Cameron McEvoy highlights ‘ludicrous’ problem with new swimming world record after resisting Enhanced Games

Cameron McEvoy lamented the “ludicrous” situation that saw him go financially unrewarded for breaking the 50m freestyle world record, whereas a doped athlete can earn millions for doing so at the upcoming Enhanced Games.

Australian swimmer McEvoy admitted it was “the realisation of a childhood dream” to break Cesar Cielo’s world record that had stood for more than 16 years, which he did by clocking 20.88s at the China Open in Shenzhen on Friday.

That time shaved 0.03s off the Brazilian’s mark, which he laid down during swimming’s controversial ‘super suit’ era back in 2009, when high-tech swim suits made of water-resistant polyurethane helped competitors go much faster but were later banned as over 200 records fell in less than two years.

Cielo’s time was the final remaining world record from that era and while the China Open is an official event, meaning McEvoy’s new world record is completely legitimate, it is not organised by World Aquatics, so there is no world record bonus attached to it, whereas the global governing body does pay out for records broken in competitions it runs.

If McEvoy had broken the record during a World Cup meet for example, he would have earned $10,000, while Leon Marchand claimed $30,000 as the sole swimmer to break a world record during last year’s World Championships in Singapore.

Even more jarringly, the first Enhanced Games – a controversial new competition where doping is legal and the ‘super suits’ aren’t banned – is set to take place in Las Vegas in May this year, with huge bonuses on offer for any world records broken, even though they won’t official count in the history books due to the lack of anti-doping measures.

“This competition at the China Open had no world record incentive,” explained a frustrated McEvoy. “So with this world record, I got $0 for it.

“It’s crazy to think that to get a world record without a suit and without any performance-enhancing drugs, as a clean athlete, the bonus is $0, whereas if I went an easier route, you get not only a $1m bonus but there’s also $250,000 prize money for first place, which you would get on top of the world record.

“The stark contrast is massive – we’re talking on the order of $1.5m-plus compared to $0. And the $0 pathway is the much harder pathway to do something like this as well. It’s pretty ludicrous.

“It’s a bit unfortunate that this pathway has $0 and the value placed on something like this, at least from that perspective, is worth nothing in that respect. I’m dumbfounded in terms of the stark contrast that exists currently in the landscape of sport in swimming.”

British Olympic silver medallist Ben Proud is one of the swimmers who has moved across to the Enhanced Games, with four-time Greek Olympian Kristian Gkolomeev another.

Gkolomeev is reported to have clocked a time of 20.89s in the 50m freestyle, wearing a banned ‘super suit’ and in the middle of a doping cycle, as part of a time trial in North Carolina in February last year. He hopes to break the world record at the Enhanced Games later this spring.

“The Enhanced Games gave me the resources and the team to unlock a new level of performance – and now the whole world can see what’s possible,” Gkolomeev said. “On the second attempt, I was on a full two-month [drug-taking] cycle.

“I had an extra 10lbs of lean muscle – we did a pretty good job with my coach in that short amount of time to get used to my new strength and weight in the water. It was a very good result.”

Despite his frustration at the lack of financial reward for breaking world records as a clean athlete, McEvoy completely dismissed the prospect of switching to the Enhanced Games and suggested it was a meaningless gimmick.

“It didn’t really hold much credibility to begin with, in the sense where the public opinion and the public reception of it wasn’t very good, particularly in the realm of sport,” McEvoy said. “It was definitely looked down upon and not seen as something that really held any weight anyway.

“It was more kind of like an exhibition swim type of thing, similar to if someone put a giant pair of fins on and did a 50 freestyle and went at a particular time. It’s in that realm. I think [me] doing this time probably reinforces that.

“It just remains as something that is more of an exhibition on the outskirts and is something that is not in any relation to the traditional sporting pathway.”