Record 50m freestyle time at controversial Enhanced Games
· Yahoo Sports
Greece's Kristian Gkolomeev was the only athlete to beat a world record at the controversial Enhanced Games in Las Vegas.
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The 32-year-old clocked 20.81 seconds in the men's 50m freestyle, eclipsing Australian Cameron McEvoy's 20.88 which he set in March, but Gkolomeev's time will not be recognised by official authorities.
Results at the inaugural Games are considered illegal by global sporting bodies, such as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), because athletes can take banned performance-enhancing drugs.
The competition featured events in athletics, weightlifting and swimming, with Gkolomeev setting his time wearing a polyurethane suit, which is banned in official competitions.
World Aquatics has condemned the event as a "circus, built on short-cuts", while Gkolomeev was rewarded by Enhanced Games organisers with $250,000 (£185,000) for winning and a $1m bonus (£741,000) for the unofficial record.
"I'm going to say it's not bad at all. This is going to change my life to the good, for sure," said Gkolomeev.
"It's a big help for me and my family. And yeah, I'm going to continue next year. Maybe I'll break it again."
The majority of the 42 athletes taking part used performance-enhancing substances and Enhanced Games said "13 athletes set personal bests".
The event was played out in front of a curated crowd of around 2,500, with tickets not on sale to the general public.
On the track, American former world champion Fred Kerley - one of the athletes competing 'clean' - won the men's 100m in 9.97 seconds, which was short of his personal best of 9.76.
British swimmer Ben Proud, who won silver in the men's 50m freestyle at the 2024 Paris Olympics, triumphed in the 50m butterfly, clocking 22.32 seconds which was 0.05secs short of Andrii Govorov's world record.
"We all know what we came for. And that's world records. And so to be that agonizingly close, it's frustrating," Proud said.
Another British Olympic swimmer, Emily Barclay, won the women's 50m freestyle in 24.09, around half a second slower than the world record.
Weightlifter Hafthor 'Thor' Bjornsson, who played The Mountain in TV show Game of Thrones, was another taking part but was unable to break his own deadlift record of 510kg.
Drugs used at the Enhanced Games must be legal and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
They include testosterone, growth hormone, peptides, anabolic steroids and other banned substances.
Those behind the event argue enhancement already exists in elite sport, but secretly and without transparency, and say bringing it into the open where it can be monitored makes it safer.
However many sporting governing bodies have publicly rebuked athletes for choosing to compete in the games and some sporting governing bodies have banned athletes for taking part.
The IOC and Wada have described the Enhanced Games as "immoral" and "a dangerous and irresponsible concept", while World Athletics president Lord Coe said anyone taking part was "moronic".
The project was founded by entrepreneurs Aron D'Souza and Maximilian Martin in 2023 and has attracted backing from prominent investors including billionaire Peter Thiel and Donald Trump Jr.
Martin had predicted that athletes would beat "quite a few" world records at the event.
