Olympic swimmer Hunter Armstrong to compete in Enhanced Games

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Hunter Armstrong plans to swim within the PED-friendly Enhanced Games this May whereas pursuing his aspirations to compete within the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Armstrong’s try and compete in each occasions will check efforts by World Aquatics, the worldwide swimming federation, to attract a agency line between the standard swimming world and Enhanced Games — a brand new group that enables (however doesn’t require) athletes to take lots of the substances banned by different sports activities leagues.

Armstrong, a 25-year-old Ohio native who previously held a world report within the 50-meter backstroke, instructed ESPN he plans to compete for the numerous prize cash at Enhanced Games with out taking any banned substances. He mentioned he believes that so long as he continues to adjust to the drug-testing program for World Aquatics’ athletes, he ought to stay eligible for a spot on future U.S. Olympic rosters.

Armstrong mentioned becoming a member of Enhanced Games was his solely choice to proceed swimming full time. He mentioned he thought of retiring final summer time after his important sponsor abruptly severed their relationship, leaving him with no technique to pay his payments.

“If I don’t join Enhanced, I lose everything. If I do join Enhanced, I have a chance at not losing everything,” Armstrong mentioned. “My back was against the wall, so I had to reopen that conversation to see if it was a plausible option.”

Along with the $250,000 prize for taking first place in an occasion, Enhanced Games can also be paying athletes a wage and providing massive bonuses to anybody who beats a world report. Armstrong mentioned he plans to race within the 50-meter backstroke and the 100-meter freestyle occasions.

Armstrong mentioned he spoke to officers at World Aquatics earlier than signing with Enhanced Games, however he didn’t obtain a definitive reply on how the federation would rule on his eligibility.

“Nobody really knows what’s going to happen, and nobody will give me an answer on what’s going to happen,” Armstrong mentioned. “So all I can work off of is what the rules say and take a chance because I won’t get an answer by waiting.”

World Aquatics amended its bylaws final yr in response to Enhanced Games — a change that Armstrong and others initially interpreted as a full ban on competing in each varieties of occasions. In a information launch touting its new rule, the group mentioned any people who “support, endorse or participate in” occasions just like the Enhanced Games “will not be eligible to hold positions with World Aquatics or to participate in any World Aquatics competitions.”

“Those who enable doped sport are not welcome at World Aquatics or our events,” Husain Al Musallam, the federation’s president, mentioned within the launch.

However, the precise bylaw may be extra permissive than it initially appeared. Armstrong mentioned after consulting with legal professionals, he’s assured {that a} ban would solely apply if he stopped following World Aquatics’ guidelines and laws — together with its drug-testing protocol — at any level within the lead-up to the occasion.

World Aquatics spokesperson Torin Koos instructed ESPN that the federation will resolve learn how to apply the brand new bylaw on a case-by-case foundation. When offered with Armstrong’s particular case, Koos mentioned it could be “counterproductive and inappropriate for World Aquatics to speculate on ‘what-if’ scenarios.”

USA Swimming, which selects Team USA’s Olympic rosters, didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Armstrong competed within the final two Summer Olympics, incomes gold medals as a part of Team USA’s 4×100 relay groups in Tokyo and Paris. He held the world report within the 50-meter backstroke for greater than a yr in 2022 and 2023.

Armstrong is one among a number of former Olympians and world-record holders who’ve signed as much as compete within the first Enhanced Games in Las Vegas on May 24. The occasion will characteristic roughly 40 athletes competing in swimming, sprinting and weightlifting. The majority of these athletes are coaching in Abu Dhabi this spring, the place they may use substances equivalent to testosterone, development hormone and peptides as a part of a medical trial permitted by the United Arab Emirates’ Department of Health.

Backed by a number of outstanding billionaire funders, the group says it desires to push the bounds of human achievement and supply higher assets and compensation to athletes in Olympic sports activities. The firm plans to become profitable through the use of the competitors to advertise its on-line market for buying performance-enhancing medicine.