Since the very first update about the Enhanced Games emerged, several storylines have developed, but the one Hunter Armstrong created might just be the closest thing to a lifeline. Sure, he is a three-time Olympic gold medalist, but the 25-year-old was on the verge of walking away from the sport entirely. Instead, he now leaves a single race clean with ten times what most U.S. Olympians earn in a year.

The American earned a $250,000 prize for taking first place in the 50m backstroke, his signature event. Then, in the 100m freestyle, he finished second behind Kristian Gkolomeev to earn an additional $125,000. That brings his total earnings to $375,000, which is well over ten times what the U.S. pays for an Olympic gold medal.

As per available reports, the United States pays athletes $37,500 for a gold medal, $22,500 for silver, and $15,000 for bronze. These are the same amounts athletes received for winning medals at the 2022 Winter Games and the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Now, coming back to the Enhanced Games, Armstrong competed alongside Sohib Khaled, Shane Ryan, and Antani Ivanov, and had the best of them all in the opening event. He clocked 24.21 seconds to finish first, while Ryan came in second at 25.23, followed by Khaled at 25.68 and Ivanov at 25.76. That was despite both Armstrong and Khaled competing clean.

Yet, the win comes as no surprise, especially considering that the 50m backstroke is where the 25-year-old tends to thrive. After all, Armstrong held the world record after posting a time of 23.71 in 2022 during the Phillips 66 International Team Trials. However, while that record has since been broken, his goal at the Enhanced Games was to reclaim it.

That is, even if he has struggled to come close to his world-record mark since then. In fact, across the last three 50m backstroke events he competed in, Armstrong reached the podium only once. Not only that, he posted times of 25.65 and 25.15 in 2025, along with a 24.33 that earned him silver at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha.

Yet despite competing clean, the swimmer was able to improve on his recent best. While that was not enough to earn the extra $250,000 awarded for breaking the world record, he still went home with a significant chunk of change. That came thanks to his second-place finish in the 100m freestyle, where he recorded a time of 48.09 seconds.

It was not quite a world record or even a personal best (his best remains the 47.11 he posted in 2022), but it was enough for second place. Kristian Gkolomeev, on the other hand, finished within touching distance of the world record of 46.40, posting a 46.6 and finishing well ahead of Armstrong. Shane Ryan, who also competed in the 50m, finished third in 48.92, while James Magnussen placed fourth in 49.44.

All four athletes earned a share of the $500,000 prize money, with Gkolomeev taking home $250,000 and Armstrong $125,000. The remainder was split between Ryan ($75,000) and Magnussen ($50,000). The money happens to be the major reason why Armstrong is competing at the 2026 Enhanced Games. He admitted as much in an interview after announcing his participation.

“If I don’t join Enhanced, I lose everything. If I do join Enhanced, I have a chance at not losing everything,” Armstrong told ESPN in March 2026. “My back was against the wall, so I had to reopen that conversation to see if it was a plausible option.”

This decision occurred solely because the 25-year-old lost his main sponsor abruptly after the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, the arrival of the Enhanced Games changed the situation for the Olympian. 

Now that Armstrong has managed to walk away with a significant chunk of change, the Enhanced Games have already served their purpose for him. But money was not the only conversation he was willing to reopen.

Hunter Armstrong touches upon the banned ‘super suit’

In addition to the regimens athletes are using, swimmers will also compete in banned ‘super suits.’ Originally developed by Speedo, the suits became controversial after contributing to a flood of world records, leading World Aquatics to ban them in 2010. o influential were the suits that at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, swimmers wearing them set 23 of the 25 world records broken during the Games.

Following that, textile-only regulations were introduced after polyurethane suits were found to reduce drag and enhance swimmer performance.

Moving on, while Hunter Armstrong competed clean, he was still wearing the banned ‘super suit.’

“I’m feeling pretty good,” Armstrong said. “I’ve just felt really smooth in the water lately and just this super suit is crazy, but I haven’t had a pretty solid 50 back in a bit, so I’ll take that for being outdoors.”

However, the suit is in play at the Enhanced Games, and thus all four swimmers in the 50m backstroke were wearing it.

“Underwaters are definitely not my strong suit, but this just gives you the buoyancy and obviously less drag cause less skin,” Armstrong added. “But my underwaters feel so much better, your hips are supported, this suit is game-changing.”

Armstrong came to Las Vegas with his back against the wall and left with his head held high. Even though the suit might be banned everywhere else, for one clean Olympian, everything about this week was legal, necessary, and long overdue.