{"id":128465,"date":"2025-09-10T21:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T21:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/128465\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T21:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T21:21:08","slug":"olympic-medallist-ben-proud-becomes-first-british-athlete-to-join-enhanced-games-drugs-in-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/128465\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic medallist Ben Proud becomes first British athlete to join Enhanced Games | Drugs in sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Olympic silver medallist Ben Proud has become the first Briton to join the Enhanced Games<\/a>, an event that allows athletes to take \u00adperformance-enhancing drugs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old, who came second in the 50m freestyle in Paris last summer, does not believe the event undermines clean sport. \u201cI\u00a0think [the Enhanced Games] opens up the potential avenue to excel in a very different way,\u201d he told BBC\u00a0Sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cRealistically, I\u2019ve achieved \u00adeverything I can and now the Enhanced is giving me a new opportunity. I definitely don\u2019t think that\u2019s undermining a clean sport. I really respect the sport I\u2019ve been part of and I would never step back in knowing I\u2019ve done something which isn\u2019t in the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

Proud said he had found \u00adcompetitors committing doping \u00adviolations in his sport \u201cincredibly frustrating\u201d. The Enhanced Games permits athletes to take substances approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, under strict supervision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will never take anything that I am unsure of,\u201d Proud said. \u201cThey are not allowing anyone to participate if they are under any stress or health risks.\u201d<\/p>\n

A UK Sport<\/a> spokesperson said: \u201cUK Sport condemns everything the Enhanced Games stands for in the strongest possible terms. We believe it risks compromising athlete health and welfare, undermines the trust of fans and is the absolute antithesis to our philosophy of winning well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are incredibly disappointed to learn that any British athlete in one of our Olympic or Paralympic programmes would support such an event. We are engaging with our colleagues at Aquatics GB as a matter of urgency to determine Ben Proud\u2019s suitability to receive public funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear, however, that any breach of anti-doping rules is contrary to the policies any athlete must comply with to receive UK Sport funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A statement from Aquatics GB said the governing body was \u201cimmensely disappointed in Ben Proud\u2019s announcement to sign with the Enhanced Games\u201d, adding: \u201cAquatics GB, along with our partners, stand firmly behind the values and principles of clean sport and condemns Ben\u2019s decision in the strongest terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

The inaugural Enhanced Games\u00a0are scheduled for May in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Olympic silver medallist Ben Proud has become the first Briton to join the Enhanced Games, an event…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-128465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}