Enhanced Games 2026 news: Clean swimmer Hunter Armstrong wins 50m backstroke, video, highlights

AU, May 25 — Olympic gold medallist Hunter Armstrong pocketed $350,000 and struck a blow for "clean" athletes by winning the 50m backstroke at the inaugural Enhanced Games. The American - competing as a "non-enhanced" athlete - swam 24.21s in Las Vegas on Monday (AEST) to beat a field that had taken performance enhancers under the watchful eye of doctors and trainers.

Rick Adams, the former chief of sport performance for the US Olympic team whose move to become an executive for Enhanced also gave the enterprise a greater sense of legitimacy, said doping control officers are on hand in Las Vegas, testing on behalf of the US Anti-Doping Agency, which still keeps a list of active athletes who could return to traditional events.

"There's a lot of scrutiny, not only against me but against the Enhanced Games," Armstrong said. "I want them to test me because I don't want there to be a single doubt that I'm a man of my word."

Armstrong considered retiring last year after his main sponsor left him.

"If I don't join Enhanced, I lose everything. If I do join Enhanced, I have a chance at not losing everything," Armstrong said. "My back was against the wall, so I had to reopen that conversation to see if it was a plausible option."

American sprinter Fred Kerley says he is also competing as a clean athlete in Las Vegas.

The 31-year-old Kerley, who bet on himself after the COVID-19 pandemic when he successfully gave up the 400m grind for the 100m, insisted it was the multimillion-dollar contract, not the prospect of taking performance enhancers, that led him to the breakaway league.

"I don't need it," Kerley said. "God gave me fast feet for a reason. I'm here to showcase my talent. You still have to work. Drugs aren't going to give you an advantage if you're not putting the work in."