LAS VEGAS — A former Cal swimmer won the first swimming event at the Enhanced Games without taking any performance-enhancing drugs that the competition allowed — and was immediately tested for drugs following his races.
Hunter Armstrong, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and former member of Cal’s postgraduate training group, finished first in the 50-meter backstroke on Sunday against three other swimmers: Sohib Khaled (Egypt), Shane Ryan (Ireland) and Antoni Ivanov (Bulgaria). He reached the end of the pool with a time of 24.21, which was a half-second shy of his personal best 23.71, the former world record, and also shy of the 23.55 current world record.
What differentiated Armstrong from most of the competition during Sunday’s controversial event was that he did not take any of the performance-enhancing drugs banned by all international sporting bodies, something that the Enhanced Games permitted its athletes to do for these games. While FDA-approved PEDs were allowed, they weren’t compulsory. The 25-year-old was not the only “non-enhanced” athlete in this race as Khaled also did not take any PEDs.
Armstrong later partook in the 100-meter freestyle race and finished in second place with a time of 48.09, which Enhanced Games claimed was a personal best on the broadcast but is actually more than half-a-second slower than his previous best in a 50-meter pool. Kristian Gkolomeev of Greece won the race with a time of 46.60.
But late Sunday night, the Enhanced Games put out a video saying that the United States Anti-Doping Agency and the World Anti-Doping Agency tested Armstrong. The swimmer said he did a blood and urine test, which needed him to wait an hour after his races were complete to allow “my systems a chance to reset.”
“I’ve had 11 tests since joining Enhanced Games, and that speaks volumes,” Armstrong said. “Because I want to never have my integrity doubted and I never want Enhanced Games’ integrity to be doubted. We play by the rules, we are tested and everything is clean.”
Armstrong still hopes to compete in the Los Angeles Olympics and future international competitions. He told ESPN in March that he believes that passing a clean drug test will let him still achieve those goals despite participating in an event that multiple international sports bodies have condemned. Like many of the athletes competing, the financial incentives were simply too good to pass up. His first-place finish in the 50-meter backstroke has netted him $250,000, while the second-place result in the 100 free earned him $125,000.
The swimmer’s status as a non-enhanced athlete was referenced in passing during the first question of his Jumbotron interview. But while Armstrong is one of four athletes to compete “naturally,” he still competed in a “supersuit” that World Aquatics banned in 2010.Â
“This supersuit is crazy,” Armstrong said after the race. “… My underwaters feel so much better. Your hips are supported. This suit is game changing.”
This breaking news story has been updated.
