(Reuters) -Kyle Chalmers won’t criticise fellow swimmers for taking part in the Enhanced Games, but the Australian hopes the proposed multi-sport event prompts World Aquatics to increase prize money for clean athletes.
The Enhanced Games will allow athletes to use pharmacological or technological assistance, including substances banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Retired Australian world champion swimmer James Magnussen, 34, in February last year agreed to take performance-enhancing drugs to make an attempt at beating Cesar Cielo’s 15-year-old 50-metre freestyle world record.
The Enhanced Games concept has been met with widespread criticism, with World Aquatics introducing a new bylaw that will prevent any athlete or official who supports or endorses doping from competing or holding any positions after a Greek swimmer supported by the Enhanced Games ‘broke’ the world record.
“James is one of my really great mates so I’m definitely not going to knock him for going across there,” Chalmers was quoted as saying by the Australian Associated Press on Sunday.
“That is something that is hard in our sport, there’s not a huge amount of money or prize money on offer and we kind of do it for the love of it.
“So I am not going to be a person that slams swimmers for wanting to go across and make some money and give themselves a better opportunity in life or set their families up…”
The Enhanced Games will hold their inaugural competition in Las Vegas in May next year with swimming, athletics and weightlifting on the agenda.
Participants could earn prize money totalling up to $500,000 per event plus bonuses for surpassing a world record mark.
“Swimmers have been underpaid for a very long time at the big competitions,” the 26-year-old said.
“I’m very lucky to have a lot of personal sponsors so I do OK for myself, which is nice. But I know that there’s a lot of swimmers out there that really struggle…
“So I really hope that there is a shift, that we are able to get a little bit more prize money for what we do, but I guess we’ll see.”
(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru; Editing by Michael Perry)
