “There’s a huge financial incentive with this and I would be lying if I said it didn’t matter. If you look at the facts it would take me 13 years of winning world championship titles just to earn what I can win at one competition at the Enhanced Games…
It’s just such a different ballpark financially – it gives me the opportunity to earn that sort of money and setting myself up, my family and supporting my mum. These are opportunities as a 30-year-old I just can’t pass by.”
“There’s been no significant change with prize money and funding situations for British swimmers in a long, long time,” Proud told The Times…
“Britain being one of the very few countries that doesn’t offer any sort of bonus for [winning a medal at] the Olympics.”
Proud also told BBC Sport that traditional sport and the Enhanced Games are “two very separate entities,” and that he found rule breakers within traditional sport “incredibly frustrating.” He said he lost “trust in the system” following the revelation that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for a banned heart medication in 2021 but were still allowed to compete in the Tokyo Olympics:
“That's one thing that has ruined sport for a lot of people. The anti-doping agencies just don't have the ability to completely make sure everyone is clean and on a level playing field, and that to me has always been the biggest frustration…
If you were part of my life for the past 12, 13 years, you'd see how much time you have to allocate to making sure we're available to be tested on a daily basis, making sure we're constantly giving our samples.”
Therefore, Proud seems to have aligned his beliefs with D’Souza who believes traditional sport is “outdated and hypocritical.”
Proud stated: “It's going to be a very interesting dynamic to learn about these things [substances], things that have not been available to us for a long time…
I'm very curious as to what could be done to feel better in certain aspects of the race or training. I have the next three, four months to figure out what it is. After that, ultimately, I have the decision to say I want to take it or not.”
Proud also told The Times: “There is nothing in the contract with Enhanced that says I need to take anything illegal or what is a banned substance in traditional sport, which is quite reassuring,” but in order to break the record and receive the money he refers to, it is likely Proud will need to use a performance enhancing substance.
Sprinter Fred Kerley is the latest to join the Enhanced Games.
