Hunter Armstrong spent years competing for Team USA and walked away with a different conclusion than most. The stars, the flag, the anthem and underneath it all, according to him, a collection of individuals who happened to share a team. The Enhanced Games offered something he hadn’t felt before. Now, with a big win and $375,000 in his pocket, Armstrong isn’t being quiet about which environment brought it out of him.

The American competed alongside Sohib Khaled, Shane Ryan and Antani Ivanov in the 50 backstroke and then Ryan, Kristian Gkolomeev, and James Magnussen in the 100. Yet Armstrong admitted it felt weird to beat those guys because of the camaraderie they’d developed.

“Obviously, Kristian (Gkolomeev) just demolished me in the 100 free,” Armstrong told Swim Swam. “But those are like my best friends, and that team culture is unlike anything I’ve ever been a part of.

“I mean, Team USA is fantastic, but we truly are a bunch of individuals that are just competing under the same flag, where at the Enhanced Games, I felt more like we were coworkers or, like, part of a cast on a show. It felt like we were all working together to just put on a performance rather than, “I’m gonna win because I want the medal.”

That statement does come as a surprise, considering Armstrong has won 10 gold medals in his career so far, with all but two coming in relays. His two Olympic golds in Tokyo and Paris have come in the men’s 4×100 medley relay. In Tokyo, he competed alongside Andrew Wilson, Tom Shields, Blake Pieroni, Ryan Murphy, Michael Andrew, Zach Apple, and Caeleb Dressel.

During the Paris Olympics, Armstrong raced the heats and finals with Dressel, Ryan Held, Matthew King, Chris Guiliano, and Jack Alexy joining him. Even outside the Olympics, the now 25-year-old has consistently raced the 4x100m relays, especially at World Championships. He has picked up 11 medals (5 golds, 3 silvers, 3 bronzes).

That includes both the men’s 4×50 and 4x100m medley relay, the 4×100 and 4x200m freestyle, and the 4x100m mixed. However, Armstrong further explained that it was mainly because they had that ‘us vs the world mentality’.

“I think we’re all sort of seen as traitors to the sport, so we did actually have a lot of bonding within the camp,” Armstrong added. “But Shane Ryan in the 50 back hurt his shoulder, and I felt so bad for him. I love Shane. He’s so much fun.

“Obviously, I’d feel bad for anybody that gets hurt, but it felt a lot more personal with the Enhanced Games ’cause, yes, I wanna win the 250, but I think the core difference here is even if you get last, you’re still making 50. And so we want to win, but we really want our competitors to do well too.”

That isn’t all that surprising, given the immense criticism that the Enhanced Games have had. For the unversed, the event allowed and promoted the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). While Armstrong and Khaled competed clean during the 50 and 100 backstroke, the rest of the field were all ‘enhanced’.

Despite these unfair but legal odds, Armstrong still managed to win the 50 back and came second in the 100, behind Gkolomeev. Despite that, going into the games, many sports executives called it a “circus” with some even labelling it as a “dangerous clown show”. That criticism has continued after the event, although for many athletes it came as a godsend because of the prize money.

Hunter Armstrong touches upon Kirsty Coventry’s comments

For many of the 42 athletes, the Enhanced Games were a chance to earn incredible sums of money. That included Hunter Armstrong as he took home an incredible $375,000. To put it in perspective, that is ten times what the U.S. pays for an Olympic gold medal.  Armstrong made that in two races, earning $250,000 for winning the 50 back and $125,000 for second place in the 100m.

He wasn’t the only one who earned a chunk of the prize pot as every racer did. Those in first place earned around $250,000. Second place earned half of first place ($125,000), while third and fourth place earned $75,000 and $50,000, respectively. Even the low end of that figure is considerably more than what the United States pays athletes.

According to reports, the US pays athletes $37,500 for a gold medal, $22,500 for a silver medal, and $15,000 for a bronze medal. That’s what the athletes received for winning medals at the 2022 Winter Games and the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. On the back of that and the Enhanced Games, the International Olympic Committee president, Kirsty Coventry, made a controversial statement.

The IOC president was quoted as saying, “I don’t believe in paying athletes.” That didn’t go down well with a lot of athletes, especially those at the Enhanced Games. And Hunter Armstrong was one of them.

“Like, none of us are trying to become millionaires,” Armstrong told Swim Swam. “We just want to have a life that’s sustainable while we pursue an Olympic dream. And a lot of us have to pick. Do you want to be able to have a house, have a wife, have kids? Or do you want to hear your national anthem on the Olympic stage?

“But I mean, sport is entertainment, and nowhere else is it acceptable to not pay movie stars, to not pay Broadway actors, to not pay rock stars, artists. Like, if you are going to perform, you are bringing in that money for your performance. And somebody at the very top of all of this saying that she doesn’t believe in paying the people that are making her money is crazy to me.”

A win and a six-figure payday may have put Hunter Armstrong at the center of the Enhanced Games debate. Yet, for him, it’s the sense of belonging that keeps bringing him back.