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.
Who will be the first top tier (e.g., recent Olympic medal winner) to join up?
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?
What will be really interesting would be if some enhanced games swimmers aren’t able to replicate their best “clean” performances while on PED’s – which will then call into question if they ever were drug free.
True, but there could be other factors too, like a decreased quality in training
What does that even mean? Most of these swimmers are going to be past or near the end of their athletic peak anyway.
At almost 28, Caeleb Dressel wasn’t able to match his best times from his early twenties. Does that mean it was the first time that he was racing clean?
The first video of Magnussen we’ve seen showed (a) absolutely massive and (b) swimming :23 in a 50 free…
Ban them all!
Has there been any clarification of whether clean athletes can compete? Can Leon stay in the regular wada testing pool and just show up and win all the events and take the paycheck at the enhanced games?
I have asked, and will let everyone know when I hear back.
There’s no way, every athlete can say that then. “Oh I’m tested and I’m clean” when they’re not. It’s way too risky
I wouldn’t expect to see 200 or 400m events at the Enhanced Games, especially if the majority of their pool of talent will consist of 30-something sprinters coming out of retirement in hopes of making money. Leon is not a 50m swimmer, so he wouldn’t have a chance against a juiced Gkolomeev or Miladinov. (Magnussen appears to be so washed that Leon would probably defeat him, even in a 50.)
Also, it goes without saying that these events will be male-only. This whole enterprise has MAGA written all over it. It’s not like they actually care about women in sports.
Man 😐
We Bulgarians are on a horrendous run right now
We Americans say join the club
I was born in Bulgaria but live in the US and am a citizen. Times are ROUGH
Way to throw your life, health, and career away. His choice, let his pay for it