Bulgarian swimmer Josif Miladinov has retired from Olympic swimming to participate in the Enhanced Games, according to Plovdiv24.bg. At 21, he is the youngest swimmer to publicly join the Games and the first swimmer to make public the intention to abandon their non-enhanced career during their prime years to pursue the Enhanced Games.
Miladinov, 21, won a European Championship silver medal in the 100 fly in 2021 when he was only 19 years old. That swim of 50.93 remains his lifetime best; He finished 8th at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and 17th in the same event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
That same year, he won European Junior Championship gold in the 50 fly and 100 fly.
The Enhanced Games have been actively recruiting active swimmers. Visibly, that includes Leon Marchand, who won four Olympic gold medals last summer and is the reigning top male swimmer in the world. Marchand commented on a video of Kristian Gkolomeev‘s drug-and-suit-enhanced 20.89 in the 50 free “This is sad,” to which the Enhanced Games posted a reply encouraging him to join the Enhanced Games.
Miladinov has not yet commented publicly on why he chose to go the Enhanced Games route.
The Enhanced Games revealed several major announcements this week, including that they will host their first event in 2026 in Las Vegas and that Gkolomeev went 20.89 while in a performance enhancing drug protocol and wearing a polyurethane rubber suit that isn’t allowed in AQUA-sanctioned competition.
Miladinov is the 4th athlete listed on the Enhanced Games website alongside Gkolomeev, 50 fly World Record holder Andrii Govorov of Ukraine, and Australian Olympic medalist James Magnussen.
EG’s reply to Leon has the same vibes as the “Monster Association” from One Punch Man.
This is escalating to be a whole season of American Dad. I take it the figures of the other medalists are purposefully redacted to not associate them with Miladinov?
And hey, we have performance medicine now. Nothing’s wrong with the world.
Why are they even allowing it to be held at the US soil? Brett Hawk should be given a lifetime ban to coach.
This is just the swimming equivalent of failing to pass a pharmaceutical degree, so dropping out and manufacturing methamphetamine instead.
It’s more like passing the degree, succeeding in your career and then throwing it all away to make meth in a basement lab
No breaking bad somehow had more honor than this
No Americans!
This is a disgrace, and illegal!! Like seriously get the govt involved at this point!
Oh poor naive soul
When Don-corruption Jr is involved?
Aren’t you a Tr*mp supporter? If so, this is what you voted for. Embrace it.
I thought the Trumps are personally involved. And Thiel, JDs sponsor/puppeteer and Elon’s best bud, is running the entire show.
Donal Trump Jr is a sponsor! The government is involved. Dirty and sleazy !
Who will be the first top tier (e.g., recent Olympic medal winner) to join up?
Except Florent Manaudou (34 years old, bronze in Paris), I see no potential candidate. The majority of participants will likely consist of non-medalist Olympic finalists or semi-finalists, who are not considered “top tier” according to the insane metrics of the sport.
Random names to consider (obviously, all 50 specialists, since that’s where the money is):
-Bruno Fratus (35, almost 36)
-Nicholas Santos (45)
-Jordan Crooks (22, seemed ready to quit)
-Lorenzo Zazzeri (30)
-Meiron Cheruti (27)
I wonder what is the endgame of the people throwing a ton of money at this circus. No way it is profitable. General audience doesn’t seem to care about Olympic sports outside of Olympics. Nobody in their right mind would pay to see some random guys they’ve never heard of time trialing 50s. Promoting their supplements to an average joe? Idk, I doubt anyone swimming for fitness is doing it with WRs in mind.
Are they just trying to create chaos for the sake of it? Or do they just enjoy coercing people into throwing out their whole careers for a handout?
The supplement industry is huge. But they will go beyond it and use these athletes performances to sell medical services in the realm of hormone replacement, longevity, weight management… Feel and look better and younger. That comes with blood work, doctor visits, check ups… that’s a lot of money.
It is already being very successfully marketed through wellness industry, gymbros/bodybuilding and everything like that. I’m not sure if this stunt would improve on that in a meaningful way. Average person wants to stay active longer and look better. Maximizing athletic performance usually isn’t a concern. Unless they are targeting elite or borderline elite athletes who want to get ahead of the competition and believe they can get away with it. Anyway, this whole thing smells really bad.
You can only assume that the person(s) backing it will eventually get bored, it has to be some sort of tax write off to be throwing money away on a record that will never be acknowledged, they won’t be breaking them week in week out so the interest will wane. In reality how many of the very top swimmers will want to risk their future health when they have possibly already made a decent living out of the.sport and spent enough years training in the pool to then carry on longer. It would not be worth taking that risk and not actually get anything back from it anyway. At the same time I can understand why a good swimmer from… Read more »
I think it’s all marketing for a biohacking scheme. The uber-rich (and these days even the regular wealthy) are becoming increasingly obsessed with these ideas of using drugs and other therapies to stay young/live forever.
If they break even on the competition itself, that’s probably a win.
The ego never wants to die.