By James Sutherland on SwimSwam
Ben Proud stunned the swimming community on Wednesday with his announcement that he’s joining the Enhanced Games, ending, and arguably tarnishing, his decorated international career representing Great Britain.
The 30-year-old sprinter, who is coming off his fastest 50 freestyle performance in seven years when he won silver at the 2025 World Championships (21.26), will vie for a large prize pool at the Enhanced Games in May 2026, likely targeting the $1 million on the line for breaking the world record in the 50 free.
Aquatics GB responded to Proud’s announcement with a strongly worded statement, saying it was “immensely disappointed” in his decision and reaffirming its commitment to the values of clean sport.
“Aquatics GB is immensely disappointed in Ben Proud’s announcement to sign with the Enhanced Games. Aquatics GB, along with our partners, stand firmly behind the values and principles of clean sport and condemns Ben’s decision in the strongest terms. A further statement will be issued in due course.”
Meanwhile, UK Sport, the government agency responsible for providing funding to national governing bodies (such as Aquatics GB), which then allocate resources to their athletes, says it will “urgently” engage in talks with Aquatics GB to determine Proud’s “suitability” to receive public funds, as reported by British journalist Nick Hope.
UK Sport say they will ‘urgently’ engage with Aquatics GB to “determine Ben Proud‘s suitability to receive public funds” after he announces a move to the Enhanced Games.
Given his retirement message he has likely ended his Athlete Personal Award (APA), but UK Sport’s statement… pic.twitter.com/6xsjS5H2Rm
— Nick Hope – the athlete’s journalist (@NickHopeTV) September 10, 2025
“We believe it risks compromising athlete health and welfare, undermines the trust of fans and is the absolute antithesis to our philosophy of winning well,” UK Sport said, according to Hope. “We are incredibly disappointed to learn that any British athlete in one of our Olympic or Paralympic programmes would support such an event.
“We are engaging with our colleagues at Aquatics GB as a matter of urgency to determine Ben Proud’s suitability to receive public funds.
“It is clear however that any breach of anti-doping rules is contrary to the policies which any athlete must comply with to receive UK Sport funding.”
Meanwhile, other athletes have reacted to the news, including Proud’s British teammate James Guy, commenting on his announcement post: “Looks like we will be seeing you on the golf course son instead .”
Other reactions have come from Russian world record holder Kliment Kolesnikov, former British swimmer Craig Munden, Dutch Olympian Sean Niewold, American four-time Paralympic swimming medalist Colleen Young, and Greek Olympian Kristian Gkolomeev, who joined the Enhanced Games earlier this year and went under the world record in the men’s 50 free.
Notable names who have liked Proud’s announcement post include Olympic gold medalists Ruta Meilutyte, Joseph Schooling and Katinka Hosszu, along with current world record holder Ilya Shymanovich, rising British star Jacob Mills, American backstroke sprinter Quintin McCarty, European champions Oleksandr Zheltyakov and Viktoria Gunes, Irish distance freestyler Nathan Wiffen and Australian world champion James Magnussen, who was the first swimmer to publicly endorse the Games.
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