Enhanced Games: Live Recap

Enhanced Games

• Sunday, May 24, 2026
• Enhanced Games Competition Complex, Resorts World, Las Vegas, NV
• LCM (50 Meters)
• Live Stream: YouTube, Roku, Rumble, Twitch, Kick

It is finally here, the long-awaited Enhanced Games from Las Vegas, as several athletes from the swimming, track, and weightlifting worlds come together under one custom-built roof to test the limits of human (and scientific) potential.

Tonight’s event will be long, as several events will be contested beginning at 6:30 pm ET (3:30 PT), and can be watched on YouTube, Roku, Rumble, Twitch, and Kick.

This recap will focus primarily on the swimming events. Still, it will be continuously updated throughout the event if something major were to occur, such as a world record being broken in the track or weightlifting events.

As a bit of background on the drug usage rates and more in-depth detail, you can read about that here before the start of the event.

Below is the event lineup for this evening, including the estimated start times (PT) of each event, as per the Enhanced Games Instagram.

• 3:35 PM – Women’s Snatch Competition
• 3:54 PM – Men’s Snatch Competition
• 4:22 PM – Men’s 50 Backstroke
• 4:34 PM – Men’s 50 Breaststroke
• 4:43 PM – Women’s Clean & Jerk Competition
• 5:08 PM – Men’s Clean & Jerk Competition
• 6:03 PM – Men’s Snatch Competition
• 6:21 PM – Women’s 100m Sprint Heat 1
• 6:39 PM – Men’s 100 Freestyle
• 6:51 PM – Men’s 100m Sprint Heat 1
• 7:04 PM – Women’s 50 Freestyle *
• 7:15 PM – Men’s Clean & Jerk Competition
• 7:41 PM – Men’s 50 Butterfly
• 7:55 PM – Deadlift Lift-off Segment 1
• 8:03 PM – Men’s 100 Breaststroke
• 8:13 PM – Deadlift Lift-Off Segment 2
• 8:20 PM – Women’s 100 Freestyle
• 8:31 PM – Deadlift Lift-Off Segment 3
• 8:43 PM – Women’s 100m Sprint *
• 8:56 PM – Men’s 100 Butterfly
• 9:11 PM – Men’s 100m Sprint *
• 9:25 PM – Men’s 50 Freestyle *

*Events include $1 Million World Record Bonus

For the swimming events, there will be only four athletes in each race, and with that, a prize amount for each competitor.

Prize Money Breakdown (Swimming):

• 1st Place: $250,000
• 2nd Place: $125,000
• 3rd Place: $75,000
• 4th Place: $50,000
  • World Record Bonus: $250,000
  • 50 Free World Record Bonus: $1 Million

With much anticipation and controversy surrounding the buildup to this event in the public eye, it is finally time to see the Enhanced Games unfold.

General/Non Swimming Live Recap

At 6:33 ET, the YouTube stream has more than 28,000 viewers.

At first glance around the custom-built facility, the crowd appears a bit spotty, with many seats still available.

At the start of the first event, the number of YouTube viewers exceeded 34,000.

For the women’s snatch, after only one attempt, the live feed froze, leaving the live chat very unhappy. Some commenters have already coined the term “they forgot to enhance the connection”.

After checking across multiple sites, the stream seems to be down everywhere.

Viewing numbers at 6:46 ET have now dropped to less than 23,000.

At 6:50 ET, the stream is back on.

It seems that Maryam Usman may have broken a women’s snatch World Record, but viewers were not able to watch. UPDATE: She did not.

Kurt Mills Hanson, the Enhanced Games ‘swimming analyst, joined the desk alongside Emmanuel Acho and Abby Labar.

Around 6:59 PM ET, with the streams now running smoothly again, the YouTube viewer count has grown to over 42,000. Many comments on the stream raise questions about the validity of the weights.

At 7:08, the stream has consistently grown, now sitting at nearly 48,000 viewers on YouTube.

In a post-lift interview, Dylan Cooper mentioned he had “never lifted with a breeze before”, which is an interesting line considering the swimming and running events will be outdoors as well, which could be advantageous to the athletes.

Mills Hanson named five swimmers to watch for the swimming portion: Megan Romano, James Magnussen, Kristian Gkolomeev, Ben Proud, and Hunter Armstrong. He also namedropped Cam McEvoy‘s newly minted 20.88 50-meter freestyle world record.

In an early interview, Armstrong said that “Enhanced brought a new energy to the sport” and added that he feels the new eyes that Enhanced is bringing to the sport could help bolster youth involvement in the sport.

