Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen says he has no concerns about the effect steroids could have on him as he tries to break a world record in the upcoming Enhanced Games.
The divisive games is a new sporting competition set up by billionaire Aron D'Souza, who says he wants to rival the Olympics and 'safely evolve mankind into a new superhumanity'.
Athletes competing are allowed to use performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) and D'Souza has set million-dollar rewards for those who manage to break current world records in their discipline.
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The billionaire told LADbible the games would 'transform sports by setting new performance benchmarks and advancing scientific understanding of human capabilities', but the Enhanced Games have faced serious criticism.
World Aquatics, the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee, recently warned of the 'grave dangers of doping to human health'.
They told us: "Like clowns juggling knives, sadly, these athletes will get hurt performing in this circus.
"History has shown us time and time again the grave dangers of doping to human health. This is a sideshow to those who compete honestly, fairly, and respect the true spirit of sport.
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"Athletic performance is a pure, special thing and should not be distorted by delusions of 'science' and 'medicine'. For every step forward taken by clean athletes, the athletes competing in this circus take ten steps backwards."
World Aquatics has banned any athlete, coach or official if they have competed in the Enhanced Games or endorsed it, but Magnussen thinks the ban 'won't hold' and it's an act of 'short-term posturing'.
"Are you able to break up with someone who already dumped you?"
Magnussen, who previously won a silver medal and two bronzes at the Olympic Games, is one of the most high-profile athletes to join the games, and speaking to LADbible he said he found that statement from World Aquatics 'pretty funny'.
He said: "I've been retired seven years. I have no interest in being involved with World Aquatics.
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“I think the quote I saw today, which I thought was really funny, was, ‘Are you able to break up with someone who's already dumped you?’
"And I thought that was quite pertinent in this scenario."
The 34-year-old signed up to participate in the Enhanced Games and described the difference in feeling after taking PEDs.
"The main differences for me was the speed of my recovery. I was recovering from workouts really quickly," Magnussen explained.
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"I wasn't getting delayed muscle soreness for hours or days on end, I was able to back up session after session really effectively. I was sleeping better, recovering better.
"My resting heart rate lowered, my strength increased significantly."
The swimmer said he felt like he was 'rolling back the years' not only in being able to compete once more, but also in 'being able to train like an 18-year-old again'.
Back then he'd wake up at 4:30 in the morning and train for two and a half hours then do a day at school and then another two and a half hours of training, and he said he never remembered getting tired.
"I felt like I was physically rolling back the years being able to train like an 18-year-old again"
While Magnussen made an attempt to swim faster than the world record in the 50m freestyle at a pre-games event recently, the fastest swim came from fellow Enhanced Games star Kristian Gkolomeev, who posted a time of 20.89 seconds which is 0.02 seconds faster than the record set in 2009 by Brazilian swimmer and Olympic gold medallist César Cielo.
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Given that the swimmers were on PEDs and wore swimming suits that are banned by the Olympics, the 31-year-old Greek athlete's time will not be recognised as a new world record, but he will still get that $1 million dollar prize.
The World Anti-Doping Project (WADP) has said the Enhanced Games is a 'dangerous and irresponsible project', while UK Anti-Doping called it a 'reckless concept, dressed up as progress'.
They said: "Taking Image and Performance Enhancing Drugs (IPEDs) is unsafe, they are dangerous to your health and wellbeing, and undermine fair competition."
Magnussen said he didn't mind that Gkolomeev's time wouldn't be seen as a new record as he said he doesn't 'like to think of them as world records' but as 'the fastest swims in history', raising the example of marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge and his attempts to run a marathon in under two hours.
"I think of the Enhanced Games," Magnussen said, claiming that 'in a similar way we're furthering human potential' and thinks they'll reach a point where they're not measuring themselves against current world records as they're in a 'different industry'.
Speaking of the downsides of taking PEDs, the swimmer said he 'didn't experience any' of the warned-against downsides including acne, hair loss and shrinking testicles, adding that he 'wasn't taking large doses of anything'.
Instead, he says the only downside came as 'part and parcel of being the first one to openly and honestly do this', as he put on a lot of muscle mass.
"In all honesty, I got too big"
Magnussen said that since he was the first one to try it 'there was no textbook we could follow' and it ended up costing him a bit in the pool.
He said: "Probably, the one thing that most people have noticed is my muscle mass increased quite significantly, which in the end, by the time I got to the world record attempt.
"In all honesty, I got too big."
However, the swimmer says that while he 'definitely got too big', they were able to learn from his example with Gkolomeev's own regime of PEDs.
"We've got all this data and all this knowledge now as a result of that first protocol, and now we can pass on that data and that information to all future swimmers, runners, athletes in general, who want to compete in the games," Magnussen said of his experience.
He explained that at first 'everything was tracking quite linearly' as he was gaining strength, but as he did so he was also gaining weight and hit a 'tipping point' where he'd grown to such a size that his speed started to drop.
"Even at that world record attempt, I was jumping higher, throwing further, lifting heavier than I ever had before," the Australian said of growing in size.
“But it didn't translate well into the water that last probably two months, because I was just too big for a swimmer."
"Maybe we can get a couple of years out of this whole body yet"
As for his own return to swimming, Magnussen says him staying in the pool 'depends on performance'.
He said: "I feel really rejuvenated now mentally as much as anything, it feels like a real privilege to be back training for a single goal, for a single moment.
"It feels amazing to be part of this really pioneering endeavour, which is the Enhanced Games. I think the first games are going to be so exciting and cause such tremors in the sporting world that I might want to stay on for a little bit longer."
Magnussen says that all of the substances he took were 'prescribed by a doctor' and it was all 'pharmaceutical grade', but accepts that there are going to be people unconvinced by the Enhanced Games and he's 'not here to convert people'.
The event has attracted widespread criticism from a number of bodies, and the US Anti-Doping Agency slammed it in a statement, saying: "While those behind the Enhanced Games might be looking to make a quick buck, that profit would come at the expense of kids across the world thinking they need to dope to chase their dreams.
"We desperately wish this investment was being made in the athletes who are currently training and competing the real and safe way.
"They are the role models this world so desperately needs and they are the ones who deserve our support – not some dangerous clown show that puts profit over principle."
It seems that as long as the Enhanced Games go on they'll be a hugely controversial event.
Joe Harker