While the Enhanced games may have seen only one swimmer go faster than a non-enhanced world record, the financial payouts to its athletes were nearly impossible to ignore. However, in the aftermath of it all, the skepticism of fellow athletes around the world can still be clearly heard. One of the latest and biggest to speak out about the Enhanced Games is Australian Olympic legend Ariarne Titmus, who has very strong feelings about the event and how it impacts the sport.
While a guest on the Will & Woody Podcast, Titmus was immediately asked about her thoughts on the Enhanced Games, to which, in little to no time at all, she replied that the event makes her “blood boil”.
“Frankly, it makes my blood boil. I really despise what they’re doing here. I think it undermines everything that sport is.” Titmus said on the Podcast. ” The values we teach our kids about sport, the community that sports provides, determination, chasing your dreams, hard work. But most of all, like our bodies aren’t a science experiment.”
Titmus, who retired from competition in October of 2025, was adamant that this event would not last, and the financial incentives, while enticing, would never have been enough to pull her over to the Enhanced Games.
“I just think what they’re showcasing is not going to last. I think that the values of sport will prevail. I think the saddest thing is that athletes that might be enticed by the financial offering…” Titmus said. “I think there are a lot of people that are going to consider that incentive, but for myself, they could offer me unlimited money, and I would never, ever be involved in that.”
She expands on her statement, saying that she wants the sport to be accessible and wants the world to have the opportunities within the sport, and hopes that this “dies off.”
“I think the offering of sport to the globe, giving every country across Earth opportunities. to compete. That’s what the Olympic movement is.” Titmus said on the Will & Woody Podcast. ” It’s backed by a lot of wealthy people, but, I don’t think any broadcaster in their right mind is going to broadcast it or give it the airspace that it needs. So I do hope that it dies off.”
The show on which Titmus was speaking was also the same show that fellow Australian swimmer, turned Enhanced athlete, James Magnussen, famously claimed he was “juiced to the gills” when discussing the Enhanced Games. Titmus did not shy away from talking about Magnussen, who finished 4th in both the 50 free and 100 free, still earning a $100,000 payday from the Enhanced Games.
When asked if she had spoken to Magnussen since the Enhanced Games, she replied quickly, “No, I haven’t.”
“I haven’t spoken to him and look, props to him for saying someone was to offer me a million dollars, go and get juiced up and try, try and break the world record. I’ll do it. And he stuck to it.” Titmus said. He didn’t chicken out. But, frankly, I think the offering that they showed, the quality of performance was pretty average.
When listening to the interview, you can hear the frustrated tone of Titmus when talking about the Enhanced Games, going as far as to say that in addition to the super suits and enhancements, they may as well “put fins on.”
“I was going to say that, they may as well put fins on, fins and paddles, seriously,” Titmus added. “They’re carrying on like they had, you know, changed the globe, but you know, they’ve got every single enhancement under the sun.I mean, I’m very great mates with Cam McEvoy and I just cannot wait to see him go out there… have a normal legal suit on, and 100% know that he is going to break this record again.”
Once swimmers get payed like enhanced games swimmers do it will go away. Until then World Aquatics and Team USA will continue to stuff athletes for money.
The top non-Enhanced Games swimmers get paid more than the top Enhanced Games swimmers.
End-of-career swimmers without a real shot at making international teams can certainly make more money in the EGs than not in the EGs. But…ya know….
I thought of this article while getting ready for the Tour de France, one of the most “compromised” athletic events for decades — and all of THAT certainly hasn’t hurt professional cycling. NB: I oppose the use of drug enhancement at all levels, but I also know that athletes (cum medical support) are perfectly capable to make “adult” judgments about their bodies. If they want to organize an “Enhanced” tournament, fine! I’ll want, but I certainly won’t PAY for it and I would NEVER attend it — but it’s still fun to watch. Relax! As others have said, it’s a passing fad, soon to be forgotten, I bet.
Sorry, but this completely misses many important points.
(And I think cycling suffered as a result of All That.)
Cycling definitely was hurt by doping. I have loved watching the tour since the 80s. But I stopped watching after the Armstrong revelations and it took me years to regain interest. The sport still exists, but interest in the US dropped off a LOT after Armstrong’s downfall.
Also, in retrospect a lot of the “rocket fuel” tours were boring to watch . (The Indurain tours put me to sleep) The pre rocket fuel era was a lot more interesting and dramatic.