At the start of the swimming, around 7:23 ET, the viewer count on YouTube sits at more than 49,000

Just ahead of the men’s 50 breast, the viewing numbers sit at just under 52,000.

Workers at the event are having to drape towels over the barbell to keep it from getting too hot in the Vegas heat. Most of the athletes are wearing all-black attire in the middle of the Pacific afternoon, which seems like an interesting choice.

Now, a little over an hour since the start of the event (7:49 ET), and the crowd still looks to have a lot of empty seats.

One observation is the lack of depth in some of the interviews. Outside of a clearly emotional Cody Miller, the post-event interviews have been short and seem to focus on the facility and atmosphere rather than the performances themselves.

Musical guest star DJ Alan Walker performed to a not-so-pumped Vegas crowd.

In an interesting development… Mills Hanson, the swimming analyst for the Enhanced Games, previously said in the SwimSwam comments that there was ‘no amount of money that would ever see me involved in any capacity with the enhanced games.’

At 9:30 ET, with the first heats of the women’s 100m dash underway, the YouTube view count sits at over 61,000.

Arguably the most widely known athlete at these Enhanced Games, Fred Kerley posted the fastest time in the men’s 100m heats, 9.93. Kerley, similar to Armstrong, is racing this event as a non-enhanced athlete. In an interview shown during the breaks, when asked if he would run enhanced, he responded, “nah, I run fast without it.”

In a very interesting choice of broadcasting, the stream showed a time-lapse of a swimmer putting on a supersuit from start to finish (which is usually done behind closed doors), and to the non-swimming commentators, the process came as a big shock.

Over four hours into the stream, and the YouTube stream still sits at over 61,000 viewers.

I think now that we are well over five hours into this event (11:52 ET), it’s time for a FACT CHECK: An American athlete who wins an Olympic gold medal receives a $37,500 bonus.

Shackoria Wallace, a 100m runner from Jamaica, appeared to have possibly pulled her hamstring toward the end of the race. In that same race, non-enhanced athlete Tristan Evelyn won the women’s race in 11.25, well off the 10.49 WR.

The men’s 100m dash final had two false starts before a legal race could be run, with athletes showing serious frustration after waiting for this marquee race. Kerley later ended up winning the race in 9.98, but he appeared very upset after having two false-start halts, which cost him much of his momentum.

After six hours of buildup (12:30 ET, holy cow), the men’s 50 free, the final event of the day/night/event, is here—the men’s 50 freestyle.

Personal Update: WE MADE IT! In total, $7 million was paid out to Enhanced Games athletes.

As for our comments section, with nine total races, this recap featured a comment to swim ratio of 102.2:1.

Funniest Comments from the YouTube Stream that I’ve Read So Far:

“Cold Stone Steve Austin”

“ABNORMALLY NORMAL GAMES”

“my wife is sleeping.”

“morale: drugs don’t work”

“Not even enhanced juice could have helped West Ham this season…”

“​​For the small price of selling your body, health, and future to an evil billionaire, you too could win a measly $50k. Even reality TV pays better than this junk.”

“​​Everybody do 40 push-ups”

“​​This is more of an infomercial”

“I Mowed my grass today with a new mower, only enhancement to my life I’ve ever liked”

“11.26 for 250k??? A TEXAS HIGH SCHOOLER BEATS THEM”

“i spent 20 minutes in a grocery store today and felt like it wastes my time, i have since learned that those 20 minutes were more productive than this entire 6 hour stream”

“What does Phelps think about this?”

“​​Unskilled Games”

“I wanna see DJ Khaled swim a 50 free”

“​​really pushing your average Joe to get on PEDs… kinda weird but whatever”

“these aren’t real drugs”

“All the hype for this😭✌🥀”

“​​whens ufc enhanced”

“dehanced games”

“these guys acting like a 4 year old t ball player getting a participation trophy”

“A-trains cousin, B-train”

“This proves Barry Bonds is the best baseball player ever”

“jetpacks would have been cooler but drugs are fine i guess”

“plot twist, nobody is enhanced, they are all just slow, and were the ones on drugs”

“That trophy looks like something i pull out of a junkyard.”

Swimming Recaps

Men’s 50 Backstroke

• World Record: Kliment Kolesnikov – 23.55 (2023)

Athletes Competing (Best Non-Enhanced Times):

• Shane Ryan (24.32)
• Antani Ivanov (27.54)
• Hunter Armstrong* (23.71)
• Sohib Khaled* (25.98)
  • *Competing Clean

In 79-degree water, Hunter Armstrong took the first swimming win of the day with the top time in the men’s 50 back in 24.21, which we know only from the commentators, as there is no clock on screen for viewers.

