The Enhanced Games have dominated headlines with one irresistible hook: a $1 million reward for breaking a world record. It’s a number that traditional swimming has never come close to offering. And that financial promise was seemingly enough to draw even the three-time world champion, Ben Proud. Now, even Caleb Dressel has acknowledged the allure of the Enhanced Games. 

Recently, Dressel appeared in an interview with the three-time Olympic medalist, Mel Stewart. The 10-time Olympic medalist knew that Stewart would ask about the Enhanced Games. He tried to respond with an open mind. He acknowledged the fact that the Enhanced Games’ Instagram page showed steady growth. However, he didn’t hide his financial distress either. That’s where the Enhanced Games gained some validation. 

Caleb Dressel claimed, “I think the bigger issue at hand is you have people willing to sacrifice their whole reputation, their whole swim career, because they weren’t getting paid enough within the sport. This is one of the most popular sports in the entire world. And you have, whether it’s people at USA Swimming, whether it’s people at WADA.” 

He believed that if mainstream swimming competitions offered a lucrative prize purse and incentives, you wouldn’t have nearly as many people willing to cross the line.

“If they just say, if you break a world record, here’s a million bucks, I don’t think you’d have nearly as many people going over or willing to do the enhanced games,” he continued. “Or if you make a top eight at the Olympics, you get more money. The issue is quality of life.” 

With that frustration in mind, Dressel stood up in defense of Ben Proud joining the controversial games. He certainly has immense respect for Proud. He claimed that Proud hadn’t considered PEDs until the monetary aspect of the Games came to light. Proud stayed organic for quite some time. He was consistent and had multiple gold medals. Yet, he had to resort to Enhanced Games to improve his quality of life. And according to Dressel, that “should be the bigger issue.”

“It’s that people are willing to sacrifice their whole reputation of what they’ve built up in the sport because they couldn’t have a comfortable life, whether it’s their governing body or it is, I said WADA, World Aquatics… You should have a comfortable life if you’re consistently top three in the world.”

The Enhanced Games promised a win bonus of $250,000. Meanwhile, this year’s World Aquatics Championships rewarded the winners with only $20,000. Dressel was quick to clarify that he has no desire to follow Proud’s footsteps. Although he was curious to see how fast people could swim with enhancements. 

But before Caleb Dressel addressed the issue for swimmers, Carl Lewis talked about the same issue at hand in a more general tone. 

Like Caleb Dressel, Carl Lewis addresses the Enhanced Games fiasco

During his appearance at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium for the Vedanta Half-Marathon in October, Lewis weighed in on his take on Enhanced Games. According to him, the issue was directed at social media, and not the sport itself. He claimed that people have to be honest and realistic regarding their actions. 

As per Lewis, the sporting community kept talking about the Enhanced Games because it had been trending. We’re currently in a world where things like enhancements don’t really matter as long as people are famous. And that, according to Carl Lewis, is the reason why Enhanced Games is gaining traction and attracting athletes. 

He stated, “So you see what I’m saying? So it’s not really about sports. It’s about culture. The culture now is you allow fake things to be important. And you allow someone on a TV show to become president one day because they think you’re good because of a TV show. So I think it’s a bigger cultural issue than just a sports issue.”

In the end, both Caleb Dressel and Carl Lewis point to the same unsettling truth. The Enhanced Games aren’t the real threat. Our sporting and cultural systems are. Until athletes are valued fairly and fans stop rewarding spectacle over integrity, events like these will keep finding willing participants.