Cycling is global. Always has been. Always will be. Cycling neither cares, nor needs, American support, or American viewers. The sport has never been more popular than it is right now. Armstrong hurt Armstrong. If the only reason you watched cycling in the first place was Armstrong, and the only reason you stopped watching was Armstrong, that is your loss, not the sport’s. A year ago, the Tour de France attracted 12 million live fans. And the global TV audience reached 3.5 billion viewers.
The world revolves around the sun, not the red, white, and blue.
😂
I don’t care about USA. (No offense!)
When all this Armstrong/Oprah/Everything went down, I determined that Cycling was a joke.
Didn’t matter USA/Canada/Italy/Whatever.
Many years later my opinion has not recovered fully.
Was I the only one?
I get it, swimmers need money. They train their entire lives and basically make nothing from it. Then they’re 30 with 0 work experience and no savings to live off of.
But… do you really want to work for a drug cartel?
Be a walking, talking ad for pills that can be really harmful to people who do not get the multiple-year medical check-ups the EG provide you with?
Be the spokesperson for the shadiest people who have zero interest in athletic excellence and only want to profit off of gullible men, addled by midlife crises, thinking that they too, without having a lifetime of training like an Olympic athlete, can swim a 50 free in under 21s… Read more »
Yeah, I dunno, I think the EGs just make everything a little too black and white for a lot of commenters here.
There are two main issues with it – the “enhancement” side and the funding side. Put them both together, and people lose their minds, which, I get. It’s pretty easy to see that they are, basically, The Worst.
But! There’re plenty of shades of gray folks really don’t think about just in general. Like the ole enhancements – for the sake of argument, let’s say there’s a banned substance they’re using that’ll give an elite athlete a 1% peformance boost. At those margins, that would be absolutely massive. But what if, an athlete is injured right as… Read more »
Finish writing it and email it to me and I can publish it as an editorial!
oh god that’s both a great and awful idea
…i might
🙂
Your post was a thought-provoking and enticing read, and I truly hope that you write the opinion piece (full article version)!
I wonder if Arnie (and many of the vociferous commenters below) regard Michael Phelps’s long list of TUEs (Therapeutic Use Exemptions) as lessening his championship legacy a bit. Serious question, just curious.
I’m an huge fan of his so maybe I don’t want to know the answer, but I would actually love to hear y’all’s opinions on this. I’m as uninformed as a person can be on TUEs, what he was taking, and what he actually “needed”. If they’re that easy to get and that helpful, I’d kinda think everyone would be on them, right? (…are they?)
My opinion is that Freddy needs to provide some credible source for his claims.
Not me falling for the propaganda without even researching it 😭😭😭 sorry MP
Do you have a source for that claim? A quick google search showed his name popped up in a leak, but the only TUE revealed was for gabapentin which like, go ahead bro…. use it.
Yeah Gabapentin isn’t even on the WADA banned list lmao.
The Fancy Bears leaks, if we believe them to be real (they do seem fairly credible, though they’ve never been confirmed and WADA’s rejection of the info was pretty weak), were not as salacious as Russia would have liked nor as salacious as people remember them to be.
I never really understood the TUE critique. I mean, yes, TUE abuse almost certainly does happen. But is there a country in the world that doesn’t have a crooked doctor on the government payroll who would write a TUE for PEDs? Like, if the US can do it, you’re telling me Russia and China and Tajikistan and Ethiopia and Uruguay can’t all… Read more »
Obviously, other countries don’t. From the Associated Press on Friday:
MONACO — Two-time world champion runner and Olympic medalist Gudaf Tsegay was banned for four months in a doping case, track and field authorities said Friday, effectively ending her season.
The 29-year-old Ethiopian — who once held the indoor world record in the women’s 1,500 meters — had failed to ask in advance to use a medication for a diagnosed health condition, the Athletics Integrity Unit said in a statement.
Tsegay tested positive in December for Letrozole, for which she later produced “supporting medical documents and evidence,” the AIU said, acknowledging “she would have received a [therapeutic use exemption] if it had been requested in advance.”
America is the gold… Read more »
An Ethiopian runner being bad at paperwork is evidence that all American swimmers are doping?
Okay, Americans are bad at paperwork too: https://swimswam.com/u-s-national-team-swimmer-sanctioned-for-anti-doping-rules-violation/
Gabapentin is what I have taken to get rid of nerve pain after a surgery, you’re right lol why would that be something that assists performance?
It has terrible side effects for a lot of people, and doesn’t do much for their pain. Especially if they’ve also had a head injury.
I’d imagine that Gabapentin would be more of a hindrance than a performance aid! Was he taking it for nerve pain, or migraine?
Please list the TUEs.
Thanks in advance.