That time is still well off the World Record of 23.55. But it does secure him a quarter of a million dollars toward his goal to compete in Los Angeles in 2028.

Armstrong commented on the supersuit, calling it “crazy” and a “game changer”.

Men’s 50 Breaststroke

• World Record: Adam Peaty – 25.95 (2017)

Athletes Competing (Best Non-Enhanced Times):

• Felipe Lima (26.33)
• Cody Miller (27.24)
• Evgenii Somov (27.44)
• Miguel De Lara (27.38)

Cody Miller managed to swim a HUGE career best of 26.55 and bring home $250,000. That is a substantial time drop for him, as he was one of two swimmers to clip their career bests, with Evgenii Somov also dipping under his previous best in 27.21 for 3rd and $75,000.

Miller looked the part of an Enhanced athlete, visibly looking bigger than we have ever seen him, and it showed. However, it never looked like Adam Peaty‘s WR was in any danger.

Arguably, the best moment of the race was Miller getting right out of the water and doing his best “Are you not entertained?” celebration on top of the block.

It also appears that the team at Enhanced heard our frustration about not having a clock for us viewers and added one to the screen for the swimming.

Men’s 100 Freestyle

• World Record: Pan Zhanle – 46.40 (2024)

Athletes Competing (Best Non-Enhanced Times):

• Shane Ryan (48.39)
• Kristian Gkolomeev (48.68)
• Hunter Armstrong* (47.59)
• James Magnussen (47.49)
  • *Competing Clean

After about two hours of swimming-less action, James Magnussen is wearing a gold supersuit for the 100 free, representing him as the first athlete in the Enhanced Games.

In one of the biggest shocks of the event thus far, Kristian Gkolomeev nearly topped Pan Zhanle‘s 2024 World Record of 46.40, just barely missing the mark in 46.60.

One of the speculations coming into this event was what the 100-meter swim races were going to look like, and Gkolomeev even mentioned that he “held back”, though he would have won an extra $250,000 from the World record bonus.

Armstrong, swimming his second event of the night as a clean athlete, was still a half-second off his career best of 47.59, earning himself another $125,000.

Gkolomeev will still swim the 50 free with a $1 million WR bonus, which could be the reason he backed off, though he was already so far ahead of the field.

Magnussen did not even break the 49-second barrier, finishing 4th in 49.44, still earning $50,000.

Women’s 50 Freestyle

• World Record: Sarah Sjöström – 23.61 (2023)

Athletes Competing (Best Non-Enhanced Times):

• Megan Romano (24.98)
• Isabella Arcila (25.11)
• Emily Barclay (25.25)
• Natalia Fryckowska (25.84)

Emily Barclay and Megan Romano both managed to dip under 25.00 to reach six-figure earnings. Barclay ended up taking the top spot in 24.09, while Romano touched just under a half second behind in 24.55. Both of which have taken significant time away from racing.

The $1 Million WR bonus never really seemed in the picture, but a huge drop for Barclay was one of the top performances of these Enhanced Games thus far.

All four of those women will compete a bit later in the 100 free, which is the final women’s swim race of this event.

For reference, American Age Group phenom Rylee Erisman‘s 13-14 National Age Group Record of 24.98 would have placed 3rd behind Barclay and Romano.

Fryckowska finished 4th in 26.14. Which is just faster than the 11-12 NAG record of 26.21 by Missy Franklin in 2008.

Men’s 50 Butterfly

• World Record: Andrii Govorov – 22.27 (2018)

Athletes Competing (Best Non-Enhanced Times):

• Ben Proud (22.74)
• Marius Kusch (23.38)
• Max McCusker (23.44)
• Andrii Govorov (22.27)

Proud, the marquee swimmer with the Enhanced Games, came just five hundredths within Govorov’s World Record time of 22.27. Claiming the top time in 22.32, the closest any athlete has come so far to a World Record.

Proud did not look much more jacked than he had prior to the Enhanced Games, as he was well known for having one of the sport’s more immaculate physiques.

Govorov made a mid-race push, but Proud managed to find that next gear and reach the wall first, as Govorov touched just behind in 22.66.

Kusch finished 3rd in his first-ever sub-23-second time of 22.92. McCusker, who opted not to wear a full body suit and rather just the full-legged suit, finished 4th in 23.39, which is slower than the 17-18 NAG record of 23.22, held by Michael Andrew from 2017.

Men’s 100 Breaststroke

• World Record: Adam Peaty – 56.88 (2019)

Athletes Competing (Best Non-Enhanced Times):

• Felipe Lima (59.17)
• Cody Miller (58.87)
• Evgenii Somov (58.72)
• Miguel De Lara (1:00.14)

There were no sub-59-second swims in the men’s 100 breast. Cody Miller nabbed his 2nd massive payday win in 59.47, despite a charging Evgenii Somov, who was just 14 hundredths behind Miller in 59.61.

