Archive September 10, 2025

Olympic swimmer Ben Proud has become the first British athlete to join the controversial Enhanced Games – but insists what he is doing is not undermining ‘clean’ sport.

Proud, 30, is a world and European champion at 50m freestyle, and won silver at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

But he has now committed to an event that allows athletes to take banned performance-enhancing drugs. By taking part he will be barred from international competition.

Proud never won Olympic gold or broke the 50m freestyle world record, which has stood since 2009, but feels the Enhanced Games “give me a new opportunity to continue this pursuit and see how far I can take things”.

Asked if he thinks the event undermines clean sport, Proud told BBC Sport: “No. I think it opens up the potential avenue to excel in a very different way.

“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.

In a statement on social media, Aquatics GB said: “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.”

UK Sport said it is working with Aquatics GB “as a matter of urgency to determine Ben Proud’s suitability to receive public funds” and that any breach of anti-doping rules contravenes policies athletes must comply with to receive UK Sport funding.

UK Sport added it “condemns everything the Enhanced Games stands for in the strongest possible terms” and is “incredibly disappointed” that any British athletes in its programmes would support such an event.

Earlier this year, World Aquatics became the first international sport federation to ban athletes, coaches and officials from its events if they have taken part in the Enhanced Games.

Proud has previously supported UK Anti-Doping’s (Ukad) Clean Sport Week while British team-mates Adam Peaty and Duncan Scott have been outspoken against doping.

Proud said he sees ‘traditional sport’ and the Enhanced Games as “two very separate entities”, and that he found athletes breaking the rules “incredibly frustrating”.

“I see doping in clean sports as a complete no-go,” he said. “I don’t have any time for that.

“The fact it’s still happening is a problem. It’ll always be a cat and mouse game, there will always be people developing new techniques or people getting away with things.

“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.”

Ukad chief executive Jane Rumble said: “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.

“It is an undertaking that diminishes, rather than ‘enhances’, all those involved.”

A British Olympic Association spokesperson said: “In upholding the values of clean sport we remain vehemently opposed to what we believe to be a cynical and dangerous event.”

When asked for comment, the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) referred BBC Sport to its previous statement on the Enhanced Games, condemning it as a “a dangerous and irresponsible concept”.

The Enhanced Games were launched as a concept in 2023, with some doping measures permitted under medical supervision.

Only substances approved by the United States’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can be taken, which is different to the list Wada allows for elite athletes.

The event has been criticised for endangering athletes’ health and undermining fair play, with Wada describing it as a “dangerous and irresponsible project” and Travis Tygart, chief executive of the US Anti-Doping Agency, calling it a “clown show”.

“We have access to some of the greatest specialists out there to make sure that everything will be an informed decision,” Proud said.

“Everything is FDA approved. Everything’s readily available to the general public. It’s done under very strict supervision from doctors and health care professionals, and I will never take anything that I am unsure of.

“They are not allowing anyone to participate if they are under any stress or health risks.”

Proud also said that organisers “aren’t asking me to take anything” and he is unsure at the moment what substances he would use.

“If you ask me in six months’ time, I’ll probably have a bit more of an answer,” he said. “I’m coming into this very new, I don’t know any pros and cons about anything that could be available.

“All I know is that it’s going to be a very interesting dynamic to learn about these things, 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.”

The Enhanced Games offers appearance fees and bonuses, with Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev receiving a prize of $1m (£739,000) for beating a world record time in the US in February.

Organisers said he swam 20.89 seconds in a 50m freestyle time trial, 0.02 seconds quicker than the world record set by Brazil’s Cesar Cielo in December 2009, although the time will not be recognised by World Aquatics.

“Seeing someone break the world record really changed my perspective,” said Proud. “Suddenly there’s another format and the fastest man in the water is no longer in the traditional format.

“It made me think about myself, my life, my career, and what it is that I really want out of this.

“I find it really interesting to see what I can do with this new format, and I feel like I’m the best person at this point in time to really deliver a good product for this.”

After winning his first Olympic medal last year and silver at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore last month, Proud felt “the most content with my career that I’ve ever been”.

The 2022 world champion added that he has spoken to “one or two” of his former team-mates about his new venture.

