Canada's High Performance Director and National Coach John Atkinson has sent a message to swimmers, coaches, support staff, team staff and partners urging them to uphold the values of clean sport, health, wellness and integrity in response to threat posed by the doping games to athlete health any future involvement in regulated, Olympic, swimming.

Swimming Canada and its head coach are among a wide spectrum of organisations and leaders joining a chorus of condemnation holding hands with the serious possibility that those who sign up for the doping games faced a lifetime ban in which there would be no way back to the Olympic realm, for athletes, coaches and any others involved.

Atkinson's note:

I would like to draw your attention to statements from the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) and World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) condemning the “Enhanced Games”.

On behalf of Swimming Canada I reiterate our unwavering commitment to clean sport and sport integrity by all involved in swimming in Canada. In no way do we endorse involvement in the Enhanced Games for any Canadian athlete, coach, support staff, science & medicine staff, or anyone else affiliated with Swimming Canada and/or our national teams. Any affiliation with the Enhanced Games could have long-term consequences to your health and to future sport involvement, including potential anti-doping violations.

We all have a responsibility to uphold the values of clean sport, ensuring a level playing field that prioritises athlete health and wellness. This will continue to be our clear stance on this subject, supporting without hesitation the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, the World Anti-Doping Agency and the World Aquatics position on clean sport and integrity within sport.

World Aquatics condemned the doping project in comments made to State of Swimming last week, on the eve of the EG launch:

As They Join Doping Games, Will Magnussen & Hawke Be Banned For Life From Olympic & World Aquatics Events?

In what could be a permanent split with all involvement in official competitive swimming and Olympic sport, Australians James Magnussen and Brett Hawke are expected to be confirmed as swimmer and head coach in Enhanced Games when the doping sports event launches today

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

The global regulator for swimming has since clarified that anyone embracing the 'dark side' may be ruled to be in breach of its integrity rules and render themselves ineligible to participate in any function at Olympic and World-Championship level, as well as in any competition operating under the federation's international rules.

A World Aquatics spokesperson said:

"All affiliated athletes and coaches are bound by the World Aquatics Integrity Code, which prohibits conduct that could damage the sport's reputation or undermine public confidence in the integrity of aquatics or the fairness of competition.

"All athletes and coaches affiliated with aquatics clubs are subject to comprehensive anti-doping measures through our partnership with the International Testing Agency (ITA). This includes both in-and out-of-competition testing, robust intelligence gathering and targeted investigations.

"Like clowns juggling knives, sadly, these athletes will get hurt performing in this circus."

No active swimmers are involved so far, James Magnussen, of Australia, and Kristian Gkolomeev, the Bulgaria-born Greek, signed up to work with a third former international, Brett Hawke, of Australia as a swimmer and long-time coach in the United States and now head coach to the Enhanced Games. All three face possible lifetime bans from any involvement in the Olympic realm.

A fourth former international, Andrii Govorov, of Ukraine, recently announced his retirement and led the anti-doping pool in order to chase big money as an enhanced swimmer using a booster shiny suit and substances banned in the Olympic realm.

The claim of a World record by the Greek sprinter is, of course, entirely fake: no swimmer who wears a shiny suit, no swimmer who dopes with banned substances, can ever break a record set under specific rules that bar both forms of enhancement. The EG project also failed to observe a range of other rules, such as those governing time trials and world-record attempts.

In no sense is Gkolomeev a World record holder in the sport of swimming, nor is he 'the fastest swimmer ever' on the clear grounds that world best times in both short-course yards and metres are faster, and racing in a shiny suit, not to mention the drugs, is not just the swimmer - by a very significant margin.

The International Olympic Committee is known to opposed the doping Games, while Mark Arbib, Australian Olympic Committee chief executive, has publicly condemned the enhanced project.

Among the most cutting comments is an explainer by legal eagle Darren Kane in Australia in the Sydney Morning Herald under a headline "Why clean athletes will never be allowed to compete in the doping games".

A few extracts:

Let's be clear, this isn't a column about sport. It's a column about a circus freak show, masquerading as sport.

The concept of the Enhanced Games is grotesque. Where the rules are - there are no rules. Thunderdome-style. Some Greek tragicomic, Kristian Gkolomeev "breaks" the men's 50m freestyle world record, and trousers $US1 million ($1.55 million). Gkolomeev didn't break a world record any more than I would break the 10km open-water swimming world record if I competed on a jetski. It's a farce.

And it's dangerous. Just think of James Magnussen jabbing himself with needles, and overdosing on testosterone, CJC-1295 and cocktails of lolly water and whatever other substances he has used that have not been properly trialled for human use. Before this week, CJC-1295 and thymosin hadn't made the news since the days of Stephen Dank.

Those growth hormone-releasing peptides? Well, Magnussen had better hope he's not suffering from some undiagnosed cancer of some type, with cells starting to multiply in his system. Because introducing those peptides to cancer is like chucking petrol on the last embers of a bonfire. You can't put on 10 kilograms in as many days with just a diet of protein shakes and grilled chicken.

Read on...