This race was among the oldest that we would see at this meet, as Felipe Lima finished 3rd in 1:01.94, and Miguel De Lara rounded out the finishers in 1:02.86.

Mills Hanson mentioned just before the break that “Enhancements don’t make someone in their 30s feel like they are in their 20s”. But in reference to some age-group records in the US, the 17-18 NAG record of 58.96 from Campbell McKean would have won this event by just over half a second.

The 15-16 NAG from Josh Matheny in 1:00.17 would have been contending for a six-figure paycheck. As for the 13-14 NAG, Ian Call‘s 1:02.22 would have finished 4th, ahead of De Lara, and just outside of Lima.

Miller gave a shoutout to his club coach, Ron Aitken at Sandpipers of Nevada, who Miller said stuck with him as many others “turned their backs” when Miller joined the Enhanced Games.

Miller brought home half a million dollars on the day.

Here is an Interview Miller did after his 2nd win of the day.

Las Vegas native swimmer Cody Miller said he’s going to invest the $500k he won at Enhanced Games in his childrens’ future. #vegas #enhancedgames pic.twitter.com/Ih4CGx55gi

— Mick Akers (@mickakers) May 25, 2026

Women’s 100 Freestyle

• World Record: Sarah Sjöström – 51.71 (2017)

Athletes Competing (Best Non-Enhanced Times):

• Megan Romano (53.90)
• Isabella Arcila (55.21)
• Emily Barclay (57.24)
• Natalia Fryckowska (56.85)

In the final women’s swim race of the night, Romano managed to get her revenge and snag a win in the 100 free, winning the event in 54.2, while Barclay wound up with the 2nd place finish in 54.67.

After a sizzling 50 free, the 100 free was quite a bit further off from that WR mark of 51.71, which, coming into these Enhanced Games, felt like one of the more untouchable world standards.

Once again, for a bit of context, Missy Franklin‘s 13-14 NAG record would have warranted her a $250,000 payday, as it sits at 54.03, about two tenths faster than what Romano won with.

Gretchen Walsh‘s 100 fly World Record of 53.33 was only surpassed in this race by Romano. Fryckowska’s final time of 57.97 would not have beaten Lia Neal‘s 56.87 11-12 NAG record from 2008.

Men’s 100 Butterfly

• World Record: Caeleb Dressel – 49.45 (2021)

Athletes Competing (Best Non-Enhanced Times):

• Antani Ivanov (51.93)
• Marius Kusch (51.35)
• Max McCusker (51.90)
• Sohib Khaled* (52.79)
  • *Competing Clean

Kusch looked really strong off the start, but faded hard, and still managed to sneak out the win in 51.28. And for the first time in any event tonight, all athletes managed to swim lifetime bests.

Ivanov finished 2nd in 51.61, McCusker 3rd in 51.78, and the non-enhanced Khaled finished 4th in 52.29.

Though just as it was coming in, no swimmer had ever been under 51 seconds, and that stands true at the end.

The win for Kusch was a big one, immediately jumping out of the water in excitement after bagging a quarter of a million dollars with the win.

Men’s 50 Freestyle

• World Record: Cam McEvoy – 20.88 (2026)

Athletes Competing (Best Non-Enhanced Times):

• Ben Proud (21.11)
• Kristian Gkolomeev (21.44)
• James Magnussen (21.79)
• Andrii Govorov (21.46)

For the first time today, a world record was bested. Kristian Gkolomeev took the win, in an absurdly fast 20.81, seven hundredths faster than McEvoy was at the China Open earlier this year. In a race where Proud looked to be in control for the first 35 meters. Gkolomeev used a major final 15 meters to power home and overtake the British powerhouse, who still finished in his first ever sub 21 second swim in 20.98.

Gkolomeev, who won the 100 free earlier in the night, nearly downing that WR, he now leaves this meet with $1.5 million in earnings.

As mentioned on the broadcast, Gkolomeev has now earned over $2 million from the Enhanced Games in his career.

Though the overall event only delivered one world record (obviously unofficial, but the fastest ever time nonetheless), the focus will now be thrown back to McEvoy, who still has plenty of competition left to do later in his season.

The non-enhanced world record holder took no time taking his thoughts to social media with a pair of memes.

McEvoy’s Instagram Stories after Gkolomeev’s Enhanced WR

McEvoy’s Instagram Stories after Gkolomeev’s Enhanced WR