Olympic swimmer Ben Proud has grow to be the primary British athlete to affix the controversial Enhanced Video games – however insists what he’s doing is just not undermining ‘clear’ sport.
Proud, 30, is a world and European champion at 50m freestyle, and gained silver on the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
However he has now dedicated to an occasion which permits athletes to take banned performance-enhancing medicine. By collaborating he will probably be banned from worldwide competitors.
He by no means gained Olympic gold or broke the 50m freestyle world file, which has stood since 2009, however feels that the Enhanced Video games “give me a brand new alternative to proceed this pursuit and see how far I can take issues”.
Requested if he thinks the occasion undermines clear sport, Proud instructed BBC Sport: “No. I feel it opens up the potential avenue to excel in a really totally different means.
“Talking for myself, I feel realistically I’ve achieved the whole lot I can, and now the Enhanced [Games] is giving me a brand new alternative. I positively do not assume that is undermining a clear sport.
“I actually respect the game I have been a part of, and I’d by no means step again in understanding I’ve performed one thing which is not within the guidelines.”
Earlier this 12 months, World Aquatics turned the primary worldwide sport federation to ban athletes, coaches and officers from its occasions if they’ve taken half within the Enhanced Video games.
Proud has beforehand supported UK Anti-Doping’s Clear Sport Week whereas British team-mates Adam Peaty and Duncan Scott have been outspoken in opposition to doping.
Proud stated he sees ‘conventional sport’ and the Enhanced Video games as “two very separate entities”, and that he discovered athletes breaking the principles “extremely irritating”.
“I see doping in clear sports activities as a whole no-go,” he stated. “I haven’t got any time for that.
“The actual fact it is nonetheless taking place is an issue. It’s going to at all times be a cat and mouse recreation, there’ll at all times be folks creating new strategies or folks getting away with issues.
“That is one factor that has ruined sport for lots of people. The anti-doping companies simply do not have the flexibility to utterly be certain that everyone seems to be clear and on a stage enjoying subject, and that to me has at all times been the largest frustration.
“For those who had been a part of my life for the previous 12, 13 years, you’d see how a lot time you need to allocate to creating certain we’re obtainable to be examined every day, ensuring we’re consistently giving our samples.”
BBC Sport has requested the World Anti-Doping Company (Wada) for remark.
Wada’s newest Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) report, exterior was printed in July, masking 2022. It stated that from 241,143 samples, 1,979 (0.82%) had been reported to be adversarial findings, of which 1,376 (69.5%) resulted in an ADRV.