It is always so funny when a no name brand wants to discredit someone without any facts and hiding behind an alias.
Bravo!! No Political correct crap..some things are just wrong.. drugs for money..how low can people go? No B S about earning a living. Get an effing job!! And their style of living may go down compared to when they were elite athletes..welcome to the real world.
Um, to clarify, NO world records were broken. Super suited and drug-assisted athletes’ performances don’t count.
You aren’t wrong. But 20.81 is the fastest LCM 50 freestyle we’ve ever seen. Why does that feel triggering for most of you on here?
Fins 14.85.
That’s the one.
They aren’t analogous. Sorry. If you think the benefits of what Enhanced is offering is remotely comparable time-wise to what fins gives you I don’t know what to tell you, it’s not even a serious conversation. Apples to Oranges. Again, just say you hate the idea of Enhanced instead and leave it at that. By the way, I obviously think McEvoy’s swim is the better 50. I’m simply saying Gkolomeev has the fastest time ‘without accessories’ if that’s better, and going out of your way to pretend he doesn’t is cope.
So…where shall we draw the line?
Drugs / suits is on one side. Nothing else?
No other Enhancements will come up? Ever?
Pool depths? Platforms? Water composition? Better suits? Better drugs?
Where is your line?
You keep ignoring that Gkolomeev wore supersuit.
Supersuit is additional absolutely helpful “accessories” that makes swimmers go faster
Actually forgot about the bodysuit aspect for my write-up below. It’s possible almost all the benefits were derived from that because at least with that we actually have times to go off of. Maybe the medical regiment Gkolomeev has had hasn’t benefited him any different than what he had pre-Enhanced. But guess what – that would still make it the fastest human LCM 50m Free. The fact remains.
The suit alone was an accessory.
So the fins idea is fun to watch like a train reck is. If you think about it we are asking people to swim as fast as they can into a wall. Most the events this is not so fast that you can do it with minimal harm. The 50 free and back is where people start breaking bones if not careful. Add fins! That game of chicken with the wall is going to have consequences.
So according to your logic and reasoning, if I use fins and go 20.00 in LCM 50 fee, that would count as WR.
Wrong.
You think the benefits of peptides = fins.
Peptides likely won’t gain athletes any more than .5-.7 per 50 but we will see that fully bare out with the progression of Enhanced. Gkolomeev had a 21.44 50m non-Ehanced PB so he’s dropped .6. So basically a 90% time differential between the gains of Enhanced vs. Fina. In the end you think the advantage of peptides are actually comparable even though the % gains are not. And that doesn’t remotely go into the other reality that one is an accessory, the other is your human body.
Some people are interested in maximum human capability. That’s quintessentially the distinction.
“Some people are interested in maximum human capability. That’s quintessentially the distinction.”….
Yes! It’s called The Olympics or Worlds. But there are certain rules, because we want this max to be Real / Pure. You see?
the human capability from peptides is totally lost when they have supersuits as well. Maybe the organisers didnt want to know the times without supersuits.
There’s nothing triggering about it because it’s not a WR.
Speaking of fins when is the next big fin world meet? That thing is fun.
Not all swimmers are as privileged (or talented) as Titmus (or Phelps, Ledecky) money wise. I have no problem with the athletes earnings money so they can have a comfortable life.
For sure, just go rob a bank. Same thing
It really isn’t.
The EG were a joke, but we don’t need to be so dramatic.
I don’t have an issue with the athletes, the organisers and event as a whole different story.
How are they two different things?
The “athletes” willingly entered into this. They became The Show.
Did you really just ask how robbing a bank and competing in the enhanced games are two different things? It’s clear that there were no world records broken in the enhanced games nor could there ever be because it’s not clean sport. It is even more amusing that a lot of the swimmers sort of flopped with only a few noteworthy times under their bests from their careers in sanctioned swim meets – and those times weee supersuited. But the money they received was contractual, not stolen. We can argue over whether the entire event was in bad taste but it is clearly not tantamount to bank robbery.
No. I replied to MDE.
and destroying their health potentially (like so many DDR swimmers & Flo Jo in the 80’s), as well as being terrible role models! Well said Arnie!
Most of those who have a “comfortable life” due to their winnings on a sham circuit will end up miserable, poor, destitute and eating out of a garbage can.
I don’t have issues with swimmers swimming in Enhanced Games. They risk their long term health for money. It’s their choice.
I hated their posture claiming their swim is legit. Just be honest, you need money.
And Thiel is devil incarnate.
Imagine it would have breached their contract to say it was just about money.