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When Shane Ryan agreed to participate in the Enhanced Games – where performance-enhancing drugs are encouraged – he did not agonise: “I was like, you know what, let me do something for me for once. Let me make some money.”
The swimmer represented Ireland at three Olympics, in 2016, 2020 and 2024, but all those years of training and sacrifice were not paying the bills, so this week he announced he would compete at the controversial sporting event.
“My whole 20s I gave to Ireland,” says Ryan, 31, from a training camp in Las Vegas, where the tournament will take place. “Olympic athletes train so hard all their life and they just don’t get paid.”
Irish sporting authorities, commentators and even the taoiseach, Micheál Martin, condemned Ryan’s decision, but he is unrepentant. “At the end of the day, people’s opinions aren’t going to pay me. They’re not going to help me set up my future.”
The International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency have also condemned the Enhanced Games – calling them a betrayal of sporting values and dangerous to health – but Ryan, who recently retired from competitive swimming, is eyeing the prize money.
“Ideally I would like to pay my car off and then hopefully put a down payment on a house somewhere in Philadelphia. I need to be very, very smart with money because life’s getting a lot more expensive.”
It is a blunt and prosaic response to the uproar over the Olympics-style event that will debut next May in Las Vegas where athletes will be allowed, and in some cases incentivised, to use banned substances under medical supervision.
Organisers cast it as a radical alternative to traditional sport that will showcase what they call “superhumanity” by normalising pharmaceutical and technological enhancement in sprinting, swimming and weightlifting.
“Our athletes exhibit integrity by enhancing openly under medical guidance, being informed and consenting adults, and ultimately the decision maker on which substances they choose to include in their protocols,” Maximilian Martin, the CEO and co-founder of the Enhanced Games, says via email.
The tournament, which is backed by Silicon Valley tycoons and Donald Trump Jr, has announced a dozen athletes but more have signed up, said Martin. “We’re strategically holding some announcements to build momentum closer to the event. The full weightlifting roster is already signed, both men and women.”
The Olympic silver medallist Ben Proud, 30, last month became the first Briton to sign up, prompting criticism from UK Sport and Aquatics GB, which said it was “immensely disappointed”.
Now it is the turn of Irish officials to lament. Ryan grew up in Philadelphia and won medals for Ireland at world, European and university level and holds 10 solo Irish records. A solid, middle-of-the-road career – “nobody’s idea of a headline act on the global stage,” the Irish Times said – but his communication skills on social media and in interviews offer another asset to the Enhanced Games.
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Ryan said he was proud and grateful for the chance to represent Ireland but had struggled to live on €18,000 (£15,600) a year and that “flaws” in the Irish swimming administration impeded his progress. “No one really gives a shit too much about swimming except for every four years when the Olympics come around.”
Facing uncertain prospects at the next Olympics, when he would be 34, Ryan retired this month and accepted the invitation to compete at Las Vegas, where there is prize money of up to $500,000 per event, with a $1m bonus for record-breaking performances.
“I will always and forever support 100% clean athletes when competing for the Olympic Games. It has to be protected,” says Ryan. The Enhanced Games had their own integrity, he insists. “No one’s cheating here because everyone is being transparent.”
The plan is to relocate to Abu Dhabi in December to start a drug regime, then return for the tournament. “Everyone thinks that we’re on drugs right now but we are not. You still need to train.”
Doctors will customise drugs for each athlete, he said. “We don’t even know where we’re going to be taking because everyone’s going to be a bit different. It’s not about gaining size. It’s about trying to gain strength.”
Critics are “freaking out” but the Enhanced Games are here to stay, says Ryan. “This thing isn’t going away. I’ll tell you that right now.”
