Two Aussie Olympians have exchanged barbs after the controversial Enhanced Games was roundly criticised following its inaugural event on Monday.
Paris 2024 gold medallist Cam McEvoy took a thinly veiled swipe at the athletes with an Instagram story on Monday afternoon.
A Gordon Ramsay meme was accompanied by the text, “Seriously? That all you got?”.
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McEvoy has been a vocal critic of the Enhanced Games, which encourages athletes to take performance enhancing drugs in an attempt to break records in the pool and on the track.
His former Aussie Olympic teammate James Magnussen was the poster boy for the controversial event, but he finished dead last in the two races he took part in.
In fact only one world record was broken – unofficially – and that was McEvoy’s 50m freestyle mark, bettered by Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev who pocketed $1.4 million for the achievement.
James Magnussen speaks to 9News as Cam McEvoy takes aim at the Enhanced Games. Nine
Magnussen took home just $70,000, but defended his performances when speaking to 9News later in the night.
“There are bigger opportunities involved in this than just the prize money on the night,” he told 9News.
“We wanted to turn heads, and we turned heads.”
Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald in a separate interview, Magnussen hit back at McEvoy.
“Cam’s sitting at home talking about us. We’re not talking about Cam,” he said.
The Games were roundly labelled a flop following the inaugural event, which was held in Las Vegas and attracted minimal interest from spectators.
Gkolomeev celebrated when he shaved 0.7 seconds off McEvoy’s 50m freestyle record, but overall the athletes failed to break records despite most of them using WADA-banned substances to enhance their performance.
Kristian Gkolomeev competes during the Enhanced Games. Getty Images for Enhanced
Ben Proud was not far behind Gkolomeev as the quartet approached the wall, touching in for a personal best time of 20.98. Magnussen finished last out of four in 22.35. The Australian’s personal best in his prime years for the 50m freestyle was 21.52.
It is the second time in the space of 12 months that Gkolomeev has beaten the world record set by a clean athlete, earning a combined total of $2.7m AUD for his record-breaking efforts.
“Another million – I’m going to say that’s not bad at all,” Gkolomeev said.
“This is going to change my life for good, that’s for sure.”
But even with a new record to his name, Gkolomeev still wants more.
“Maybe next year I will break it again,” he said.
Magnussen took to the blocks at the Enhanced Games wearing a custom-made gold performance-enhancing suit, designed to commemorate the fact he was the first athlete to sign on to compete in the event.
Earlier in the day, Pan Zhanle’s 100m freestyle world record of 46.40 was the first target for all four swimmers competing in the men’s freestyle events, with a prize of $1.4m AUD up for grabs for lowering the mark. But Magnussen was more than three seconds off recording that time, touching the wall in a pedestrian 49.44 – well short of the 47.10 personal best he set in his prime.
The 35-year-old broke the water last after the starting buzzer sounded and struggled to catch up to Gkolomeev and clean athlete Hunter Armstrong in the opening 50.
Gkolomeev sat more than a body length ahead of the field as he turned to complete the final lap.
His pace looked on track to topple Zhanle’s time, but he fell just short, recording a 40.60.
Magnussen followed well behind Gkolomeev, touching the wall in fourth place (of four swimmers) in 49.44.
Even though his time was slower than he hoped, Magnussen still had a smile on his face.
Gkolomeev was content with his time despite narrowly missing out on the huge prize for breaking the world record – a feat he would achieve soon after in the shorter sprint event.
“It was a good race. I am really happy, very close to the world record,” he said after receiving assistance from Magnussen to take off the top part of his suit post-race.
(L-R) James Magnussen, Hunter Armstrong and Shane Ryan. Getty Images for Enhanced
“I really wanted to (break the world record) but that’s OK.
“I tried to save some energy for the second 50 but at the end I died a little bit.”
Despite missing the record, Gkolomeev still earned $348,000 AUD for his efforts in the 100m sprint race. Magnussen won just shy of $70,000 for coming fourth.
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