“All I’ve had is positive feedback,” Proud said. “You talk to people in the swimming community and it does come with some questions, like ‘are you sure this is right?’

“But the people who I’ve told know me well enough to know that this is the best opportunity I have.

The biggest names in athletics are poised to go head-to-head for global honours over nine days of action at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan.

The end-of-season championships begin on Saturday, with daily coverage across the BBC.

Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson and fellow Paris 2024 medallists Josh Kerr, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Matthew Hudson-Smith and Georgia Hunter Bell are among Great Britain’s podium hopes.

The relay teams will also aim to deliver once again after supplying five of GB’s 10 athletics medals at last summer’s Games, beginning with the mixed 4x400m final on the opening night at Japan National Stadium.

Olympic 100m champions Noah Lyles and Julien Alfred, Swedish pole vault star Armand Duplantis, Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon and Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen are among the global stars targeting gold in the Japanese capital.

Total prize money of $8.5m (£6.2m) is on offer, with gold medal winners receiving $70,000 (£52,000). A $100,000 (£74,000) world record bonus is also available.

Tokyo is preparing to host a premier sporting event for the first time since the 2020 Olympics, which were postponed one year and had to be held behind closed doors because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Extreme heat is expected during the championships, with temperatures likely to exceed 30C.

American Lyles will target a third consecutive global 100m gold after winning a spectacular Olympic final by just five-thousandths of a second, as he seeks to retain three world titles.

Alfred stormed to the women’s 100m title in Paris to deliver St Lucia’s first Olympic medal of any colour, before taking 200m silver, and will once again target a sprint double.

The women’s 100m and 4x100m relay will feature Jamaica’s 10-time world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce seeking to end her career by adding to her 24 global medals, but Olympic 200m champion Gabby Thomas has been ruled out by injury.

Having broken the men’s pole vault world record for a 13th time in August, Duplantis will be expected to not only capture his fifth consecutive global title, but also target a first clearance above 6.30m and the $100,000 record bonus.

Distance-running great Kipyegon, winner of seven golds and three silvers across the past eight global championships, is the red-hot favourite to claim a fifth consecutive global 1500m gold.

Ingebrigtsen’s preparations have been disrupted by injury but, after being thwarted by Britons Kerr and Jake Wightman in the past two world 1500m finals, the three-time global 5,000m champion will be determined to secure the one major title which has evaded him.

Despite a 376-day wait to compete after winning Olympic gold, and making her return from injury just four weeks before the championships, Hodgkinson will line up as the gold medal favourite in the women’s 800m.

Hodgkinson, a two-time world silver medallist, is joined in the 800m by training partner and Olympic 1500m bronze medallist Hunter Bell, who has chosen to switch focus in pursuit of another global podium, and Jemma Reekie.

Olympic silver medallists Kerr (men’s 1500m) and Johnson-Thompson (heptathlon) both compete as defending world champions, while Hudson-Smith (men’s 400m) will target gold after making the podium at the past three global championships.

The women’s 4x100m team featuring 100m and 200m individual medal hopes Dina Asher-Smith, Daryll Neita and Amy Hunt head GB’s relay medal hopes following Olympic silver.

World bronze medallist Zharnel Hughes doubles in the men’s 100m and 200m and is joined by world indoor 60m champion Jeremiah Azu in the former.

Amber Anning, fifth on her Olympic debut and the world indoor champion, will have American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone among the competition after the hurdles star chose to switch events.

Molly Caudery (women’s pole vault) said she feels “so ready” for a world title bid, while Max Burgin (men’s 800m) demonstrated his readiness to challenge for a global medal at recent Diamond League races.

Marathon runner Emile Cairess will seek to build on his fourth-place Olympic finish, and high jumper Morgan Lake displayed her medal potential by clearing 2m for the first time last month.

GB’s podium prospects also include British 5,000m record holder George Mills, the experienced Laura Muir (women’s 1500m) and rising star Charlie Dobson (men’s 400m), as well as their five relay teams.

You can follow all the action on BBC One or BBC Two, and there is also live coverage on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app from 13-21 September.

There will be a daily highlights show on BBC Red Button, BBC Three, iPlayer and online.